Don't Be Afraid to Try Something New

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”  This quote has been attributable to many people over the years, but the fact is that it’s true.  If you want to shake things up in your organization, you need to do some things differently.  Don’t be constrained by others who say “you can’t” or “you shouldn’t” or “it won’t work”.  Give it a shot!  Most of us don’t work in life-or-death industries, so all you have to lose is a bit of time.  Give it a try!  This means sourcing commodities that you may not think possible to bid out.  Think outside the proverbial box and develop your RFP in different ways.  

A majority of the work is done before an event occurs.  RFPs can be very time consuming and, once completed, you still have to negotiate contract language with the winner or winners.  What if there was a way to prepare the RFP, the Statement of Work AND the contract before the Reverse Auction takes place?  There is, but you and your team have to be prepared to try something new.

Consider sending bidders, including your incumbents, a simple RFI with “kill” questions that are table stakes to the success of your event.  These are contract terms and conditions that are showstoppers, as well as a requirement to receive the RFP or to move forward in the Reverse Auction.  This establishes your minimum viable acceptance criteria and helps you separate the contenders from the pretenders.  

While you work with your Business Unit(s) to prepare the Statement of Work, your standard contract language should be sent to each proposed bidder with the instruction that an RFP will be forthcoming and that they must redline the contract language as if they were in final negotiations with your company.  Set a deadline for receiving their proposed redlines (and be firm with it!).  Carefully review all redlines from each bidder, caucus with your Business Unit and legal team and accept what you can from each redline to combine into a single new version of the contract.  

Round One of the RFP should be sent out with the Statement of Work, Price Grid and single new version of the contract.  Instructions to the bidders must include a deadline by which they must return their pricing and their final set of contract redlines to you. Be firm in these requirements.  Take the bidder’s newest contract redlines and work with your Business Unit and legal counsel to accept what you can from each bidder, combine into a single FINAL version of the contract.

Pricing from each bidder received in response to Round One will be used as their starting bid in the Reverse Auction (“Round Two” of the RFP).  The final version of the contract must be executed by each bidder, without edits, or they will not be allowed access to the Reverse Auction!  The executed contract is the bidder’s “ticket” to participate.  No signed contract means no participation in the reverse auction and eliminates the bidder from consideration.  This includes incumbent bidders!  

Once the Reverse Auction is completed and the winning bidder(s) are selected, you will need only to countersign the contract and you’re done!  And, if you have multiple suppliers, each contract will be as close to identical as possible, which makes things easier for the businesses to manage.