I'll give you a couple of real live examples. An RFP was completed. I think there were 55 to 60 hours put into this RFP. In the fine print within that RFP was a requirement to submit the technical response on one USB and the narrative on another. The entrepreneur overlooked that one requirement and was immediately disqualified from the process.
The second example would be an RFP that went in after significant hours of investment. Again, the fine print had indicated that the font needed to be a certain size within the document. Unfortunately, the font was not 11, but probably a 12, so again the application was kicked out very early in the process.
I have to ask in both scenarios: What did that have to do with the quality and the content of the response? Absolutely nothing. I think that taking a really good look those criteria for responses comes first and foremost.