What is an RFT? (And how it differs from RFP, RFQ and EOI)
A Request for Tender (RFT) is a formal invitation — usually from a government body or large enterprise — to submit a binding offer for clearly specified work. The buyer knows what they want; the competition is on conformance, capability and price.
The neighbouring acronyms differ mostly in how settled the buyer is:
- RFP (Request for Proposal) — the buyer has a problem and wants your approach as well as your price. More room to shape the solution.
- RFQ (Request for Quotation) — the specification is fixed; this is substantially about price and delivery.
- EOI (Expression of Interest) — a pre-qualification round to shortlist who gets to see the real tender.
The playbook below is written for RFTs but applies to all four — the formality dial just turns up or down.
Step 0: Decide whether to bid at all
The most expensive RFT response is the one you were never going to win. Before anyone opens a Word document, make the bid/no-bid call deliberately — in writing, against the same questions every time.
Step 1: Read the whole pack before you write anything
Not the executive summary — the whole pack: main document, every annex, the draft contract, the pricing schedules, the Q&A log and every addendum. RFTs distribute their traps evenly: the submission format hides in an annex, a mandatory site visit in the covering letter, a liability clause in the draft contract.
Read it twice. The first read is for shape — scope, deadline, evaluation weightings, what winning would actually commit you to. The second read is extraction, which is Step 2.
Step 2: Build the compliance matrix first
Before drafting, pull every requirement — every “shall”, “must” and “at a minimum” — into a table with its source clause, category, owner, evidence and an honest met/gap status. This matrix becomes the bid’s control panel: it tells you what to write, what to chase, and whether you’re actually allowed to win.
We’ve written the full method up separately — see What is a compliance matrix (and how to build one). The short version: extract verbatim, split compound sentences, categorise (mandatory / technical / eligibility / financial), assign owners, and keep it live until submission.
Step 3: Turn the evaluation criteria into your outline
Most RFTs publish evaluation criteria with weightings. That table is the buyer telling you, in numbers, what they will reward — so make it your table of contents. A criterion worth 35% of the score deserves roughly 35% of your effort and page budget; a 5% criterion does not deserve your best week.
Mirror the buyer’s structure and numbering wherever possible. Evaluators score with the criteria sheet beside them; a response organised the way they score is easier to mark up — and easier to mark well.
Step 4: Draft against criteria, not from a blank page
Every section should open by answering the criterion, then prove it. The discipline per section: claim → method → evidence. If a paragraph doesn’t serve the criterion the section is scored on, it’s decoration.
And don’t start from blank pages. Your last three bids contain most of this response — the capability statements, methodology descriptions, CVs and case summaries that every tender asks for in slightly different words. The teams that respond fast aren’t writing faster; they’re reusing better. (This is the core of what’s becoming known as Bid Ops — treating past answers as an asset library instead of archaeology.)
Step 5: Evidence every claim
“Extensive experience” scores nothing. A named reference project with dates, a certificate number, a CV with the relevant engagement on it — these score. Walk your draft and attach proof to every load-bearing sentence; where proof doesn’t exist, either soften the claim or go get the proof. Never let the evaluator be the first person to notice the gap between your prose and your paperwork.
Step 6: Verify before you submit
The final pass is not a proofread — it’s a conformance check. Row by row through the compliance matrix: is every mandatory requirement met and evidenced? Is every criterion addressed where the buyer expects it? Are the certificates current through the award date, not just today? Is the pricing schedule complete, in the buyer’s template, arithmetic checked?
This is the pass where bids are saved — the expired insurance certificate, the unsigned statutory declaration, the pricing tab nobody filled in. Schedule it as a real working session days before the deadline, not as a vibe check the night before.
Step 7: Submit early, not on time
Treat the portal as part of the test. Register days ahead, check file format and size limits, and aim to submit a full day early — e-procurement portals reject late uploads with no mercy and no appeal. The last 24 hours are for the unforeseen, not for the plan.
A realistic timeline for a 10-working-day window
Notice what gets the most calendar: drafting gets four days, but a full four days sit between “draft done” and the deadline. That buffer absorbs the late addendum, the reviewer’s red ink, the certificate that needs re-issuing — everything this playbook exists to catch while it’s still catchable.
Where RFT responses actually fail
- A mandatory requirement missed because it lived in an annex.
- An eligibility gap discovered after the drafting was done.
- Generic boilerplate that never answers the stated criterion.
- Claims without evidence — or evidence that expired.
- The compliance check left for the final evening.
- A portal rejection at 4:58pm.
None of these are writing problems. They’re process problems — which is good news, because process is fixable.
Running this playbook with software
Everything above can be done with Word, a spreadsheet and discipline. Palmar exists to compress it: it reads the full pack (RFT, RFQ and EOI formats, annexes included) in about a minute, builds the live compliance matrix from Step 2 automatically, drafts each section against its criterion from your own past bids, and runs the Step 6 verification — coverage, gaps and blockers — before you submit. On the timeline above, that compresses Days 1–2 into the first hour and turns Day 9 into a continuous state rather than a scheduled scramble. Plans start at $99/mo with no lock-in — cancel anytime — so you can run one real tender through it and judge the playbook on results.
