PLAN FOR BIDDERS' SESSION

• It is financially prudent to solicit bids on contracted work from a number of qualified vendors. Otherwise, you may be paying too much or miss out on the "good deals" provided by start-up companies.

A bidder's session is a meeting in which you present all potential vendors with your Request for Proposal (RFP). The bidder's session can help you concentrate all your question and answer time into one efficient meeting. In this way all the vendors get the same "party line" regarding the required training.

This tool will help you plan and conduct the bidder's session. (This tool assumes you have completed your RFP. See the tool, "Request for Proposal Template".)

Complete the following steps to plan and conduct the bidder's information session.

Step 1: Plan the bidder's session.

1. Contact several vendors by phone and then send a follow-up letter and explain, briefly, the time and place of the session.
   • Expect to spend no more than two hours. In this time, you will present vendors with the RFP and answer questions.
   • Obtain a closed conference room for the meeting, with refreshments if desired.
   • In the first letter and phone call, be careful to disclose no confidential information and do not give one vendor more information than another.

2. Invite your supervisor or client to attend the meeting if you anticipate vendor questions which would require their response.

3. Get together the following:
   • Copies of the RFP
   • Any presentation materials which might be useful in explaining the subject of the training (System flow diagrams, "exploded diagrams" of components, and other visuals can help vendors become familiar with the product or process quickly.)
   • Non-disclosure agreements for all vendors

Step 2: Assemble at least two vendors and conduct the bidder's information session.

At the session, be sure to:

1. Make all vendors sign the non-disclosure agreement before discussing details of the product/process or the course.

2. Provide each vendor with the RFP and point out the deadline for response.

3. Review the RFP, focusing on controversial or potentially difficult topics.

4. Highlight the "Constraints on budget, schedule, and design" section of parameters.

5. Explain and justify to vendors the development model you are using. Especially discuss how this process affects vendor deliverables, review and approval points, and vendor payment.

6. Answer vendor questions.

7. Take care to provide all vendors with the same information. This means that if a vendor comes up when the session is formally concluded, (as often happens) and asks you about a critical piece of information that you forgot to mention, you should make sure all vendors get this information before they begin work on their proposals.