RFP vs RFQ vs IFB vs ITB

The one-line test: if the document tells you the award goes to the lowest responsible bidder, price decides and narrative is wasted. If it publishes a scoring table, narrative is where the contract is won.

An invitation for bids (federal and many states) and an invitation to bid (Florida, Texas and others) are the same instrument. The agency has written a specification precise enough that any qualified firm delivering it produces an equivalent result, so the only remaining question is price.

The mechanics are rigid because the legitimacy of the whole system depends on them:

• Bids are submitted sealed and opened publicly at a stated time, with prices read aloud. The federal rule at FAR 14.402 requires officials to personally and publicly open all bids received before the deadline and read them aloud when practicable; state and local practice mirrors it.
• A bid must comply in all material respects with the invitation to be considered, the standard stated at FAR 14.301. A defect in responsiveness cannot be cured after opening.
• There is no negotiation. The agency accepts the bid as written or rejects it.
• Award goes to the lowest bidder who is both responsive (the document conformed) and responsible (the firm can perform). New York's General Municipal Law § 103 puts it directly: award to "the lowest responsible bidder furnishing the required security after advertisement for sealed bids."

How to respond: perfect paperwork and an accurate number. Every form signed, every addendum acknowledged, bid security attached, every line item and alternate priced, arithmetic checked twice. Do not attach marketing material. Do not qualify the price. See how to respond to an RFP for the full disqualification list, and bid bonds and performance bonds explained for the security requirement.

An RFP is used when how the work is done matters, not just what it costs: janitorial services across 40 buildings, a records management system, security staffing, a food service program, an engineering study. The agency publishes evaluation criteria and their relative weights and convenes a committee to score each proposal.

What an RFP allows that a sealed bid does not:

• Multiple factors. Technical approach, management plan, key personnel, past performance, transition plan, and price, each with a published weight.
• Discussions. The agency may ask clarification questions, shortlist for interviews or oral presentations, and request a best and final offer.
• Award to other than the lowest price. Provided the criteria and weights were published in advance and the record shows they were applied.

In federal RFPs the two sections that matter most are Section L (instructions: what to submit and in what form) and Section M (evaluation factors and their relative importance), per FAR 15.204-5. State and local documents use different headings for the same two things. Find them before you write anything.

How to respond: mirror the evaluation criteria section by section, answer the question actually asked, name real people, and be specific about this buyer's sites and constraints. Price still matters (it is usually 20 to 40 percent of the score), but a proposal that only competes on price against a weighted scorecard is competing for a minority of the points.

This is the acronym that causes the most confusion, because agencies use it for two unrelated things.

Request for Quotes (or Quotations)

An informal price request, used for purchases below the state's competitive sealed bid threshold. The agency emails three vendors, or posts a short form on its portal, and buys from the lowest. There is no public opening, no bid bond, and often no formal contract beyond a purchase order. Federally, the analogous simplified acquisition procedures run below the simplified acquisition threshold, which FAR 2.101 currently sets at $350,000, with a micro-purchase threshold of $15,000 (and $2,000 for construction subject to wage requirements).

How to respond: fast and cleanly. Same-day turnaround, a clear one-page quote, and firm lead times. These are the easiest public dollars to win and the easiest relationships to build, because a purchasing agent who can get a quick, accurate quote from you will come back.

Request for Qualifications

A completely different animal. The agency asks for experience, staffing, past projects, licenses and capacity, and explicitly forbids price. Firms are ranked on qualifications, and only then does the agency negotiate a fee with the top-ranked firm; if negotiation fails, it moves to the second.

This is required, not optional, for architecture and engineering services in most states, under "mini-Brooks Act" statutes modeled on the federal Brooks Act. It is also common as the first stage of a two-step process: an RFQu to shortlist three to five firms, then an RFP issued only to that shortlist.

How to respond: project sheets with comparable size, scope and buyer type; resumes for named staff; current workload and available capacity; licenses and registrations. No pricing whatsoever. Including price in a qualifications submission can get you disqualified.

A request for information, or at the federal level a sources-sought notice, is not a solicitation. No contract is awarded from it. The agency is doing market research: does this capability exist, how do vendors typically structure it, what does it roughly cost, and should this be set aside for small or local firms?

Ignoring RFIs is a mistake, because this is the only point in the process where the specification is still soft. A thoughtful RFI response can:

• get your technical approach reflected in the eventual scope of work;
• flag a requirement that would exclude every firm except the incumbent;
• persuade the agency to lengthen an unrealistic response window or split a bundled contract into lots a smaller firm can bid;
• put your name in front of the person who will write the solicitation, months before it is published.

Two cautions. Responding to an RFI does not obligate the agency to anything and does not give you an advantage in the eventual evaluation. And if you help write a specification, some jurisdictions apply organizational conflict of interest rules that can bar you from bidding the resulting contract. Ask before you get deeply involved.

Not preference. Three things, in order:

1. The dollar amount, against a state statutory threshold. Below it, informal quotes. Above it, formal advertised competition. New York's General Municipal Law § 103 sets $20,000 for purchase contracts and $35,000 for public work; every state sets its own, and cities and districts often set lower internal limits.
2. What is being bought. Most state public works statutes require sealed competitive bidding for construction, and permit competitive sealed proposals for services where a specification cannot be written precisely enough for price-only award. Architecture and engineering are usually carved out into qualifications-based selection by statute.
3. Whether an exception applies. Emergencies, sole source, cooperative purchasing contracts and state term contracts all bypass a fresh competition. Cooperative purchasing in particular now carries a large share of school district and municipal spend, which is why a single cooperative award can be worth more than a year of individual bids. See how to sell to school districts and how to sell to municipalities and city government.

If you are not sure which document you are holding, or which of these your work will normally fall under, that is a good first question for a call. Book a call and we will map the buyers in your area and the document types they use for your scope.