RFPs
to draw the right RMCs
Include too many RMCs in your RFP distribution and you’ll waste weeks reviewing duplicative answers from ill-fitting candidates. Include too few and you’ll artificially limit your options.
No matter how your mobility procurement process unfolds, consider these three easy steps to bring the most promising partners into view:
Start with a critical self-evaluation.
Before you sit down to write your first RFP question, ask yourself the tough questions about your own organization.
What specific outcomes are your policies designed to achieve? What are the gaps in your technology suite? Is your relocating population likely to increase or decrease in the coming years? How much of the globe do you truly need to reach? Are your internal RFP participants in agreement around the problems you’re trying to solve? The better your self-assessment, the greater the odds that you’ll court the right RMCs.
Ask your peers about their experiences.
The first-hand learnings and insights of other mobility pros can be invaluable in supplementing your own research and RFP process.
In-person and virtual conferences and events, regional industry groups, even LinkedIn searches for people with titles similar to yours: Each of these avenues can lead to critical discoveries about your prospective RMC partners.
Consider reversing the usual process.
One interesting and revealing approach we’ve seen is to move the standard milestones around: Invite prospective RMCs to a site visit, then issue your RFP — and only to those RMCs who have impressed you during their visit.
Yes, this flip requires slightly more time upfront, but it can yield a much clearer view into potential fit than the traditional RFP-comes-first process.
