RFI vs RFP vs RFQ: What Each Notice Asks For and How to Respond

Sources sought and RFI: market research

Both live under the market research rules of FAR Part 10 and the pre-solicitation exchanges of FAR Part 15. The agency is deciding how to buy: whether enough capable small businesses exist to set the work aside, which NAICS code fits, whether an existing vehicle covers it. Your response is not an offer and creates no obligation, which is exactly why it matters: it is the last moment the acquisition strategy is still open.

Respond with a capability statement written for the requirement, not the generic one: your size status and certifications, three relevant past performance examples with contract numbers, your answers to every question in the notice, and a plain statement that you can perform as a prime. Keep it inside the page limit; five focused pages beat twenty. Ask for a conversation if the notice invites one.

RFQ: quotations

A request for quotation is the instrument of simplified acquisitions under FAR Part 13 (generally at or below the simplified acquisition threshold, or higher for commercial items under the test program) and of orders against GSA schedules under FAR Subpart 8.4. A quote is not an offer; the government's order is the offer and your acceptance forms the contract. Evaluation is often price plus a short technical check, though schedule RFQs can weigh past performance and approach heavily. Answer every question, price exactly what is asked in the format asked, and confirm delivery terms. Speed counts: many RFQs close in days.

RFP: proposals

A request for proposal is a negotiated procurement under FAR Part 15. Your proposal is an offer the government can accept as written, so everything in it is binding. Section L (or the instructions section in a commercial-item solicitation) tells you exactly what to submit and in what form; Section M tells you how it will be scored: lowest price technically acceptable, best value tradeoff, or a variant. The technical volume, past performance volume and price volume are separate documents with separate readers. Compliance first, then persuasion: a non-compliant proposal is not evaluated at all. Discussions may follow, and a final proposal revision, but plan as if there will be none.

IFB: sealed bids

An invitation for bids is sealed bidding under FAR Part 14, common in construction and in buys where the requirement is fully specified. Bids are opened publicly at a stated time, there are no discussions, and award goes to the lowest-priced bid that is responsive to every term and from a responsible bidder. The work is in the bid schedule and the bonds; a single missing acknowledgment of an amendment can make a bid non-responsive.

Matching the effort to the notice

• Sources sought or RFI: two to six hours for a firm with a current capability statement. Always worth it in your codes.
• RFQ: hours to a day, price accuracy over prose.
• RFP: weeks. Run the bid/no-bid decision before you start, and again when Section M is in hand.
• IFB: days of estimating and a rigid checklist on the day of submission.

Two things that trip new contractors

First, a combined synopsis and solicitation posts the RFP or RFQ without a separate advance notice; if you wait for a pre-solicitation you miss it. Second, a sources sought answered by nobody small often becomes a full-and-open RFP; the set-aside that would have made the competition winnable was lost at the market research stage, when a five-page response would have changed it.