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How to Create a Practical Crisis Management Plan [+ Templates]
The success of any new project heavily depends on the quality of your suppliers or contractors.
Choose the wrong ones, and the whole project would suffer for it.
Thankfully, there is a structured process to gather the right information that’ll help you choose the best options: the Request for Information (RFI). Instead of relying on random results from a Google search, an RFI allows you to collect accurate and detailed information about the offerings of various providers.
Research shows that 43% of organizations use RFI during their procurement process. This stat proves it's been super effective for many companies.
So, how do you write an effective request for information that helps you find the right solutions for your business needs?
In this guide, we’ll explore what an RFI is, how to create a proper RFI and tools to make the process easier. We’ve also included best practices and templates to help get your RFI off the ground.
Let’s get started!
An RFI is a formal document you use to request information from potential suppliers. It helps you gather details about available products or services, their features and the supplier’s ability to deliver on a specific project.
An RFI is typically one of the preliminary steps in the procurement process and is used when you recognize the need for specific goods and services.
Starting out, it's not necessary to have the answer to your problem. An RFI can help you figure out the best way to solve your problem. It includes these details:
During the procurement process, you’d write an RFI to identify potential suppliers who can meet your needs. This helps your decision-making process and narrows down the list of suppliers that align with your requirements.
For example, you could be looking for a solution like a new creative advertising strategy for a product launch. At this stage, there is no contractual agreement between you and the supplier. The RFI process continues only after the responses are reviewed and both parties agree to move forward with the business arrangement.
The RFI, RFP (Request for Proposal), and RFQ (Request for Quote) each serve a distinct purpose.
Let’s look at each document's purpose and when to use it.
| Title | Purpose | When to Use |
| RFI | To gather general information from vendors on their products and services | Early in the decision-making process |
| RFP | To request proposals detailing how a vendor would meet a specific project need | When ready to evaluate concrete solutions |
| RFQ | To request pricing information for a defined solution | After choosing a preferred solution or supplier |
If you're on the other side of the divide and wondering how to respond to RFPs, this article covers 5 RFP Response Templates & Best Practices to Win Your Next RFP Proposal.
Here are four reasons why you should use an RFI.
If you find yourself receiving an RFI, it is important to know how to respond.
Visme provides professional RFI response templates to get you started. Take a look at how to structure your RFI using the example below:
Address:
[Your Company Name]
[Your Company Address]
[City, State, ZIP Code]
[Email Address]
[Phone Number]
[Date]
[Recipient’s Name]
[Recipient’s Title]
[Recipient’s Company]
[Recipient’s Address]
[City, State, ZIP Code]
Salutation: Dear [Recipient’s Name],
Introduction: We appreciate your interest in EcoBuild Solutions for your upcoming construction project. We're eager to provide you with more information about our sustainable building materials and services that we think will perfectly suit your requirements.
Product Overview: Our environmentally friendly materials are obtained from sustainable sources, ensuring both durability and energy efficiency. We offer a variety of choices, including recycled steel, low-VOC paints, and energy-efficient insulation.
Project Timeline: Generally, we complete our projects within a timeframe of 12-14 weeks, depending on the project's scope and site conditions.
Sustainability Certifications: We take pride in our certifications from the Green Building Council and LEED, which guarantee that our materials adhere to the highest environmental standards.
Conclusion: We are excited about the opportunity to work together and would love to discuss your project in more detail. Feel free to reach out to us to set up a consultation.
Instead of relying solely on plain text, why not elevate your submission with a visually appealing and fully customizable template?
Here’s an RFI Bid Proposal template that you can easily customize.
This template helps you:
Want to ensure your bid proposal hits all the right notes? Check out this guide to learn more about how to write bid proposals.
The RFI process typically involves these five steps below.
The first step is for the buyer to recognize the need for a product, service or solution. This could be driven by a business challenge, opportunity, or project that requires external expertise, technology, or resources. Buyers can clarify these objectives based on their specific business goals and needs.
Once the need is identified, it’s time for the buyer to create the RFI document. The RFI document will contain relevant questions and information related to the project or business. For example, it may include:
Once the buyer has drafted the RFI, the RFI is sent to potential suppliers. Buyers can send it via email or upload it to a website that connects prospective buyers and sellers.
Interested suppliers will respond to the RFI by providing answers to the inquiries and explaining how they can meet the buyer’s business needs. This is usually done within a stipulated time frame.
The RFI response may include:
Pricing information isn’t usually included in an RFI. However, vendors may provide estimates or high-level pricing structures depending on the scope of the RFI.
Once the buyer has received all the responses, the RFI will be evaluated based on how well the vendor's experience, capabilities and technical expertise aligns with their business needs.
Here’s a simple 5-step framework to help you craft a great RFI.
You can start writing your RFI by giving an overview of your company. This can include your company name, logo and what you do. Then, provide a brief outline of the project itself, including the key outcomes and deliverables you expect.
The template below beautifully showcases a proper RFI introduction. It provides background into the company and the reasons they’re requesting information from vendors.
You can choose to provide further details about the specific project. The purpose of this is to provide clarity on any specific requirements related to the products or services you need.
You can also include customer demographics, preferences, and what you’re not looking for. This clarity helps suppliers understand your needs and assess if they are able to meet the requirements.
Check out how the Government of Canada provided additional details about what was out of the scope of the project here:
The next step is to outline the information you need from suppliers. The information you request will help you decide if you want to move forward with that vendor or not. It can also help the supplier assess if they can provide your required goods or services.
Depending on your project, the information you request from suppliers might include:
The RFI template below gives a good idea of how to structure the information you are requesting from suppliers. Ensure your request is simple, clear and straightforward.
When working on your RFI, it’s important that you seek input from multiple teams. Each team can add valuable questions based on their expertise, making the RFI well-rounded.
With Visme’s collaboration feature, you can easily add your team members to your RFI for real-time feedback and contributions. The workflow tool also allows you to assign specific sections of the RFI to different team members and track their progress.
In the Request for Information template below, a detailed submission guideline is included. It specifies the submission format, method and response deadline. Adding these details to your RFI will ensure consistency in RFI responses.
Make it easy for suppliers to submit their responses by clearly explaining how they can do so, either by email or through a designated portal.
It can be helpful to share a response template and evaluation criteria to help suppliers understand how you will review their submissions.
You can share Visme’s RFI response template to give suppliers an idea of how to structure their response.
Ensure suppliers can easily reach you for any further information or clarification by including your contact details, such as email, social media, or other communication methods.
You can also make your email or social media icons clickable using our interactive feature. This will ensure suppliers are redirected to the appropriate channels when reaching out or connecting with you.
Use Visme’s Brand Design Tool to brand your RFI document. This tool automatically gathers your logo, fonts, and colors from your website, creating a collection of branded templates for you.
With the right tools, the process of writing any bid request becomes faster, error-free and flawless. Here are a few tools that I’ve tested which will come in handy when creating your RFI:
Visme is a content creation powerhouse that allows you to generate professional documents, including RFIs, proposals, presentations and reports, quickly and efficiently.
For someone like me who isn’t a designer, I didn’t need to sift through guides or watch tutorials to understand how to use the platform. The interface is straightforward and intuitive, allowing me to dive in and navigate without feeling lost.
You can start creating your RFI from a blank canvas or choose a professionally designed template from Visme’s library.
With Visme, the possibilities are pretty endless.
You can make your RFI interactive and add more information without boring your readers by using interactive elements like hover effects, pop-ups or hotspots. You won’t find this in most RFI tools available on the market.
If you’re facing writer's block or need help writing any section of your RFI? Visme's AI writer has your back.
Simply describe the type of content you need, choose the desired length and tone, and let it generate your text in seconds. You can also use this tool to create concise summaries or edit your already drafted RFI content.
Another feature I’ve found helpful is the collaboration tool that lets multiple team members work on the RFI document at once.
You can assign specific sections of the RFI to different team members and track their progress. This not only improves efficiency but also ensures that each part of the RFI is handled by the most knowledgeable person.
Free Trial: Visme AI provides a free version with limited features, allowing users to explore its capabilities before committing to a paid plan. Visme also offers a 14-day free trial for premium features.
Pricing: Starts from $12.25/month
Ratings & Review:
Content Snare is a versatile Request for Information (RFI) tool designed to streamline the process of gathering information and documents from clients.
It serves as a secure client portal where users can create structured requests, allowing clients to submit information in a clear and organized manner.
I love how it allows users to use screenshots, videos, use conditional logic to ask relevant questions from clients, making the process quite interactive.
However, I found that Content Snare has a steeper learning curve than expected. The custom form builder isn’t very intuitive, and it took me a while to get the hang of it.
Free Trial: Content Snare offers a 14-day free trial.
Pricing: Starts at $29 USD/month
Ratings & Review:
Smartsheet is a work management and automation platform that manages RFIs across various industries, particularly in construction.
The tool allows users to access customizable forms to collect data efficiently, allowing them to track submissions and approvals in real-time.
What immediately caught my eye was its sleek interface. It was clean and well-designed. I also love how it allows users to create automated notifications for deadlines, helping them to stay on track with their RFI submissions.
However, during my test, I found that Smartsheet’s extensive range of features can be overwhelming if you’re just looking for an RFI creation tool and not a project management tool. This was a significant drawback for me.
Free Trial: Smartsheet offers a 30-day free trial
Pricing: Starts from $9 per Member/month
Ratings & Review:
We’ve covered how to write good RFIs and the tools that can simplify the process. Now, let’s dive into a few tips to keep in mind that will help ensure your RFIs always stand out!
1. Be thoughtful in crafting the questions. Don’t rush through the process as just another task. Take your time to clarify the information you need and ask detailed, specific questions that reflect your exact requirements.
2. Keep your RFI simple. While being clear and detailed is important, avoid going overboard with excessive questions or information. You don’t want to overwhelm the supplier with too many requests or tight deadlines, as this could discourage them from responding.
3. Avoid technical terms or coming across as too rigid.
4. Give the supplier sufficient time to respond. A two to three-week time frame is recommended.
5. If necessary, employ various strategies, such as using visuals to help the vendor understand your needs. When you make it easier for them to provide thoughtful and quality responses, you're setting yourself up to secure the best deal for your business.
The first step to take when you receive an RFI is to carefully understand the client’s needs and decide if it’s a fit for your business. If you don't think your business has all it takes to win the bid, why waste time?
You can decide if your business is a fit by asking the following questions:
Once you are certain that your business can fulfill the client's requirements, start drafting your RFI response.
Be sure to draft each session based on the inquiries made in the RFI. If you decide to use an answer library, you should double-check your RFI response to make sure it contains the most recent and accurate information.
Be brief and direct while responding to queries. Remember your clients are going to be accessing a lot of entries. So you want to keep it concise and to the point. In addition, wherever it's appropriate, use visuals such as charts, graphs or tables to present data in an easy-to-understand format.
Some questions in your RFI may need input from subject matter experts in specific departments, such as sales, technical, or legal. As mentioned earlier, you can easily collaborate with your team members while creating your RFI using Visme’s collaboration and workflow feature.
Have a final review by a senior team member or a fresh pair of eyes to catch any mistakes or areas for improvement. You can also proofread your response for errors using Visme’s AI writer to ensure that it’s polished and professional.
A good RFI provides the necessary information to assess potential suppliers effectively. This includes:
An RFI is usually submitted by the procurement team when they need information from suppliers, especially when they are short on supplies or there is a future need for certain products or services.
RFI requirements are the specific details a buyer needs from suppliers to help make an informed business decision. These may include information about product availability, pricing, delivery timelines, company experience, and other relevant factors that help assess if the supplier can meet the buyer’s needs.
An RFI (Request for Information) is typically used at the beginning of the decision-making process to gather general information from suppliers about their products and services.
An RFP (Request for Proposal) is issued when a company is ready to evaluate specific solutions. It is used to request detailed proposals from suppliers on how they would meet a particular project requirement.
RFI stands for Request for Information.
We’ve provided the tools, templates and examples of how to create a winning Request for Information.
Now it’s your turn.
Using Visme’s RFI templates, you can easily create and send RFI forms to your suppliers.
These templates help you highlight your company’s information, outline project objectives, detail the required information, and specify submission guidelines, streamlining the process for both you and your suppliers.
Visme’s suite of tools offers access to customizable proposal templates, enabling you to generate RFIs with ease. With AI-powered features, you can quickly generate text, images, and documents tailored to your unique business needs.
Ready to create an RFI that elevates your business and secures the best deals? Sign up for a Visme account today and get started!
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