VENDOR

RESPONSE TO
REQUEST FOR
PROPOSAL (RFP)
EXAMPLE
<Project ROJECT NAME>

Group #
Group Members:

DATE:

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. BACKGROUND............................................................................................... (3)
2. Cover Letter …………………………………………………………………….. (3)
3. Seller’s Experience.................................................................................(3)
4. Examples of Successful projects/references................................ (2)
5. Seller Company Financial Situation................................................. (2)
6. Proposed Training Strategy................................................................. (10)
7. Training Schedule …………………………………………………………….. (5)
8. Details of Qualified Seller Employees............................................. (4)
9. Price............................................................................................................. (5)
10. Appendices………………………………………………………………………..

Document Format, Clarity, and Overall

Structure (3)

Total (40) – Overall Grade: 8%

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1. SELLER BACKGROUND and COVER LETTER

Describe the background of your company

 Who are you?
 Why should they hire your team?
 What will you offer?
 How will they benefit from
working with you? Location of your
company
Services of your company

Write this in the form of a cover letter to give people context and
make a good first impression.

Cover Letter
Example Dear
[author of RFP]:

Regarding your request for proposal (RFP), [your company] is thrilled about
the opportunity to provide you [type of service requested]. Having worked
with [brief list of past clients], we believe a partnership with [company
you're writing to] would have a tremendous impact on your customer
satisfaction and bottom line.

... Don't just stop there. Follow the above introduction with a description of
who you are, what qualifies you to work with the RFP's sender, and the
benefits your potential client can expect to see as a result.

2. SELLER’S EXPERIENCE IN THE FIELD

Describe how your experience in the field will:

 Address the client’s needs
 Differentiate you from the competition

3. EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS IMPLEMENTED FOR OTHER

CLIENTS, WHO CAN GIVE REFERENCES (LIST OF REFERENCES ATTACHED)

Your potential client will want to see examples of your past successes as
proof of your accomplishments. List the contact details of 2 to 3 references
who can advocate for you.

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4. SELLER COMPANY FINANCIAL SITUATION

Clients often work with vendors who are financially stable and will be
around long enough to finish the project.

For example, if you are responding to an IT Project that calls for a year long
commitment, the client needs to know that you are not here today and
then gone tomorrow.

In this section, you should be willing to disclose your financial situation in a

general way by talking about things such as:
 How long you’ve been in business
 What your revenue, expenses, and profits have been over the past years
 How your business has grown in the past year and forecasts for the future

5. PROPOSED TRAINING STRATEGY FOR THE BUYER and PROPOSED SCHEDULE

In this section you need to outline your approach to training the client’s employees. Think
about things such as:
 How will you offer an engaging training that makes you unique and memorable?
 What is your training strategy timeline? How long will last from start to finish?
 What kind of training material will you have? Is it online, face-t-face?
 Will you pilot one training session with the client and get feedback?
 Where will you get the content to include in the training?
 How will you support the client once the project is over?

6. DETAILS ABOUT THE QUALIFIED EMPLOYEES, WHO WILL BE WORKING WITH

THE BUYER IF THE BID IS WON BY THE SELLER

Instead of including a resume for each person think about the following:
1. Summarize the role each member of your team will play on the project
2. Describe each employee’s qualifications and experience in that role
3. Talk about their education, experience, and certifications
4. Provide examples of similar projects they worked on in the past (Limit this to one or two
paragraphs at the most).

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7. PRICE (AND CONTRACT OBSERVATIONS IF APPLICABLE)

How will you price your services? Think about the different types of
contracts that exist in procurement. For example, in training if you go with
a “fixed-price” contract you may have to take out some scope in order to
prevent your company from losing money. Also, you may not want to
include your lowest price so that the client’s procurement department has
some room to negotiate with your company.

8. APPENDICES

In this section, list any documents mentioned in the body of the RFP
response (i.e., financial statements, resumes, list of references, etc.).

Remember, your client may not necessarily read everything in your

appendix. Avoid saying “see attached” and expect them to scroll back and
forth. People begin to think you are lazy and do not value their time.

Also, only include information that will support or make a stronger case for your proposal.
Do not include extraneous information that has no value to what’s being asked.