SupplierSelect is currently working on an exciting project with the Event Marketing Institute to bring SupplierSelect to their members, complete with a range of RFP templates suitable for customization.

The Event Marketing Institute is a trade association and research body for the Event Marketing industry. Part of its role is to educate and encourage best practise amongst industry participants. Over recent years they have become increasingly aware of dissatisfaction amongst both buy and sell side organizations with regard to the RFP process. Vendors say they receive too many inappropriate RFPs, and buyers sometimes lack experience of running a formal RFP. Last year, the Event Marketing Institute published an excellent report for its member. We are very pleased to be given permission to reproduce this report here (in two parts):

Event Market RFP Best Practices Part 1 (PDF)

Event Marketing RFP Best Practices Part 2 (PDF)

This report makes some very good general points about how to conduct an RFP for a complex service as well as more industry specific advice. It discusses the differences between an RFI and an RFP, methods of appraisal and evaluation, the roles of the procurement department, and provides some case studies of RFPs conducted by leading marketing groups. Part 2 of the report provides the results of a survey carried out by the Event Marketing Institute of its members. This details how these organizations are currently conducting their RFPs, what technology (if any) they use, what plans they have for the future, and some insights into the current state of vendor relationships.

The purpose of asking questions in an RFP is to elicit information from suppliers that allows an objective assessment and comparison of bids. To achieve this, questions must be framed in such a way as to minimise ambiguity. In general, this means asking more “closed” questions - that is questions with a limited range of possible answers, such as multiple choice or numerical questions. However, in practice, this can be difficult. In this article we explore how to frame a good RFP question.

(more…)

To help our customers get quickly up to speed with SupplierSelect we’re going to be producing a number of training videos using Screen Recording software. We’re still learning how to produce these effectively, but here’s a preview of our first (not very impressive!) efforts.

Score a single respondent’s answer to an RFx question.