Tips for Government RFP Responses

When it comes to government contracting,  an RFP response requires the bidder to carefully review the solicitation requirements and respond to each and every aspect of the proposal requirements. Bidders usually find that the source selection board will reduce technical evaluation scores and assign weakness for failure to comply.

RFP responses typically require you to address administrative sections, evaluation sections, instruction to offers , representations and certifications and more. When responding to federal government RFP’s, the bulk of the focus is on the evaluation criteria.

Assuming that all of the administrative areas are correct and truthful, the decision to award government contracts rests on the response to the solicitation’s evaluation criteria.

RFP responses must focus on:

• Resolving the government’s problem;
• Showing a complete understanding the Statement of Work (SOW) requirements;
• Proposing a technical approach free of risks of non-performance;
• Submitting a price proposal that is fair and reasonable.

How to Avoid Common Traps in Government RFP Responses

When you respond to a government RFP, many bidders simply respond to the basic proposal requirements. This has proven to be an approach that does not get the ultimate award.

Government RFP responses must do more than just the bare minimum: Source selection boards look for bids that have high scores when evaluating against the solicitation requirements. Unless you are responding to a  lowest price technically acceptable RPPs, government bids should focus on getting higher technical scores.

Oftentimes, the agency will award to a higher-priced bidder if the technical proposal is superior to other offerors.

Bidding to do all the work:  unless your company has been performing a significant amount of government contracts, your RFP response should include a teaming partner or named subcontractor that significant amounts of past performance doing the same type of work.  Although companies may believe that they can safely perform the specific contract for bid, the source selection board will look at a government RFP response that poses less performance risk.

Address each aspect of the SOW: your RFP response must address each section of the SOW. Any response that simply summarizes the solicitation contents pose a serious risk to bidders. You must tell the government how you will perform each aspect of the SOW; foreseen risks and solutions and the resources used to perform the requirements.

There is a wide range of issues related to submitting a viable and competitive RFP response. For help with your upcoming government contract bid, call our government proposal writing consultants at 1-866-601-5518. FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION.