If you’re shopping around for new commercial landscaping services, particularly on a national level, there’s a good chance you’ll have to submit a request for proposal (RFP). An RFP offers your company a chance to hire the best vendor available. Since commercial landscaping projects involve a long list of requirements (mowing the grass, irrigation, tree trimming, flower and plant bed maintenance, and more), submitting an RFP helps clarify your needs to the supplier so they can properly bid on the project. By providing a detailed account of what your needs are and how you expect them to be met, you’ll save a lot of time, money, and headaches down the road.

Elements of an RFP for commercial landscaping

You want to write a comprehensive RFP that covers every aspect of your needs. To do so, consider structuring your RFP as follows.

1. Company background

First, you’ll want to provide an overview of your company. It will help the landscaping company better understand your organization. Just like a job interview, you want to make sure you hire a company that fits in well with your organization’s overall goals and mission.

2. Scope of work

Evaluate your property (or all of your properties if you’re looking to sign up for a national plan) to determine what needs to be done. This will be your scope of work. The list will most likely be long and include everything from mowing grass to pruning to leaf and snow removal. You’ll need to be as detailed as possible to give the landscaping suppliers who are bidding on the project a full picture so they can provide an appropriate quote.

3. Schedule property surveys

To keep things organized and prevent property managers from scrambling through their daily schedules, you’ll want to set a specific timeframe for the bidders to tour your property. This gives the suppliers a chance to fully understand the scope of work involved, as well as suggest additional services that you may have overlooked but need. Give a window of 2-3 days so the companies bidding can fit it into their schedule.

4. Terms & conditions

In this section, you’ll want to lay out the details of how long you want the contract to last, proper documentation for any licenses the supplier needs, and insurance requirements. The last thing you want to do is hire a landscaping service that isn’t properly insured. That could cause major problems down the road.

5. Request references

Make sure you have the landscaping service provide at least three references to double-check the prospective company’s level of service.

6. Provide a timeline for evaluation

Lay out the process you will use to determine which commercial landscaping service you end up choosing. This signals to the them that you are in control and know what you’re doing, but be aware that they might provide useful feedback that will change the RFP. Provide detailed information about what goes into the decision-making process and how much each part plays a role. For example, the scope of work could be 25% of the final decision made, while the cost is 50%.