Best Practice
By the time an economic development team submits a request for information response, it may have spent days gathering answers from utilities, property owners and public agencies.
On the receiving end, the site selector opens another file.
That difference in perspective should shape the entire submission. The community knows how much effort went into its response. The consultant needs to determine what the answers mean for the project—and compare them with dozens of alternatives.
Devin Hillsdon-Smith, founder and principal consultant of Hyphen Strategies, says a medium to large search in his practice can begin with roughly 100 to 110 communities.
His advice to the teams responding is direct: “Make it as easy on the consultant as possible to process your data.”
Answer where the question is asked
Use the requested format and units. Put the answer in the field provided. Where explanation is necessary, make the qualification clear and direct the reader to the supporting attachment.
A consultant should be able to find the answer without reconstructing it from a brochure, an email and a map.
This is particularly important when the distinction changes whether the site meets a requirement. Total acreage and usable acreage answer different questions. Existing utility capacity and capacity dependent on future improvements represent different development conditions.
Preserve those distinctions in the response. A superficially favorable number creates more work if the consultant has to discover what it excludes.
Before submission, have someone who did not assemble the package read it against the original request. Can that person locate each answer, understand its limitations and find the evidence behind it?
Give an unresolved answer a next step
Hillsdon-Smith warns that consequential blanks, “unknowns” and “TBDs” can lead to early elimination.
Where an answer remains unresolved, explain what is being verified, who is responsible and when an update is expected. That will not overcome a requirement the site cannot meet, but it gives the consultant something concrete to assess.
Ask for clarification promptly when a question is ambiguous. Waiting until the deadline can turn an answerable question into a gap in the submission.
The objective is a response whose facts and qualifications can withstand follow-up. Optimism has little value if the next call produces a different answer.
Build a package that can travel
Economic developers also need to understand where their information goes after the consultant reviews it.
Hillsdon-Smith describes a corporate process that may move through management, review committees, senior executives and, for a consequential investment, the board. The consultant helps inform that process; the company makes the final decision.
The community’s case therefore needs to remain understandable as it passes between people who were not present for the original conversation.
Keep assumptions with the figures they qualify. Identify the source and date of material information. Use attachment names that tell the next reader what the document contains. Check that the response and its supporting documents agree.
These are practical ways to reduce the work required to carry a credible location forward.
Hillsdon-Smith says responses that disregard instructions can create an early expectation of friction. A well-organized submission gives the consultant evidence of the opposite: a community that understands the assignment, coordinates its partners and delivers usable answers.
The RFI is an opportunity to demonstrate how the economic development team will perform when the project becomes more demanding.