Preparing for Solicitation

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Once the solicitation planning has been completed, the actual process of solicitation can begin. Fortunately, the sellers, not the buyers, perform most of the activity in solicitations—usually at no additional cost to the project. The sellers are busy trying to win the business. There are two inputs to solicitations:

• Procurement documents are created in solicitation planning. These are the Invitations for Bid, Request for Proposal, and Request for Quote documents.

• Qualified seller lists are often maintained by performing organizations. These lists of qualified sellers (also preferred sellers or approved sellers) generally have contact information, history of past experience with the seller, and other pertinent information. In addition to the internal qualified seller list, there are many other resources to determine which sellers may qualify for the proposed work: Internet resources, industry directories, trade associations, and so on.

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