Welcome to Stage 2. So far we have outlined the 5 stages, and in our last post we detailed key points to consider when defining your requirements.
Today we shall examine Stage 2 – Identifying candidates and sending out your RFP:
We discuss where you can find candidates, protecting yourself with an NDA and sending out your RFPs.
Candidates can come from web searches or referrals from friends and business associates. Some great but often overlooked sources for referrals are salespeople or FAE’s from manufacturers and distributors of key components in your product. These folks have networking in their blood and are generally eager to help.
Have a preliminary call with each candidate to be sure they have the interest and capacity to do what you’re looking for. Usually you will want to execute a non-disclosure agreement before sharing any confidential information about your product plans. The purpose of this call is just to be sure there is sufficient interest on both sides to proceed with the NDA.
Send out the RFPs to each candidate. Be sure to communicate consistent information to all the vendors you are considering. It’s almost guaranteed that vendors will pose questions you didn’t think of. Merge and share these Q&As with all the parties. In this way you improve your inputs to the development process, while simultaneously ensuring the vendor selection process remains objective.
The next stage, evaluate the candidates, will be coming in our next post. Please keep watch for it.
