White Paper: We “No Bid,” and I’ll tell you why

Presented by the NIGP Business Council, this is part one in a series of white papers that connects the supplier’s perspective with the public procurement community in an effort to improve the buyer/supplier relationship. This white paper represents one of the ways in which the Business Council supports the educational mission of NIGP. We “No Bid,” and I’ll Tell You Why is an amalgamation of real-world examples related to why a company may choose not to bid on a particular Request for Proposal (RFP) or Invitation for Bid (IFB). It is intended to present a complex topic in simple terms. For this particular subject, the authors illustrate the potential reasons why a company may choose not to bid through the use of an admittedly simplistic, low-dollar, local in scope example. However, the basic principles of this example apply to bids which are national in scope and much higher in dollar value.