How to write an RFP for outsourced door-to-door fiber sales (template and scoring sheet)

This RFP hires a vendor whose reps stand on porches in your homes passed wearing your brand, collect personal data, and bill you per activated account. It specifies three things a marketing RFP skips: compliance exhibits, a per-sale reporting file, and a procedure for checking invoices against your install report.

Section 1: Scope, territory, and timeline

Territory definition

• Attach the serviceable-address file per market: homes passed, current subscribers, release date per construction phase.
• State whether reps pre-register unreleased addresses and who owns those records.
• Name the do-not-knock sources you supply (customer opt-outs, municipal registries, HOA rules) and the refresh cadence.

Crew size and ramp

• Ask for reps in the field by week for the first 12 weeks, the manager-to-rep ratio, and median rep tenure today.
• Ask what happens when a market saturates: redeploy, reduce, or exit, on how many days' notice.
• Ask how fast the vendor pays its reps: in Everee's Q3 2021 survey of 693 commissioned salespeople, 67% rated 24-hour commission pay 7 or higher out of 10 as a long-term employment factor and 41% waited 30 days or more to be paid (Everee).

The offer and the script

• List the plans, promotions, and install windows reps may quote; require written approval of every script and leave-behind before the first knock.

Section 2: Pricing model

Have every bidder price one scenario (one market, 12-week ramp, one offer) in its proposed model plus a per-activation equivalent; commission triggers at activation. Sale, install, activation, and cleared-of-chargeback are separate events (how dealers get paid), and D2DHQ, a commission software vendor, reports most ISPs enforce a clawback window of 30, 60, or 90 days from install.

Section 3: Compliance exhibits

Exhibit A: Permits matrix

• One row per municipality: permit type (solicitor, peddler, transient merchant), company-level or per-rep, fee, processing time, solicitation hours, bond, and which party applies and pays.
• Require rows for your actual cities; a generic row scores 1.

Exhibit B: Badge specification

• Rep name and photo, the vendor's legal name, your mark with the words "authorized contractor", a badge number, a phone number or URL that verifies the rep in under a minute, and badge recovery when a rep leaves.

Exhibit C: Background-check standard

• Name the searches (county and federal criminal, national sex-offender registry, motor vehicle record for reps who drive), lookback period, adjudication criteria, and re-check interval.
• Require the four FCRA employment-screening steps (FTC) for every rep regardless of classification: stand-alone written disclosure, written authorization, pre-adverse-action notice with the report and A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and an adverse-action notice naming the reporting agency.

Exhibit D: Customer data and CPNI

• CPNI rules bind telecommunications carriers, including interconnected VoIP providers (47 CFR 64.2003): train personnel on CPNI use, keep an express disciplinary process, retain marketing-campaign records one year, supervise outbound marketing, and file an officer's certification by March 1 (47 CFR 64.2009).
• Broadband-only service is outside Title II; the Sixth Circuit set aside the FCC's 2024 Safeguarding Order on January 2, 2025. If you sell voice, these duties reach the vendor's reps; otherwise impose CPNI-grade handling by contract with a training attestation and confidentiality agreement per rep.

Exhibit E: Cancellation notice

• The FTC Cooling-Off Rule covers consumer goods or services sold at the buyer's residence for $25 or more; its exemption list omits telecommunications (16 CFR 429.0). Where it applies, the seller gives two copies of a cancellation notice, states the right orally, prints it in 10-point bold beside the signature line, and refunds within 10 business days (16 CFR 429.1).
• Counsel decides whether your order flow triggers it; the RFP asks whether the vendor's order tool can deliver the notice and capture acknowledgement.

Exhibit F: Insurance schedule

• General liability, commercial auto with hired and non-owned coverage, workers' compensation or the state exemption certificate for a 1099 crew, and cyber liability if the vendor's app stores customer data. $1M per occurrence and $2M aggregate is the common general liability floor [industry figure, unverified].
• Certificate naming you as additional insured before the first knock, with 30 days' notice of cancellation.

Section 4: The reporting fields

Ask for a daily file in this shape; a dashboard screenshot cannot be checked against your install report. Unmatched sales usually trace to address formatting ("Apt 2" at the door, "#2" in billing) [field experience].

Add weekly rollups by rep and market (knocks, contacts, sales, installs, activations, chargebacks) and a complaint log with 24-hour notice.

Section 5: Reconciliation and disputes

• Invoices issue monthly, after you confirm each line's activation against the daily file.
• You have 15 business days to dispute a line; held lines carry the account number your system assigns and a reason code.
• Chargebacks debit the next invoice against that account number, on the window and method in the pricing exhibit.
• Fraud (fabricated orders, forged acknowledgements, a sale at an address the knock log never visited) means a 100% chargeback, rep removal, and an incident report within 5 business days.
• Either party may audit engagement records on 10 business days' notice.

Section 6: References, transition, and exit

• Three ISP references with homes passed, dates, and permission to ask about chargeback rates and complaint counts.
• Termination for convenience on 30 days' notice, what returns at exit (door-knock data, badges, pending orders), and non-solicitation of your subscribers through the chargeback window.
• Rep classification (W-2 or 1099), the vendor's written commission agreement with its reps, and an indemnity for misclassification claims.

The scoring sheet

Publish the weights in the RFP. Score each criterion 1 to 5 and multiply by the weight; weights sum to 100.

Red flags in responses

• A per-signed-order price with no activation data from prior deployments.
• No sample daily file, or one without your account number on each line.
• Rep pay described as "competitive", with no cadence or chargeback pass-through disclosed.

Run the fiber take rate calculator before you read bids: it charts four years of penetration, revenue, and cumulative acquisition spend for door-to-door beside your other channels, from your own numbers. Read Section 2 bids against that chart.