As a buyer working on a competitive tender process for a requirement, it is really frustrating when vendors who were invited to bid for the requirement, decide not to bid AND do not send a note to indicate that they would not be submitting a bid.
Now, putting together the vendor list itself can be quite a delicate exercise (story for another day) and then having to manage an evaluation with no bid from several vendors does have far reaching consequences. To shed some light for our valued vendors, picture this all-too-common scenario:
I invited 4 vendors to submit a bid for a particular supply.
Only 2 responded with bids that are worlds-apart i.e. one with a price 3 times the other, so not much for comparison.
The other 2 did not bother responding. And worse, they did not decline or even acknowledge the invitation to bid.
So where does this leave me?
With an awkward tender evaluation. I have to report the outcome of the tender and recommend an award to a selected vendor. This report along with my recommendation will be issued to the tender committee for approval. But I am reluctant to issue the report because I have had this exact situation play out before. Not once. Not twice. Sigh
The tender committee, made up of senior management, maybe even the Managing Director (depending on the value of the job in question) will want to know:
Why only 2 vendors responded
How come I have no evidence to show the other 2 even received the invitation
What efforts I made to get a response from these other 2
If I have a preference for one of the vendors who responded; hence my perceived inability to reach the other 2 vendors
How I intend to justify the recommended price when there really is no competition, no comparison (another story for another blog post!)
My dear vendor, it makes the approval process difficult when I can't prove that a supplier actually received the invitation but is not interested in bidding. Let's just say it most definitely isn't a situation I want to be in. Not in front of senior management and certainly not in front of my MD!
So what do I do? Well my next actions will depend on several factors... how urgent the requirement is, how much time I have to secure other options or to cancel the entire tender and start afresh. Or if the urgency of the requirement demands that I proceed as is and face the wrath of the committee. Sigh.
But one thing I know I will definitely not be doing is inviting the non-responsive vendors to bid for the next tender opportunity I handle. After all, I do not expect a response from them. And just like that, they get blacklisted.. maybe not officially blacklisted but informally left out of several opportunities (still sounds like blacklisted to me🤷♀️).
So, dear vendors, suppliers, bidders... please ensure that you respond to every bid invitation and most especially to those you are not interested in. A simple decline note will help me decide early on in the tender process if I need additional vendors or other alternatives. It will help me answer most of the tender committee's questions and will not leave me looking so awkward in front of my bosses, jeopardizing my career growth prospects.
Dear vendor, I know sometimes you think that declining a bid invitation could get you blacklisted. Actually, it's the silent treatment that will get you on that blacklist. Because I wont take that risk a second time.
And lastly dearest vendor, maybe you are unsure how to send a decline note. I would usually include some details on how to decline in the bid invitation. And if you cant find these details, a simple 'Thanks for the invitation but we shall not be submitting a bid at this time' sent via email may sound curt but will be preferable to 'no response'.
Signed with 💌 on behalf of Buyers
Now over to Buyers; if you have faced a similar situation, please share your experience, let's learn from you.
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