How to respond to a Sources Sought notice or RFI

Before an agency can buy anything of consequence, it has to understand the market: who can do the work, whether small businesses can, what the work should cost and how it should be structured. FAR Part 10 requires this market research, and FAR 15.201(e) describes Requests for Information as a way to obtain price, delivery, capability and other market information when the government does not yet intend to award a contract. A Sources Sought notice is the most common form of this research on SAM.gov.

Your response has two audiences. The contracting officer uses it to decide the acquisition strategy: full and open competition, a small business set-aside, an 8(a) or SDVOSB set-aside, or a sole source. The program office uses it to sharpen the requirement, sometimes borrowing language from good responses when it writes the Statement of Work. Both audiences reward specificity and punish generic marketing.

Most notices list the information wanted. Follow that list exactly, in that order, using their headings. Where a notice is vague, the following structure covers what contracting officers expect.

1. 1

   Decide within a day whether to respond

   Ask three questions: are we eligible under the NAICS and any stated set-aside; do we have at least two relevant past performances; is this a customer we want. If the answer to all three is yes, respond. If the requirement is out of scope for you but you could subcontract, say so honestly; teaming interest is useful information to the agency.

2. 2

   Build the outline from the notice itself

   Copy every requested item and every numbered question into a document as headings. This is your outline. It guarantees you answer everything and makes the reviewer's tally easy.

3. 3

   Write the eligibility paragraph first

   State the NAICS, the size standard, and your status under it in one plain sentence: "Under NAICS 541512 (size standard $34 million), Acme Systems is a small business and an SBA-certified HUBZone firm." This sentence does more for a set-aside decision than any other.

4. 4

   Select past performance for relevance, not prestige

   A $2 million contract doing the same work for a similar agency beats a $50 million contract doing something adjacent. Match scope, size and complexity to the notice. Include the customer point of contact where permitted; contracting officers do call.

5. 5

   Answer the shaping questions with a point of view

   If asked about contract type, recommend one and give the reason (for example, firm-fixed-price for well-defined help desk services, labor-hour for surge engineering support). If asked about the NAICS, agree or propose an alternative and explain the size-standard effect. Thoughtful answers here are how requirements get written in your favor.

6. 6

   Format for a two-minute read

   Headings matching the notice, short paragraphs, a table for past performance, and a one-page capability statement up front. Respect the page limit and the file format requested (PDF unless told otherwise). Put your company name, the notice number and the date in the header of every page.

7. 7

   Submit early and confirm receipt

   Email to the address in the notice, with the notice number and your company name in the subject line. Submit at least a day early; then ask the contracting officer to confirm receipt. Keep the sent message and any acknowledgement in the pursuit record.

An RFI usually goes deeper than a Sources Sought notice. It may attach a draft Statement of Work or draft RFP and ask for comments, pricing information, rough order of magnitude estimates, or your view on technical approaches. Treat the comment opportunity seriously: this is your one chance to point out ambiguous requirements, unrealistic page limits, evaluation factors that favor an incumbent, or a contract type that transfers unreasonable risk. Frame every comment as a question or a suggestion that helps the government get better proposals, and never disparage a competitor.

• Comment on the draft SOW by section number, quoting the text you mean.
• If asked for pricing information, give ranges with the assumptions that drive them rather than a single number you may be held to later.
• Ask about the incumbent, the current contract value and the transition period if the notice does not say. Agencies answer more freely at the RFI stage than during the solicitation.
• Keep a copy of what you submitted. When the RFP arrives, compare it to the draft to see which comments were adopted.

• Sending the generic capability statement. If the response could have been sent to any notice, it will not move this one.
• Ignoring the questions. Every unanswered numbered question is a mark against you in the reviewer's table.
• Overstating size status. Size is determined under the NAICS the agency assigns, at the time of your offer. A wrong claim can become a size protest later.
• Missing the deadline. Market research responses have real due dates. Late responses are usually discarded.
• Treating it as the proposal. No pricing volume, no 30-page technical approach. The agency wants evidence, not a bid.

How ProposalWorkspace handles this

Pre-award pursuits with a draft-response phase

ProposalWorkspace tracks a notice from intake through capture intelligence to a drafted capability statement or RFI response, with the deadline on the calendar and the quiet-period ethics reminder from FAR 15.201 on every post-solicitation phase. When the solicitation drops, the pursuit graduates into a full proposal without re-entering anything.

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This guide is general information for federal contractors drawn from the FAR and standard capture and proposal practice. It is not legal advice; always read the specific solicitation and consult counsel on protests, contract terms and compliance questions.