Request Seller Responses

This is the process where bids and proposals are obtained from the prospective sellers. The sellers are responsible for these responses and are the ones putting forth the time and effort to respond.

Inputs to requesting seller responses include organizational process assets, the procurement management plan, and procurement documents. The organizational assets may include information on past performance of sellers that will be relevant to the choosing of a seller for the new project. Some organizations keep this information, and it often helps to pre-select qualified sellers.

The tools and techniques of requesting bidder responses are bidder conferences, advertising, and developing a qualified sellers list. Bidder conferences are meetings with prospective sellers to ensure that they have a clear understanding of the procurement requirements. During these bidder conferences, which are also called vendor or contractor conferences, all potential sellers are invited to bring questions about procurement requirements and discuss them. In some projects, any questions asked in these meetings must be posted to an Internet site so that any vendors not present at the conference will have the same information as those who were at the conference.

Advertising can build the number of potential sellers by getting information out to a large number of vendors. In some government jurisdictions, certain types of procurement items must be advertised publicly. Some government jurisdictions require that any pending government contracts be made public, usually through newspapers, but more and more through websites on which sellers may search for all current open projects.

A qualified sellers list can be developed in many ways. If the organization has lists of current qualified sellers, this list will be the basis for new projects. One thing to remember is that new companies may be offering solutions to your procurement requirements but may not be on your qualified sellers list. In many cases, it is hard to get on this type of list, which can discourage some companies that are highly qualified. Other places to get names for a qualified sellers list can be the Internet, associations, trade catalogues, and directories available in libraries. It is always a good idea to keep these lists updated both by looking at new potential sellers and by weeding out old lists. This will give you a good chance to get the best possible procurement for your organization.

The outputs from requesting seller responses are the qualified sellers list, the procurement document package, and proposals. The proposals are done by the seller and give information that describes the way in which the seller will be able to supply items requested. The seller's proposal is a formal legal offer in response to the buyer's request. There may also be a round of oral explanation. The information given orally is also binding.

Q.	Meetings with prospective sellers to ensure they have a clear understanding of the requirements are known as ________.
		A.	Bidder conferences
		B.	Vendor conferences
		C.	Contract conferences
		D.	All of the above

The answer is D. All of these are names for conferences where the perspective sellers can ask questions concerning requirements so that they get a clear outlook on what is expected of them.

The procurement document package is the entire package of materials sent to the sellers by the buyer. The procurement document package is the document set that guides the seller in responding to the buyer's needs.