In brief
A request for quotation becomes difficult to compare when each bidder defines the work differently. A useful RFQ separates outcomes, activities, assumptions, and optional support.
How to write an RFQ for UAE business services
A request for quotation becomes difficult to compare when each bidder defines the work differently. A useful RFQ separates outcomes, activities, assumptions, and optional support.
What to do
- State the deliverables and give an example of what an acceptable output contains.
- Identify work your team will retain, including approvals and access provisioning.
- Require separate prices for the base scope, additional volume, and exceptional requests.
Make the response easy to compare
Use a response table with scope item, specification, quantity or workload, price basis, timing, and exception. Ask bidders to answer every line and label assumptions explicitly. Keep optional alternatives in a separate section so they do not replace the base requirement without notice. If a clarification changes the brief, issue the updated version to all participating suppliers.
Before sending the request, have the person who will accept delivery read it. They should be able to explain how the eventual output will be checked. An RFQ is ready when it supports both a comparable commercial response and a practical acceptance decision.
Illustrative buying situation
Consider this hypothetical example.
An RFQ asks for weekly reporting but does not define the report. One bidder prices a dashboard, another a narrative document, and a third a meeting. Add a sample output structure, required data inputs, and the decision the report should support. Ask each bidder to price that base requirement and list optional additions separately. The revised request turns three unrelated offers into a comparison of the same deliverable and makes later acceptance much easier.
Your next decision
Return unclear proposals for clarification before treating their totals as comparable.
Related buying guides
RFQ guideUAE supplier guides