5 Tips to Writing an RFP Response That Stands Out
“Win public sector contracts in three easy steps!”
“This course will guarantee you millions in business with the government!”
“You’ll never believe the one secret holding you back from the untapped federal contracts marketplace!”
As a hopeful government vendor, or even a current one, you’ve likely been the target of these overeager advertising campaigns.
Promises of unprecedented access to the minds of government decision-makers, quick fixes for challenging, expensive work, and a time machine to fast-forward through lengthy government timelines make the public procurement process seem breezy.
You already know this, but it bears repeating: it’s not that simple.
Government procurement, or the strictly defined process by which governments purchase goods and services, is one of the most complex fields in the public sector. It’s unlike private procurement, mainly because the government buys with taxpayer dollars.
Each time your local, state or federal government opens its wallet, they must consider the rules that are meant to keep them accountable to you: the taxpayer. (To learn more about the fascinating, complicated world of government procurement, check out Procurement 101.) Those protections have created an entire ecosystem of regulations governing your potential business with the government.
Therefore, to win government contracts, you must be able to confidently navigate public sector procurement.
Competitive negotiation pits potential government vendors against each other, and only the winner gets to do business with the government.
In some types of procurement, agencies are only allowed to consider responsibility, responsiveness, and price. But a procurement process called competitive negotiation allows the government to expand their search criteria and engage in meaningful, incisive conversations.
That’s where the request for proposals, or RFP, comes in. An RFP is a document a government agency creates to solicit bids from potential government vendors.
The RFP outlines a series of needs and goals for a project or solution, and companies who feel they can rise to the challenge submit RFP responses in hopes of winning a government contract.
Government agencies are allowed to evaluate responses to RFPs not only by price, responsibility and responsiveness, but also with additional criteria unique to the project scope. This can include feasibility of proposal, history and experience of the bidder, financial security, and more.
Where do you come in?
When the government has more flexible decision making power, you have more selling power.
Instead of being limited to the basic function and price tag of what you have to offer, your RFP response can make a well-rounded argument for why you should win that government contract.
There’s really no magic wand you can wave over your RFP response to clinch the contract. Crafting a quality RFP response requires the same degree of nuance and curation as the rest of your sales and marketing activities do.
Still, here are five evergreen tips to catch the government buyer’s eye and make an outstanding impression with your RFP response, from the perspective of someone who has been on the buyer’s side.
5 Tips to Writing an RFP Response That Stands Out
Answer all the questions the RFP poses, directly and in full.
Okay, this may seem basic, but you’d be surprised how many RFP responses do not actually address the questions or prompts the RFP posed. Of course, this leaves government decision makers hungry for information on the proposal.
But it also implies that the company may have used generic language or an RFP response template, rather than taking the time to offer considered, nuanced answers to specific questions.
The RFP will likely ask you basic information about your company, values and priorities. It will ask you to answer basic questions about your approach to project management, and more specific questions about the goods or services the government requires.
Lastly, some questions will ask you to think critically and deeply, offering you an opportunity to set yourself apart from the competition in the extent to which you can tackle complex topics in a consumable fashion.
As you peruse and respond to these questions, remember that a government employee (or even a team of them) worked hard to tailor that RFP to include exactly what the government wants to know, on top of what it is legally required to ask.
An omission of any answer, even if you don’t find it particularly relevant, could cost you the contract, either because a decision maker felt you didn’t give their carefully designed RFP adequate time and attention, or because you skipped a question that happened to be legally non-negotiable.
2. Don’t let design overshadow content.
On the day RFP responses are due, no city project manager wants to open an email attachment called “RFP Final Draft” to see a black and white PDF that’s a scan of another document. (Yes, that’s happened before.)
Design matters because aesthetics can represent you and your team’s values, priorities and sensibilities.
Your RFP response should use any templates provided to you by the issuing agency, incorporate the project’s brand guidelines (including fonts and colors, if provided), and abide by basic graphic design best practices.
Beyond those core design dos, focus on content. That’s where your proposal will shine.
Broadly, government agencies value facts, statistics, terms, context and other hard pieces of content over aesthetics. Considering your audience, you’ll want to lead with strong content rather than making a strong visual impression. And even if you happen to submit a proposal to a government team stocked with designers and planners, they have the expertise to see right through any extraneous additions you’ve made to pad your submission.
3. Curated copy is key.
Because content is so important, your proposal must lean on solid copywriting to do three things:
Make your argument equal parts compelling and concise. Clever copywriting is a constant balance of reeling the reader in, building to a compelling and well-constructed point, and letting them go as soon as their curiosity has been sated. In lengthy, technical documents, this can be challenging for the uninitiated.
Sell your solution without resorting to sales. You have the best solution to the government’s problem. It’s evident to you, but it will be most impactful to your government buyer if they believe they came to that conclusion themselves, not through a series of sales pitches. Your copy can convince them of this through avoiding sales language, leaning on a strong sense of ethos, and using audience-curated evidence.
Convey your values and priorities. The government wants to know who they’re doing business with, and how your mission is in line with this project’s goals. Even if the RFP is for a limited service or even hardware products, curated copy can illustrate how the company’s values align with the agency’s mission and vision for the greater initiative.
Meeting those three goals looks different for every RFP you respond to. As your audience changes, so does the language you use, the tone you strike, and the strengths you emphasize.
When the project team reads the words in your proposal, they should not only be able to envision the project coming to life. They should be able to envision themselves standing beside you as it does.
4. In your communications, model the type of partner you’d be.
Depending on the type of project, participating in an RFP process requires ongoing communication with the government project team, not just hitting submit on a relatively nondescript, digital application.
Agencies, especially local government agencies, often host question and answer sessions or public meetings for bidders, require you to communicate via phone or email with a real person on the project team, and may even ask you follow up questions or for additional materials.
The way you approach each of these touchpoints will illustrate what type of partner you’d make. While “common courtesy” and “punctuality” might not actually appear on the RFP rubric, they’ll make the government decision makers more excited at the prospect of gaining you as a long-term partner and put you ahead of the competition.
5. Take your RFP response seriously - especially if you’re confident.
Sometimes the RFP response is your first impression with an agency - and sometimes it’s not. Even if you’ve been speaking to an agency for months and think you’ve got the contract in the bag, don’t waste a formal opportunity to express exactly why you’re the best vendor for the job.
Use the RFP response to reiterate to your potential government client how much you have in common, and exactly what you will bring to the table. Make sure you capture every good emotion, nuanced pain point, and contextual clue you’ve encountered in your talks with staff into your RFP response.
Remember: not everyone who you’ve spoken with will be reading and evaluating the RFP response, so spend the time to write a great response - even if you know you’ll be signing on the dotted line.
Not to mention your response will be made public. Who knows, maybe the locality next door will call you up after reading it?
If you want to win government contracts, turn in an RFP response that’s complete, concise, and curated.
Only the first step in a process called competitive negotiation, responding to RFPs is an art that has inspired many how-to books and become the bane of many company’s goals to sell to the government.
But as you can see from the five tips we’ve provided, a successful RFP response is a natural output of a vendor that knows their goals and accounts for their weaknesses.
If you’re confident that you and your team can deliver on lofty promises once the contract is signed, but falter when it comes to translating that confidence into the language of government, you need to develop a B2G marketing and communication strategy alongside someone who has that fluency.
If your strengths lie in the relationship-building required to make a fantastic first impression, but technical writing is your downfall, it’s time to hire a public sector copywriter, ideally one with experience on the other end of the negotiation table.
Competitive negotiation can begin and end with your RFP response. Invest in the opportunity.
If you begin the competitive negotiation process with a potential government buyer, know that a poorly written, poorly managed RFP response could end that journey with no return for you.
It’s a smart business decision, for the project and for your company, to invest the appropriate time, effort, and budget into a great opportunity.
Whether that means partnering with an experienced public sector copywriter, brushing up on your government procurement knowledge, refining your B2G marketing strategy, or all of the above, starting with what you can control will set you on the path to winning that government contract.
Need high-value content to engage your public sector audience? Book a call with us to get started today.
