The Internet makes it very easy to find RFPs—if you know where to look. Municipalities are often legally obligated to publish RFP opportunities in order to create an even playing field, says Mike Voories, COO at Brillar, a Detroit-based landscape maintenance firm. Municipality websites—i.e. City of Cleveland www.city.cleveland.oh.us—are often a good place to start. There are also many regional sites or member-based sites.
“For municipal work or public work, a lot of agencies belong to or pay to be members of websites where they can post bid opportunities,” Voories says. For instance, in Michigan, where Voories is headquartered, sites like Buy4Michigan.com, Bid4Michigan.com and MITN.info list municipal RFPs and even some commercial RFPs.
Here are a few other sources that might be helpful, depending on your area:
- BOMA.org
- GovernmentBids.com
- FedBizOpps.gov
- BidSync.com
- Portals like Ariba.com
- Newspaper/local publications
“For commercial work, a lot of times it’s just getting opportunities from a property management company and qualifying to be on their bid lists if you will,” Voories says. “Then when annual bid opportunities come out, they include you and send you their packet, and you’ll look at their properties and propose or bid accordingly.”
Voories admits getting on that list can often be relationship based. Cold calling and traditional sales techniques are realistic approaches to getting on them, but Voories also suggests networking and involvement in local organizations, like Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) branches.
To read the full story from the May 2017 issue on the ins and outs of RFPs, click here.
To read our second web extra from this article, titled Municipal vs. Commercial RFPs, click here.
