Five acronyms, five different asks. Knowing which one you're holding tells you what the agency actually wants — and how much work the response really is.
Government procurement runs on a small family of solicitation types. They look similar on the cover page, but each one signals a different stage of buying and a different kind of response. Here's the practical version.
| Type | What it is | What a response requires |
|---|---|---|
| RFI | Request for Information. Early-stage market research — the agency is learning what's possible and who's out there. | Capabilities, not a priced offer. Often shapes the RFP that follows. |
| RFQ | Request for Quote (or Quotation). Used when the requirement is well-defined and price is the main variable. | Pricing against a clear spec, plus basic qualifications. |
| ITB / IFB | Invitation to Bid / Invitation for Bid. A sealed-bid process for well-defined goods or services. | A responsive, compliant bid — typically awarded to the lowest responsible bidder. |
| RFP | Request for Proposal. Used when the agency wants the best overall solution, not just the lowest price. | A full technical narrative plus price, scored on weighted evaluation criteria. |
| ITN | Invitation to Negotiate. A Florida-favored type that lets the agency negotiate terms with short-listed vendors. | A proposal that gets you to the negotiation table, then iterative refinement. |
The type sets the workload. An RFQ or ITB is largely a compliance-and-price exercise. An RFP or ITN is where the real writing lives — narrative sections that ask you to describe your approach, demonstrate relevant experience, and show you understand the agency's problem — all scored against a published evaluation matrix, and all wrapped around mandatory return forms and pass/fail gates.
That narrative-plus-forms RFP/ITN pattern is exactly what RFP Pilot is built for: it extracts every requirement and return form, surfaces the pass/fail gates, and drafts the narrative sections from your own past work — grounded, never fabricated.
Watch the return forms and the buried mandatory items. Across real solicitations, the most common way a strong firm loses is not a weak narrative — it's a missed pass/fail requirement (a bond threshold, an affidavit, a proof of authority) stated once, deep in the boilerplate. Extract the whole requirement set first; write second.
The AI proposal tool built for state & local government and disaster-recovery responders. Grounded in your record — never fabricated.