RFI, RFQ or RFP: answering each kind of request
The difference between a request for information, a request for quotation and a request for proposal, and how a consultancy should answer each one.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Consulting businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Three e-mails land in a consultancy's inbox in the same week. A mining group wants to know what advisory services the firm offers. A municipality wants a price for running four facilitation workshops on fixed dates. A development agency wants proposals for redesigning its grant monitoring system. Each one is a request from a buyer, and each uses a different set of initials.
Treating them alike wastes effort. A forty-page methodology sent in reply to a request for information looks like the firm has not read the question, and a one-line price sent in reply to a request for proposal will not make the shortlist. Knowing which is which tells you how much to invest and what the buyer will judge you on.
RFI: getting onto the buyer's list
Investopedia defines a request for information (RFI) as a solicitation to suppliers for written information on the products and services they can provide, which may be used to build a database of suppliers for future reference.
An RFI is not a contract opportunity in itself. It is the buyer finding out who exists and what they do. The aim of your reply is to be remembered correctly when the real request comes. Answer it with:
- a short description of the firm and the services relevant to the buyer;
- two or three examples of comparable work, described without confidential client detail;
- the people who would lead such work and their qualifications;
- the documents the RFI asks for, and nothing that it does not.
Keep it brief and accurate. If you are added to the buyer's list on the strength of services you do not really offer, the later disappointment costs more than the missed listing.
RFQ: a known need, priced
Investopedia explains that a request for quote (RFQ) is used when a buyer knows exactly what it needs and seeks the best price, specifying the quality, quantity and timing required.
In consulting, RFQs tend to cover well-defined deliverables: a fixed number of training days, a standard valuation, a set of translated documents. The buyer has already decided what the work is. Your reply should:
- confirm you will deliver exactly the quality, quantity and timing specified;
- give the price in the form requested, including or excluding VAT as the RFQ asks;
- point out, separately and briefly, any assumption your price depends on.
Do not rewrite the scope in an RFQ. If the specification seems wrong, ask through the buyer's clarification process before the closing date.
RFP: proposing an approach, a timeline and a cost
An RFP is the more open-ended request. Investopedia defines it as a document by a government, business or organisation that announces a new project and invites contractors or vendors to submit bids. It explains that an RFP describes the issuing organisation, the scope of the project, the criteria for evaluating entries, the bidding process and the contract terms, and includes a statement of work and a timeline for the winning bidder. Unlike an RFQ, an RFP invites vendors to propose their own approach, timeline and cost.
Investopedia's guide to the request for proposal sets out what an RFP contains, how the process runs after submission and how it differs from an RFQ and an RFI.
Read the evaluation criteria before anything else, and structure the proposal around them so evaluators can find each answer where they expect it. Investopedia also notes a tension buyers face in drafting: if an RFP's requirements are too vague, bidders may not design an adequate solution, and if they are too detailed and restrictive, bidders' innovation may be limited. Where the requirements are vague, state your interpretation clearly and price it. Where they are restrictive, comply first, then offer any alternative as a clearly marked option. For how the scope you propose becomes a contract document, see what a statement of work should contain.
Shortlists, negotiation and best and final offers
Investopedia describes how, after proposals are submitted, the buyer narrows the field to a small group of bidders, negotiates pricing and technical details, and may ask the remaining bidders for a best and final offer before awarding the contract.
Plan for that stage before you submit. Know which parts of your price can move and which cannot, and which parts of the approach you could trim without harming the result. A best and final offer written in a rush, with no prepared fallback, can give away margin the firm did not need to give.
Why the lowest price may not win
Investopedia notes that accepting the proposal most responsive to the specifications may not always mean accepting the lowest-priced bid. Evaluators weigh the approach, the team and the evidence of past work against the criteria the RFP stated.
That cuts both ways. A higher fee can win if the proposal answers every criterion convincingly. A low fee will not rescue a proposal that misses mandatory requirements or omits a required document. A buyer may set aside a bid with a missing returnable before anyone reads the methodology. The steps for lodging a South African public tender are in lodging a tender bid, and the integrity risks around public contracts in corruption red flags in public contracts.
Keeping returnable documents ready to share and sign
Every kind of request tends to ask for the same company documents again and again: registration papers, tax documents, CVs, insurance certificates, signed declarations. Having them ready shortens every response.
In Achekam, Document Centre is a folder-based store where you upload files or whole folders, then preview, download, rename, move, tag, archive and search them. A new version keeps the earlier ones, so when a certificate is renewed the old one is still on record. Keep a folder of standard returnables, and tag each document with its expiry month.
When a buyer or a bidding partner needs a document, you can share it by e-mailing a personal link with an expiry, an optional one-time code, and download allowed or not, and you can revoke the share later. For declarations and bid forms that must be signed, any document can be sent for electronic signature with signature and initials fields placed on it, signers in order or all at once, an expiry and reminders. The signed PDF and a completion certificate are filed back into Documents.
Before the next request arrives, sort your inbox's current opportunities into RFIs, RFQs and RFPs, and decide for each how much partner time it deserves.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
