Answer supplier questions during bidding
Suppliers ask clarification questions before they bid. Answer them in one place so every supplier works from the same information and your process stays fair and comparable.
What you'll learn
- See and answer clarification questions suppliers raise on your request
- Keep every supplier bidding on the same information
- Run a fair, defensible process where no supplier has a private answer
No brief is ever perfect. However carefully you write a request, a supplier reading it closely will spot something you left implicit: does the delivery date allow for customs, is the warranty inclusive, can they bid on part of the Bill of Quantities. In a traditional process these questions arrive as scattered emails, one supplier at a time. You answer each privately, and within a day three suppliers know something the other four do not. The playing field tilts without anyone meaning to tilt it.
VEXORS keeps clarifications on the request itself. A supplier raises a question through the request, you see it, you answer it, and your answer reaches everyone bidding, not just the supplier who asked. The mechanism is deliberately simple, but it changes the economics of bidding: because every supplier works from the same answers, every bid you get back is genuinely comparable.
Why this matters
A clarification answered privately is an information advantage you handed to one supplier by accident. Answered openly, the same clarification raises the quality of every bid at once, because seven suppliers now price the same scope instead of seven slightly different interpretations of it. Shared clarifications are not just fairer, they make your final comparison trustworthy, which is the whole point of running a structured request.
How clarifications reach you
When a supplier has a question about your request, they raise it through the request's Chat. You are notified that a clarification question has been received, with the supplier's name and your request title. The notification points you to the Messages on the request, where the question is waiting for your reply.
This all happens before the submission deadline, while suppliers are still deciding whether and how to bid. A question is usually a buying signal: a supplier asking about delivery tolerances or payment terms is a supplier seriously considering a bid. Treat clarifications as part of attracting good bids, not as an interruption.
Answering a question, the right way
Open the request and find the question
From the notification, open the request and select the Chat button on the page. The supplier's question appears in the thread. Read it in the context of your full brief before you reply, since the answer becomes part of the request everyone is bidding on.
Write an answer that stands on its own
Answer plainly and completely, as if the supplier who asked will not be the only one reading it, because they will not. Avoid replying with "as discussed" or anything that assumes private context. A good clarification answer reads like a small addition to the brief itself.
If a question reveals a genuine gap in the request rather than a simple misreading, the better fix may be to amend the request so the scope itself is clearer for everyone, not only to answer in chat. See the guide on editing and amending a request.
Share it with everyone bidding
Send your answer so it reaches every invited and confirmed supplier on the request, not only the one who asked. This is the step that keeps the process fair. Once shared, no supplier holds a private answer, and your bids stay comparable because they were all priced against the same clarified information.
Answer promptly. Timely responses help suppliers submit accurate bids, and a question left hanging as the deadline approaches usually means a supplier prices in their uncertainty or walks away. If you cannot answer fully yet, say so and give a time, rather than leaving silence.
From the supplier's side, the request page has a Chat button they use to ask the buyer a clarification before committing to a bid. They understand that the buyer can answer all invited suppliers at once, so the convention is to ask anything material early. When you answer, every supplier on the request sees the same response, which tells them the brief they are bidding on is settled and shared. That visible fairness is part of why good suppliers are willing to spend time on a careful bid.
What good looks like
Clarifications are a small surface, but how you handle them shapes the quality of every bid you receive.
- Answer in the open, every time. The moment you answer one supplier privately, your comparison stops being trustworthy.
- Write each answer to stand alone. Assume a supplier who never asked the question is reading it cold, because they are.
- Watch for the question that should be an amendment. If two suppliers ask the same thing, the request itself is unclear, fix the scope, not just the thread.
- Respond before the deadline pressure builds. Early, clear answers turn into accurate bids; late silence turns into padded or missing ones.
Next steps
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