How to Know If an RFP Is a Go or No-Go

Free RFP Go/No-Go Checklist — Inside The Public Health Club. Download at https://www.publichealthclub.com/

Free Skills Translation Guide — From Day 1. Translate your PH skills into consulting language. Inside PHC at https://www.publichealthclub.com/

Digital Portfolio Workshop — Learn to build a portfolio that gets you hired. Inside PHC at https://www.publichealthclub.com/

Public Health Consulting 101 — Free live workshop, June 16 + June 17. Register at https://www.publichealthclub.com/publ...

Subcontracting to Six Figures (S26F) — Dr. Des's six-week course for landing your first contract. https://www.publichealthclub.com/course

Not every RFP deserves a proposal. In Day 2 of Public Health Consulting Week, Dr. Des walks through the exact questions to ask before you invest time writing a submission — from whether you actually have the expertise to whether the budget is even worth your time. She also covers when and how to partner with colleagues on larger contracts, and why vetting your partners is just as important as vetting the opportunity itself.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

The difference between "can I do this" and "can I prove I've done this" — and why it matters
Why public health consultants need at least five years of direct experience before pursuing contracts
How to evaluate whether the client type matches your background
What to do when the budget doesn't match the scope of work
How to assess whether the timeline is realistic before you commit
How to partner with colleagues on contracts — and how to vet them first

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you decide if an RFP is worth responding to?
Run it through four questions: Does it fit your expertise? Can you prove you've done this work before? Does the budget match the scope? Does the timeline work? If you're thinking "I could probably figure this out" — that's a no-go. Clients hire consultants to come in and lead. They don't have time to train you.

How much public health experience do you need before consulting?
At minimum, five years of direct public health work — not school, not occasional volunteering. Consulting clients are paying for expertise they can deploy immediately. They need you to come in, do the work, and deliver. Less than five years makes it hard to demonstrate that level of independence.

Is it okay to partner with a colleague on a consulting contract?
Yes — partnering is one of the best ways to go after larger contracts. But vet your partner the way you'd vet a hire. If they're working under your business, your name and reputation are on the line. Meet with them, assess their work, and confirm they can deliver before you attach your name to a joint proposal.

About The Dr. Des Show
The Dr. Des Show is the go-to podcast for public health career development, consulting, and entrepreneurship. Hosted by Dr. Desiree "Dr. Des" Strickland — DrPH, public health CEO, and founder of The Public Health Club.

https://www.drdesshow.com/

https://www.publichealthclub.com/

Transcript

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Day two public health consulting week, y'all. Listen again, if you don't know, public health consulting week, we are in prep and leading up to next week's public health consulting one-on-one workshop. If you have not registered and you are a club member or you're just interested in public health entrepreneurship or consulting, what's going on? What is going on, my friends? Okay. If you're on Instagram watching this, comment consultant and I'll send you the link to register. If you are in the club and you have not RSVP, head on over to our live events and workshop space and put your RSVP in and show up live and hang out with me, okay? Because if you're trying to land those contracts that you see in the RFP list, I got you. All right. We are live and we are it's gonna be a good time, okay? So uh this is all leading up to that workshop and then also the launch of our subcontract in the six figures course. Some of y'all may have heard about it. If you have never heard about subcontract in the six figures, that is my course where I have helped so many public health professionals land five and six figure contracts. Y'all, so many have landed all of these contracts. Like, I'm talking about money, baby. Money on the side. So here's the thing: if you are willing to put into the work and you are willing to do the things to get you there, it is not that hard. You just need somebody to hold your hand and guide you to it, right? My first contract was $40,000 from CDC Foundation to do a public health, um, health equity focused trainings for their overdose response strategy initiative. Then next contract, $7,000 with NateO. Next contract, $85,000 with Asto. Like, and it just kept going from there, right? Contract after contract after contract, all on the side of my full-time job. So I'm telling you that this is possible because not only have I done it, but I've also helped other people do it, and I'm ready to help you too. Now, day two, you know, we're getting into some strategy today. So, what are we talking about? We are talking about RFPs, and how do you know if an RFP is a go or a no-go? Okay, because listen, if you don't know what an RFP is, RFP is a request for proposal. It's basically how an organization says, Hey, I'm trying to hire a consultant or a consulting agency to come through and do some work for me, right? And basically, they write it up and then you have to submit a proposal for them. And they read your proposal, and if they like you, they may interview you or they may offer you the contract straight out. I've had situations where I got interviewed, and then I've had situations where they just awarded me the contract straight out. And I was shocked when I just got the contract off of just the proposal. I was like, Oh, y'all don't even want to talk to me first. Say less. Let's go, right? So we're gonna talk about how do you know if it's a go or no go, right? Number one, as you are looking through these RFPs, I want you to first determine does it fit your expertise? Okay. I see so many people and you're looking at contracts and you're thinking, like, oh, well, I can do this, but that's not the question. The question is isn't can you do this? The question is, have you done this before? And can you prove to somebody that you have done this before and you have done it to an expert capability? Now, all I say is that as a consultant as your star, now you need at minimum five years of direct public health experience. Now, not school experience, not um just oh, like I volunteered here and there, like no, direct public health experience. And I say that because as a consultant, they want you there for a good time, not a long time. What does that mean, Dr. Des? That means that they need you to come in, do this work, and get out. And they're trying to give you the money, they're trying to give you the bag, they're trying to give you that 85k. You come in, do the work, and you get on out of there, right? That is what that means. So they don't have time to train you, they don't have time to handhold you, they don't have time for, oh, maybe you can do this. No, they need to know you are expert and you can do this and you can lead it independently, right? Because this is not a job, okay. I want to make sure clear, I am not talking about a job, I'm talking about consulting, I'm talking about entrepreneurship and public health, right? So that is the first thing. Identify what your niche is. And if you're not sure, like how to identify your niche, day three, we are talking all about your niche. Join us live, right? All right, so that is the first part. Number two is going to be basically what I just said. Do you actually have the expertise expertise and can you prove it? All right, my friend. Do you have the expertise and can you actually prove to them that you have it, right? That is going to be the next thing. And sometimes you can do that with a digital portfolio. Now, if you're in the public health club, take the digital portfolio workshop because it is in there where you can learn how to build a digital portfolio for clients as well as for your career if you're trying to get a job, right? Um, then the next thing is we have to think about who the client is, right? And what I mean by who the client is, I mean that we have to think about is this client a nonprofit? What we talked about yesterday, right? The different types of client is this client a nonprofit? Is it a department of health? Is it a private organization? Is it a hospital? Like, who is the actual client? Do you have expertise working with this client? Have you worked with this type of client before? And even if you have not worked with the type of client before, that is completely fine. You just have to make sure you're speaking that language. So if you have not gotten into the club and downloaded the free guide that I dropped yesterday on how to translate your current public health skills into consulting language, my friend, what are you doing? What are we doing here? Right? I want you to go ahead and download that guide. And also, I got another free guide coming for you today for my club members exclusively. So if you're not in the club, get in the club. This is your sign. Y'all have been having so many signs, but guess this is the sign, right? So I think that you need to make sure that you know how to translate your skills. Now, for example, two of my past um subcontract and the six-figure students, Jamie and Proni, I love bringing them up as an example because they are amazing and they are great examples of what you can do if you truly want this, right? Like they're working, they have jobs, like Jamie was getting her doctorate, like, and they landed a $67,000 contract to do a strategic plan for a library. Y'all, when I tell you our public health skills are transferable, that is what I mean. That is the golden example of our public health skills are transferable. They want a $67,000 contract to do a strategic plan for a library. If you've ever done a strategic plan before, if you if you've ever been part of a strategic plan, then listen, you will know that that is skills that people need, okay? That is something like literally developing goals, objectives, doing facilitation, maybe you're doing some SWOT analysis with them, all of that stuff to make sure they got a good, like, strategic plan together. If you've ever done that before, that is one of the most in-demand consulting opportunities inside the public health club. And you are not landing those contracts. I don't know why you're not in there. But okay, that is the next thing, right? Understand who your audience is. Go download that um skills translation guide that I dropped yesterday, and let's go. All right. Next is, and I'm looking at my notes here so I can make sure I stay online on topic, right? Next is does the budget match the work? Y'all, we will see our fees and they try it. They be trying it, right? They be trying it. So I've seen one for like a strategic plan, and they wanted to pay you like $5,000 to do a strategic plan. Now that could work if it's like very low lift, but majority of the time, if they want you to like come in, do the facilitation, analyze all the data, do a whole strategic plan and retreat, come for like two days with them, facilitate their retreat, then develop their goals and object $5,000. Get off my desk. But no, like seriously though, honestly, though, like it could work for some people, especially if you're like just getting started out and you're like, you know, I I need to really establish myself and I need a client and I want a client review. Do it, right? Maybe if it aligns and if you could make it work, but um, yeah, you could potentially do it and you could offer them like a lower package. You could say, okay, well, um, I may not be able to come in person unless you know you pay for all of my travel, um, and I'm just gonna do this pre-assessment with you, like I'm gonna send this out to you and you facilitate getting the survey results. Like, you can do things like that to make it less on you, but you have to consider the budget. Does the budget match the scope of work? That is another thing that I want you to look at, all right? And does the timeline work is the next thing. Does the actual timeline work for you, right? To get the work done. If they say I need an evaluation in a week, from who? From who, my friend? You do if you want a good one, you need to give me a little more in a week, right? So those are things that I want you to think about as you're looking at these RFPs. Another thing that I want you to think about when you're thinking about your expertise and your experience, also think about one of the beautiful things in public health consulting and entrepreneurship, you can partner with your colleagues. Hey, bestie, come on, let's leverage our skills together and let's go after this contract, right? Now, the caveat is when you're partnering with people, I need you to know their skills. I need you to know how they work. Why? Because if they're partnering under your business, they are your responsibility. Your business is on the line, your name and your reputation is on the line because you partner with this person, right? And if you partner with somebody you don't know or you don't trust, or they can't really do the work, you're gonna be out here looking crazy, right? On Thursday, we're actually our strategy is actually gonna be talking about how do you actually vet partners? Hey, stay with me, I'll take it fast. We're gonna get through that, right? So, but I'm just saying, right, like you have to think about this, right? If you are trying to get somebody to partner with you, that is like you need a job application essentially for them. Because it's a job, right? And you want to vet them, you want to interview them to make sure they're a good fit. Don't just say, Oh, it looks like you got the skills, let's apply. No, you need to meet with them to make sure they're going to be a good fit for what you want. And if they are not a good fit, thank you, but you know, I'll let you know. That's okay. I'll let you know. I thank you, but it's not the you might not be the right fit for what we're looking for right now. I'll keep you in mind later, right? If you don't want to be too mean, right? But it's not mean it's business, okay? And your business is on the line here, and you want to make sure you put together a strong application because if you don't put together a strong application, you are wasting your time and you're wasting their time. I don't like time wasted, don't waste my time, I won't waste yours, right? So that is my strategy for today. Now, of course, we got a little free RFP go slash no go checklist for you, right? Based on this, right? It's free, it's inside the public health club. Join the public health club today and you get access to this checklist. Okay, my friend. It is there for my club members. Go ahead and download that, start vetting opportunities, all right? Now, I'll see y'all tomorrow. If you have not signed up for public health consulting one-on-one, what are you doing? What are we doing? Like maybe you took the you see you watched a replay from before. Listen, we're doing it up even bigger and better. Y'all already know them trainings. We be in there. It's live, it's gonna be amazing. Come join. If you're thinking about subcontracting the six figures, listen, it's about to be open. If you're not thinking about it, you're not in that space, and you're like Dr. Dais. I don't know. Join because the best time to start a public health business is when you are still employed. That is the best time. Why? Because now you have money still flowing, right? You have money still flowing, and you can fund your business with your salary, right? We have to start somewhere and go. And if you want to go fast, you go together with somebody. If you want to go fast, you go at Dada Dez. So, alright, y'all. I'ma see you tomorrow for day three of public health consulting week. Drop in the drop in the comments below what y'all thought, what y'all thought about this strategy, and let's go. Download the guide inside the community, it is right there, it is free for you. And let's go, y'all. All right, see you tomorrow. Bye.