At his infoChachkie blog, John Greathouse aka Uncle Saul explains why startup companies often shouldn’t respond to requests for proposal (RFPs).
One of his cited reasons was that “[i]n some cases, the vendor of choice may already be selected and the proposal process is entirely perfunctory.” This is generally known as being ‘column fodder.’
If you do decide to respond to an RFP, here’s a short guide to the mechanics of the process that looks quite useful (at least based on my experience in supporting RFP responses as in-house counsel).