To bid or not to bid: critically evaluating RFPs.

• Author: Ors, Rose

It is a maxim that not all business opportunities are created equal. How these business opportunities H are evaluated is another story. Particularly vexing is how to evaluate a request for proposal (RFP). For many law firms, the question of how to evaluate an RFP is fraught with competing interests and approaches.

Whatever the approach, the ultimate question is the same: Can our firm win the business? But can you predict a win? The answer is you never can. But you can "estimate" your chance to win and, even more importantly, if you can afford to win. To prepare an excellent RFP response requires a significant investment of time and energy by a number of billing and non-billing professionals (e.g., partners, marketing, accounting, conflicts, word processing and proofreaders). If the chance of a win is too low or the work is not profitable, why respond? These questions are part of the new fundamentals law firm marketing and business development groups must deal with.

To date, the most fact-based approach to evaluate RFPs under the criteria above is to review each and every RFP that comes through the door with a scoring matrix. The matrix is developed by choosing key decision factors with each factor assigned a certain amount of points. The scoring system (IT can develop an automated system) adds points to positive factors and subtracts points for negative factors. The factors and point scores need to provide a strong basis to analyze the law firm's relationship to the company who issued the RFP, how desirable the work is to the firm and if it's financially worth the effort to respond.

Below is a list of positive and negative factors that can be used to develop the matrix. The approach below includes a two-tier analysis. The factors under Tier One are useful in quickly deciding when the best course of action is to decline the opportunity to bid. There are far too many stories of rushing to prepare a proposal while forgetting to check for potential conflicts or assessing if the work is profitable. Although not included below, another important factor is what is typically referred to as a "blind" RFP--an RFP that an attorney has obtained from the Internet or has been received by the attorney as part of a mass email distribution. Absent irrefutable evidence to the contrary, a blind RFP is not worth anyone's time to evaluate past Tier One. This does not mean that if the company is on the attorney's prospect list he should not pursue the...