RFP Questions to Ask Vendors
Questions to ask in an RFP, for the buyer, project lead or procurement officer who writes the request for proposal and scores what comes back. The 58 questions follow the process: scope, price, team and plan, and service and risk go to every bidder in writing, then come the questions to ask in an RFP presentation once the finalists are in the room, and last the contract and the way out. At this stage you are asking for commitments rather than information, so word each one to get an answer you could attach to a contract. Several are written for software and services, and if you are buying goods or building work, the ones about data and releases can come out.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Scope
What have you assumed in this proposal that, if wrong, would change the price or the date?
Why ask it
Unwritten assumptions are the ones you pay for later. Getting them listed converts optimism into a set of conditions you can check against reality before award rather than during month four.
Which of our requirements are you taking exception to, and what do you propose in their place?
Why ask it
Exceptions tend to sit in an appendix or behind a phrase like partially compliant. A single list of them, with the alternative offered for each, lets you score the gap itself and not how well it was worded.
What is outside the scope of your proposal that a buyer could reasonably think was included?
Why ask it
Data clean-up, user training, integrations and testing are the usual candidates for work each side believes the other is doing. An out-of-scope list from every bidder also shows you which proposals are priced for the same job.
Which parts of your response describe what you deliver today, and which depend on something not yet released or not yet hired?
Why ask it
A proposal is written in the present tense whether or not the feature or the team exists yet. Score anything that is planned as absent, and ask for a delivery date in the contract if you intend to rely on it.
For each requirement, do you meet it as standard, through configuration or custom work, or not at all?
Why ask it
Standard features and custom work carry very different costs afterwards, and in software the custom part is what breaks at the vendor's next release. Proposals routinely blend the two, so require the split line by line.
Where was our RFP unclear or contradictory, and how did you read it?
Why ask it
Two bidders who read one ambiguous requirement differently have priced two different jobs. Their answers show you which of your own sentences to fix in a clarification sent to everyone before you compare numbers.
If our budget came in a fifth lower, what would you take out of this proposal first?
Why ask it
The reply shows what the bidder thinks is essential and what was added to fill out the bid. It also gives you a fallback scope that is already priced, should approval come back smaller than you asked for.
What are you not proposing that we should have asked for?
Why ask it
This invites the vendor to point at the gap in your own specification, which is far better heard now than after signature. A bidder with nothing to add may not know your field well, or may not want to complicate the bid.
Price
What is the total three-year cost, including licenses, implementation, training, and support?
Why ask it
Year one is the number vendors compete on and the number that misleads. Three years puts renewal increases, support tiers, and training that stops being free after month three onto a single page.
Which of your quoted line items are fixed price, and which are estimates?
Why ask it
Estimates in a proposal become change orders in a project. Make the vendor mark each line, and treat any large estimated item as a risk sitting on your side of the table rather than theirs.
What volumes, user numbers or hours is this price built on, and what happens to it if ours turn out higher or lower?
Why ask it
Every price rests on a quantity, and bidders rarely pick the same one. With the unit rate above and below the assumed figure, you can reprice each bid on your own forecast.
What is not in this price that your customers usually end up buying in the first year?
Why ask it
Extra environments, additional training days, premium support and connectors tend to arrive as separate quotes after signature. A bidder who names them now is giving you a truer total than one who says everything is covered.
Are travel, expenses and taxes inside these figures, or billed on top?
Why ask it
These three can sit outside a quote that otherwise looks complete, and they are rarely treated the same way across bids. Which taxes apply depends on where you and the vendor are based, so ask your finance team how it works for this purchase.
What is your annual price escalation, and is it capped?
Why ask it
An uncapped escalation clause is how a competitive bid becomes expensive in year three. A cap is seldom offered unprompted, and it is easiest to get in writing while the bidders are still competing with each other.
If you have offered a discount, what is it conditional on?
Why ask it
A discount can depend on a signing date, a longer term, a minimum volume or permission to use your name in marketing. Get each condition written beside the figure, and ask what the price becomes at renewal once the discount ends.
What payment schedule are you proposing, and which payments wait for something we have accepted?
Why ask it
Payments tied to calendar dates fall due whether or not the work has arrived. An instalment matched to a deliverable you can test does not, and the share each bidder wants before anything is in your hands deserves its own column in the comparison.
How would a change request work, and what is your rate card by role?
Why ask it
Change is certain, so the rate card matters nearly as much as the base price. Rates held for the whole term, and changes quoted before the work starts instead of invoiced after it, are the two things to look for.
How long does this pricing stay valid, and what could change it before we sign?
Why ask it
Internal approval often takes longer than a quote's validity period, and a lapsed quote reopens the negotiation after you have already named your preferred bidder. Ask for validity that runs past your own sign-off date.
Team and plan
What have you delivered in the last three years that is closest to this, and how did it differ from what we are asking for?
Why ask it
A page of client logos proves little, because the same sector or size is not the same job. The differences a bidder admits to show which parts of your project would be new to them, and those are the parts to raise on the reference calls.
Who exactly would work on this, by name and percentage of their time, and who is a subcontractor?
Why ask it
Names with time allocations force a real staffing answer instead of a capability statement. Subcontractors are not disqualifying, but they change who you can escalate to, and they often surface only after signature.
If a named person leaves or is moved to another client, how are they replaced, and do we get a say?
Why ask it
The team you scored is only worth its marks if it stays. Ask for notice, a replacement of equal experience and your approval of the substitute, then see whether the bidder will put that in the contract.
How many other projects would your project manager be running alongside ours?
Why ask it
A project manager split across five clients answers on Thursday what you asked on Monday. The count today matters less than the share of their week that the proposal has actually costed, so get both.
When could you start, and what on your side has to happen first?
Why ask it
A start date that depends on another client's project finishing is a forecast, not a commitment. Hearing the dependency now lets you decide whether to plan around it or to weigh an earlier start from a different bidder.
What do you need from us, and by when, for your timeline to hold?
Why ask it
Every vendor timeline rests on assumptions about your side: data, decisions, environments, people. Getting that list in writing is what keeps a delay from turning into an argument about whose fault it was.
What happens in the first ninety days, week by week?
Why ask it
Weekly granularity separates vendors who have done this before from vendors working off a template. Look for named deliverables and decision points rather than phases with marketing names attached.
How will you report progress, and what would that report look like in a week when the project is behind?
Why ask it
A status report that stays green until the month before go-live has told you nothing. Ask to see a real report from a late project, with the client's name removed, to learn how early bad news travels.
What is your acceptance testing process, and what happens if we reject a deliverable?
Why ask it
Without a defined acceptance step you have no leverage over quality. The answer should cover how long you get to test, what counts as a defect, and who decides when the two sides disagree about one.
What is the biggest risk to this project, and who owns it in your plan?
Why ask it
Watch whether they name a real risk or a token one, and where the mitigation sits. A proposal that assigns every risk to the customer is telling you in advance how the project will be run.
How does the project team hand over to support, and what is written down at that point?
Why ask it
The people who know why your setup looks the way it does usually leave at go-live. A good answer names the documents the handover produces, who checks them, and how long the project team stays reachable afterwards.
Service and risk
What service levels are you committing to, and what is the remedy when you miss one?
Why ask it
A target with no remedy is only a preference. Find out how the credit is triggered as well as how much it is, because one that has to be formally claimed each time tends to go uncollected.
What counts as a severity one issue, and what response and resolution times apply to it?
Why ask it
Severity definitions decide whether your outage is treated as urgent, and vendors draft them narrowly. Read theirs and confirm that your worst realistic failure lands in the top tier rather than the second.
How are service levels measured and reported, and whose figures count if we disagree?
Why ask it
When the vendor measures its own performance and you only see a monthly summary, a missed target is hard to show. Pin down what is measured, from where, what is excluded as planned maintenance, and whether you can see the underlying data.
Which support hours and channels come with the proposed price, and which belong to a paid tier?
Why ask it
A bid can quote the cheapest support tier while its service description reads like the most expensive one. Match the hours and response times in the proposal to the tier on the price sheet before you score either.
Where would our data live, who inside your company can access it, and which subprocessors are involved?
Why ask it
A vendor that holds business data should have a documented answer ready, and marketing language about bank-level security is not one, so send it back for their security team. Whether the location itself matters legally depends on your country and sector, which is a question for whoever handles data protection on your side.
Which independent security audits or certifications cover the service you are proposing, and can we see the latest report?
Why ask it
A certificate can cover one product, one office or one data centre and say nothing about the service in your bid. Read the scope statement and the date, and note any exceptions the auditor recorded.
How soon would you tell us about a security incident touching our data, and will you put that period in the contract?
Why ask it
Your own duty to notify customers or regulators may start when you learn of an incident, and those rules vary by country and industry. Ask your legal or compliance lead what applies to you, then check that the vendor's period leaves you enough time.
What keeps the service running if you have an outage of your own, and when did you last test that plan?
Why ask it
A continuity plan that has never been rehearsed is only a document. The date of the last test, what failed during it, and the recovery times it achieved against the ones in the proposal tell you whether this one has been.
What liability do you accept for a breach or data loss, and what does your insurance cover?
Why ask it
Many vendor contracts cap liability at the fees paid, which can fall far short of what a serious incident costs. Ask for the certificate of insurance and the policy limits, and have whoever reviews your contracts read the cap, since what can be enforced depends on where you are.
Is there anything about your ownership, finances or any pending dispute that we should know before we award?
Why ask it
A sale of the company, a funding gap or a lawsuit can change who delivers your project halfway through it. Asking in the RFP puts the answer on record, which gives a later surprise a very different weight.
Which two clients most like us can we speak with, including one where the project ran into trouble?
Why ask it
Every vendor can supply a happy reference. Asking for a difficult one tests whether they have relationships candid enough to survive the request, and those calls produce the most useful detail you will get.
Presentation
Which of you here today would work on our project after we sign, and in what role?
Why ask it
The team in the room is usually the strongest a bidder has, and it is not always the one that turns up afterwards. Say in the invitation that the proposed project lead is expected to present the delivery plan, so no finalist is caught out and the answer is more than the account manager.
When your project manager and ours cannot settle something, who do we call, and what can that person decide?
Why ask it
An escalation path that stops at the account manager stops at someone who cannot move people or money. You want a name and a level of authority, and if that person is in the room, ten minutes of the session spent hearing from them.
Can you show us the three scenarios we sent ahead, using our sample data, before your standard demonstration?
Why ask it
A standard demonstration follows the route the product handles best. Scripted scenarios, identical for every finalist, make the presentations comparable and show which bidder read what you sent.
What did you show us today that is not in the price you proposed?
Why ask it
Presentations drift towards the newest and most impressive features, some of which sit in a higher edition or a separate module. Put the question before the session ends, while the screens are fresh and the person who knows the price sheet is still in the room.
Where is your proposal weakest against what we asked for, and what did you do about it?
Why ask it
Every proposal has a weak section, and a bidder who can point to it understands your requirements better than one who claims a perfect fit. Compare the answer with the section your scorers marked lowest.
Where do you expect your proposal to differ most from the other bidders, and why did you choose that approach?
Why ask it
You are asking for their reasoning and not for remarks about competitors, and a good presenter will keep to that. The answer often explains a price gap that looked arbitrary on the scoring sheet.
If we later disagreed about whether a piece of work was in scope, how would you handle it?
Why ask it
A real example from another client, with the outcome, is worth more than a description of the process. How a presenter describes that old argument, and who they blame for it, is a fair preview of the first dispute on your project.
What do you want to ask us that could change your proposal?
Why ask it
Leave real time for this instead of the last two minutes. Good bidders use it to test their assumptions about your data, your decision makers and your dates, and the quality of their questions is worth a line on the scoring sheet.
Which of the answers you gave today will you confirm in writing, and by when?
Why ask it
Spoken answers in a presentation are not part of the proposal unless you make them so. Read back the commitments you noted, set a date for the written version, and score from that document.
Contract and exit
Which of our contract terms do you not accept, and what wording do you propose instead?
Why ask it
Asking for redlines with the proposal moves the legal argument to the stage where bidders are still competing. A bidder who answers that terms can be discussed after award is asking you to negotiate with nobody else in the race.
Will your proposal and your written answers to these questions be attached to the contract?
Why ask it
Many standard agreements state that the signed document replaces everything said before it, which would include the proposal you scored. Ask your legal reviewer how to carry the proposal into the contract under the law that governs it.
Who will own what you build or configure for us, and what do you keep the right to reuse?
Why ask it
Reports, integrations and custom code written for your project can stay with the vendor unless the contract says otherwise. Ownership rules differ by country and by how the work is paid for, so have the clause read before award and not after delivery.
What are your termination rights and ours, and what would we owe for leaving early?
Why ask it
Read both sides of the exit before you sign: a contract can let the vendor leave on notice while you may go only by proving a breach. The charge for ending early can be a fixed sum or everything left on the term, and those are very different numbers.
How does renewal work, and what is the last date we can give notice to stop it?
Why ask it
Ask for the date itself and put it in a calendar the day you sign. A renewal that rolls over because the notice window closed a month earlier is the easiest cost on this list to avoid.
What happens to our contract, our price and our team if your company is acquired?
Why ask it
A new owner may retire the product, move the staff or revisit the pricing. What protects you sits in two clauses: whether the contract can be transferred without your consent, and whether a change of ownership gives you a right to leave.
At the end of the contract, how do we get our data and configuration out, and at what cost?
Why ask it
Ask while you still have leverage. You want the format, the timeline, whether configuration comes out along with the data, and the fee, all written into the agreement rather than described as cooperation.
What handover help would you give a vendor who replaced you, for how long, and at what rate?
Why ask it
Leaving is a project of its own, and the outgoing vendor has little reason to make it quick. A transition period with named duties, billed at the agreed rate card, keeps the last months from being priced on the day.
If we award this to you, what could still stop you from signing?
Why ask it
Board approval, a parent company's legal review or a partner's agreement can add weeks between award and signature. Knowing the bidder's remaining steps tells you how long to keep the runner-up in play.
Evaluating Vendor Proposals
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Where each group belongs in a request for proposal
In the RFP document
Scope, Price, Team and plan, and Service and risk are written questions. Put them in the request for proposal itself, numbered, with a required answer format for each, so that every bidder replies to identical wording and nothing has to be reconstructed from a sales call.
In the clarification round
After the responses arrive, send follow-ups only where an answer was vague or two bidders read a requirement differently. Whether each clarification and its answer must go to every bidder depends on your organization's procurement rules, and public bodies usually have strict ones, so check yours before replying to one vendor alone.
At the RFP presentation
The Presentation group is for the finalists, in person or on a call. These are the questions a document cannot answer: who turns up, how they take a hard question, and whether the plan sounds the same aloud as it read on paper.
Before the award letter
Contract and exit can go out with the RFP as a request for redlines, and should be settled with the preferred bidder before anyone is told they have won. Once the other bidders are released, your position on every remaining term is weaker.
Comparing proposals fairly
- 1Build one scoring sheet with fixed weights before any response arrives. Weights invented after you have read the bids become a way of justifying the vendor you already liked.
- 2Normalize the pricing yourself into three-year totals using identical assumptions about volume and headcount. Vendors structure quotes to look inexpensive in different places.
- 3Score written responses before you watch any demonstration. A polished demo changes how people read a document they have not yet scored.
- 4Have the same two people score every bid, so the scoring is at least consistent rather than varying by reviewer.
- 5Write down the decision and the reasons at the time and keep the file. Eighteen months later, when something has gone wrong, it is the only record of what was promised.
Running the RFP presentation
Send the agenda and the scenarios a week ahead
Give every finalist the same length of slot, the same scripted scenarios and the same sample data. Say who you expect to present, including the proposed project lead, so the session is not carried by a sales team you will never see again.
Hold half the time for questions
A presentation that fills its whole slot has answered only the questions the bidder chose. Agree beforehand which panel member asks which question, and keep the order identical for each finalist.
Score before you discuss
Have each panel member mark the session alone, straight afterwards, against the criteria set before the bids arrived. A group conversation held first pulls the marks towards the most confident voice on the panel.
Close the loop in writing
Within a day, send each finalist the list of commitments you heard and ask them to confirm or correct it. That reply joins the proposal as part of what you are evaluating, and later as part of what you sign.
Where proposals hide cost
The first-year discount
A steep opening discount that quietly expires at renewal is a common way to win a bid. Compare renewal pricing rather than initial pricing, and ask for the renewal increase to be capped in the contract.
Implementation quoted as an estimate
A fixed license fee beside an estimated implementation is an open-ended bid. Ask for a fixed price, or a not-to-exceed figure with the assumptions written down beside it.
Support tiers
The response times you assumed were standard often belong to a premium tier. Check which tier the proposal quotes, then read what the standard tier actually commits to.
Environments, users, and connectors
Sandbox environments, test accounts, and integration connectors are frequently priced separately. List everything you intend to use and ask for written confirmation that each item is included.
Verify before you award
- Two reference calls per finalist, at least one at your scale, and ideally one with a customer who left or nearly did.
- The named team's availability, confirmed by whoever manages them rather than by the salesperson.
- Certificates instead of claims: insurance limits, security attestations, and any accreditation with its scope and expiry date.
- The contract read by the person who would have to enforce it, with attention to liability caps, indemnities, and termination.
- A short paid pilot for anything you cannot verify from documents, scoped and priced before the award rather than after.
Answers that belong in the contract, not the meeting
- Named key personnel, with a clause requiring notice and your approval before they are swapped out.
- Service levels with defined severity tiers, response and resolution targets, and credits applied automatically rather than on request.
- A rate card for change requests, valid for the contract term, with any annual increase capped.
- Data export on termination: format, timeline, cost, and written confirmation of deletion afterward.
- Acceptance criteria for each deliverable, with payment milestones tied to acceptance rather than to delivery.