How to Stop Working for Free

Lesson 3—Sending Out the “Winning RFI”

Welcome back. In Lesson 2, you realized that you needed to send out an RFI in order to protect your position. And you also realized that it is critical to send out only “Winning RFIs”. So, how do we do that? That’s the subject for today.

There’s an old saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” And it’s true. So in order to help you out, I’m going to be sending you a picture of a sample “Winning RFI”. But before I send it, I have to give you some guidance and offer some disclaimers. You see, the RFI is a simple concept. I mean, how complex is the thought, “Hey, I need some more info so that I can go on.” Not too complex, right?

But there’s a lot of thought that goes into the whole idea of why we do RFIs, at all. And I’m afraid that, if you just look at a sample and try to do one for your own needs, without understanding a bit of what is behind the RFI, you might get yourself into trouble. Or just as bad, not accomplish what you need, and have it cost you money you shouldn’t have to spend. So let’s take one more lesson and discuss the “philosophy” behind the RFI. Then we’ll take a peek at the RFI form.

Briefly, the RFI is a document that puts your client on notice that something has changed and that it is about to impact the project. The reason you send out the RFI is this, in almost every case: the project documents require it!

If you inspect the project documents for most work, they will require you, as the contractor, to notify your client of possible changes to the work, once these changes become evident to you. And these same documents prohibit you from physically performing the work until you are directed—in writing—by your client, to proceed with the work. They will very often say something to this effect: “If the contractor proceeds with the work without being authorized first in writing, he is doing so at his own expense.”

Now, that’s not an exact quote, but it is a very accurate look at what most documents have to say about possible extra work on their projects. The funny thing is, when it is in the best interests of the project owner, or your client, to ignore this rule, they will often ignore it! They’ll get all over you about not delaying the project. Fix it now and we’ll work it out later. Make the pain go away! That sort of thing. You’ve heard it all.

Very quickly now, I’ll give you a summary of the most important points. You should, however, go to www.FullContactTeam.com, and arrange to get the book on the subject, because it is not fair to you to gloss over this stuff. But keep these in mind:

  1. Each problem that comes up should be treated as an issue—a separate issue. This means that you never, ever, ever combine two or more issues on a single RFI. NEVER! Don’t even think about it—not for a second. Any problem important enough to be brought before your client needs to be treated separately. By the way, this also goes for letters and e-mails, as well: one issue per document. Read up on the subject to find out why this is so important.
  2. Single issues are easier to deal with. Once everyone agrees on how that one thing can be done, the issue can be closed out. How much better and cleaner is that than to have a different RFI with two issues in it only be halfway closed out? This is how the construction world operates, and you would be wise to adopt it.
  3. When you send an RFI, ask for a response. If you need the answer tomorrow, just say “tomorrow” on the RFI, even if the specs tell you that the architect has three weeks to answer. Your job is to raise a red flag, make everyone aware that there is a problem out there that needs resolving.
  4. Let your client realize that the lack of this information can delay the project.
  5. Do not offer a suggestion yourself. I realize that you probably know what to do, but if you suggest something, and it doesn’t work out, who do you think your client will look to? My preference: let him look to the architect or engineer!
  6. Remind your client that this problem has potential time and money consequences.
  7. Always ask your client how you are to proceed. This is when you establish how this extra work is being paid. This is when you have the most leverage. This is when your client is most likely to agree with you that the work is extra.
  8. Remember that the clock is ticking for your client. If you say that you need the answer in one day, and your client takes one week, then you can probably ask for additional days to get the work done. Don’t think that this is important? Well, it just might keep you from getting assessed “LDs” (liquidated damages). And with some LD clauses in your contracts running hundreds or thousands of dollars per day, it’s helpful to sometimes remind your client that he was several days late with his answer, and that caused his delay.

Look: these several points just deal with the tip of the RFI iceberg. There’s a lot to this subject—more than I can give you in this short lesson. Do yourself a favor and research this in detail. I suggest my book, “Get Paid for a Change!”, which is subtitled, “The Contractor’s Blueprint for Turning Extra Work into Extra Money—Through Change Orders”. You can get  the book by going to www.FullContactTeam.com.

And when you begin to get serious, you’ll also want access to the Full Contact Team, the private Website where you get ALL the inside scoop on how to deal with the issues that good PMs need to overcome if they are going to be successful with their projects, companies and their careers. More on that at the Blog page, as well.

That’s it for today. See you next time for Lesson 4 when we’ll start off with an actual RFI that you just might want to use as your own template.

Copyright 2009 Gary Micheloni

www.FullContactteam.com