Rejection Letter

Rejection Letter RFP

A rejection letter is another term used by purchasing personnel as part of the notification process in a post tender scenario. In essence, you are notifying unsuccessful bidders that they will not be awarded your business. It is a respectful and formal way of providing closure. Much like an award letter or how a notification of award is used but unfortunately for the opposite reason. 

They inform all the Vendors of your position in relation to the bid. Issuing an award is the fun or pleasant part of the tender process, completing rejection letters … not so fun. Rejection letters are important and we will do our best to attempt to explain why.

Why is this important?  If you consider the recipients position, manpower and scheduling needs then you can quickly appreciate the importance of  releasing the Vendor if they are not required.  Regardless of whether it is for the supply of materials, manufacturing requirements or service related work, it is still the same. It is both respectful and prudent to efficiently review all bids during the tender process and avoid allowing it to drag out for months on end.

Vendors are partners in your supply chain and they do incur a cost when submitting a bid to your RFQ or RFP. It is a professional courtesy to inform bidders of either an award or rejection and it is important to remain on good terms as you do want them to participate in future tenders of a similar nature. So, a simple rejection letter can go (more…)

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Request for Quote Cover Letter

Sample Request for Quote Cover Letter

When you decide to issue a request for quote (RFQ) it is customary to include a cover letter. RFQ is the short form terminology used by purchasing people for a request for quote and if you are interested in portraying a professional image you should expect to spend some time and effort on your cover letter. In many cases it is the first impression you will make with your vendors so make sure it is formatted correctly and in business like manner with all the appropriate blocks (address, signature). Make sure it calls attention to the subject at hand and including all your contact coordinates is mandatory.

It is usually delivered on corporate letterhead, with a date, vendor address, contact person, title and reference (subject or tender #). You can request an acknowledgment so you can confirm all bidders are in receipt of your documentation and your cover letter will then typically end with your name and title.   Here is a sample set of text you can use for a cover letter or invitation to quote letter. This request for quote cover letter template, as well as several other very beneficial procurement related forms are included in our free welcome pack…subscribe and it will be delivered directly to your email inbox digitally in Microsoft Word format. (more…)

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How to improve your RFP – Part 2

Part 2 of 4: How to Improve Your RFP

In part one, we touched on areas on how to improve your request for proposal. We mentioned mitigating risks, improving bid responses and clarity. In part two, we will provide further amplification to these three areas.

Mitigating Risks: To reduce risk or to reduce liability against your organization we strongly recommend you involve legal counsel prior to issuing any formal RFP or RFQ documentation. Be sensible, if the proposal has a $5,000 budget you might wish to pass on the legal counsel review, however, if the proposal has a considerably larger value and or an inherent risk, then you should consider this option. Having provided this caveat, we are also assuming you are using a quality template that has been reviewed and approved by your organization in the first place.

Other ways to limit liability is to ensure your instructions to bidders are consistent and do not contradict within the proposal. An example, would be a technical specification being at odds in two different areas of your document. Another example, is an extension to the submission date. If you indicate the tenders or proposals must be received by 3:00 PM PST on August 4, 2015, then you are legally bound to honor this timeline. Many organizations date and time-stamp proposals at time of receipt. This log and control function is a form of mitigating risk in the event they are challenged. If you issue an addendum or extension to a deadline then this must be provided to all bidders.

Risks and liabilities are a very dry topic and we could spend a considerable amount of time on this subject alone but we hope the above gives you some sense on how to avoid getting embroiled in a legal challenge. Lets move on to improving your bid responses.

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