The Summer Mating Ritual of the RFP

Also, be aware of situations in which consultants subcontract your production work to outside production managers. In such cases, a middle-man has been added, and this entity is earning compensation through unknown mark-ups of the invoices you pay.

Set reasonable deadlines
Allow a reasonable amount of time for the RFP process. All too often, the proposal process does not provide enough time for all of the parties to do their best work.