Request for Qualifications (RFQ)
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A Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is a pre-screening solicitation that asks AEC firms to demonstrate their qualifications before being invited to submit a full proposal — evaluating experience, key personnel, and past project relevance without yet requesting a project approach or fee.
How an RFQ Differs from an RFP
An RFQ asks one question: is this firm qualified? Where a Request for Proposals (RFP) requires a project approach, team plan, and often a fee, an RFQ is narrower — typically requesting a firm overview, relevant project experience with scope and delivery details, key personnel qualifications, and evidence of past performance in comparable contexts. In public procurement, RFQs establish a shortlist of pre-qualified firms who then receive the full solicitation. In federal and state DOT markets, the RFQ stage determines which firms even see the RFP. Getting shortlisted through an RFQ is the prerequisite to competing, not just a warm-up round.
What Evaluators Are Actually Scoring
Despite the shorter format, RFQs are competitive submissions. Selection committees score the same fundamentals they score in any pursuit: relevant experience, team depth, and confidence that this firm can execute the specific project type. The difference is that firms have less room to tell a story — there's no narrative approach section, no project understanding, no differentiating angle on scope. That compression makes project selection critical. A firm with forty comparable projects that leads with the wrong three will score below a competitor with ten that leads with the right one. Qualification-based selection demands precision, not volume.
Why RFQ Response Quality Matters More Than Most Teams Think
Many teams treat RFQs as a lighter lift — fewer pages, faster to assemble, lower stakes. That framing is backward. An RFQ determines whether the firm gets to compete at all; a weak submission ends the pursuit before the proposal stage begins. Teams that build RFQ responses quickly and accurately depend on having current, structured project data: scope, contract value, delivery dates, client contacts, and accurate personnel assignments. Kantiv structures this institutional knowledge — pulling verified project profiles and personnel records — so pursuit teams can build a targeted, competitive SOQ without spending days chasing project managers for numbers that should already be on file.
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