Katie, a 12 year-old girl, decides to make and sell lemonade in her local neighbourhood, with the proceeds going to some well-meaning charity. Business is good, but Katie is not using up all her spare time, and thinks she can make more money for her chosen charity.
Katie buys cup-cakes from a local independent cafe, run by Debbie and her sister, Pat. On one of her regular visits, Katie tells Debbie of her lemonade business. Debbie’s cafe doesn’t sell homemade lemonade, and thinks it would help her to sell other items in the cafe, as well as helping out Katie’s chosen charity. Katie and Debbie decide to make a deal.
However, just before they can shake hands, Pat comes along with her calculator and starts asking Debbie whether they have the best price for the lemonade and is there a volume discount, what add-ons Katie can offer (free plastic cups with each gallon ordered) and what Katie’s previous experience is of providing lemonade to cafes. In despair, Katie goes home and spends the next few evenings with her dad working out the deal and setting it in PowerPoint.
What went from a friendly encounter based on a good relationship, turned into a clumsy and time-consuming process, benefitting none of the parties.
Such is the way of business in our times, the RFP (Request for Proposal) is one of the most popular methods of deciding which business we should employ. For the uninitiated, an RFP usually states, in may different forms, the business problem that needs solving, what work they want doing, and how that will solve their problem. They also, often, include a list of information they need, and sometimes give an exact proforma to complete. Some businesses, who have ‘mature’ procurement processes, request you to complete your response in an online system.
It is a process which takes a great deal of effort on both sides.
For the business who is procuring services or goods, there is a high initial investment in obtaining the work. Already busy people have to spend time thinking about the work they need doing, and if this is rushed an often incomplete or ill-thought out version is produced. The legal team probably already know, like Debbie, who they want to hire, so they may not be fully engaged into the procurement process.
The provider has challenges over use of information. They need to find an efficient way of preparing the proposals. This includes having a store of previous submissions, whether won or lost, which can be easily interrogated, to use in the new response. Each time a proposal is done for a particular client and/or type of work, they should get better and quicker. If it feels like you are starting from scratch each time then you need to think about improving your previous proposals record keeping.
However, ill-thought out requirements can make most of this effort redundant. It is common for responses to be wildly different to the other law firms, which means that the requirements of the process weren’t detailed enough to be understood. Just like in project management, badly defined scope will result in badly defined prices.
Overall, whether the business and provider have a long-standing relationship, the RFP process is generally conducted at arms-length, which is never a good way of conducting business. If law firm and business relationships are supposed to be a partnership, then starting them with an RFP is not a good step to start with.