You know the drill—every few years you review a specific category, dig into pricing, reach out to stakeholders concerning service levels, and dust off an old Excel template in preparation for an RFP. You then send it to your list of pest control suppliers.

RIP inbox.

Undoubtedly, this process consumes a significant portion of your time over the ensuing months—time that could be better spent managing other spend categories you likely oversee.

At the end of this arduous process, you may find that the identified savings, if any, do not justify the effort required to transition to a new supplier.

The good news is there’s a better, more effective approach—one that will likely give you an improved program with significant savings, often without even a supplier change.

Here are the five keys to getting the best pest program at the best price:

1. 1. Perform a comprehensive review of your current program

This is critical: Understanding the current pest control program is key to determining what’s working and what’s not. The pest control industry uses handheld devices and proprietary software to record key service data; this data is critical to evaluating the effectiveness and value of your current program. Drilling down to the site level often illuminates potential service risks or savings opportunities per individual site, while in contrast, aggregating the data can often help draft a scope of work unique to your business.

1. 2. Take an active role in the design of your specific scope of work

Your business is unique and may have elements that only you would know. Sending out an RFP with a scope of work that someone copied and pasted from a similar business may create gaps in service that could put your organization at risk and may prevent your supplier from meeting your desired goals.

1. 3. Evaluate your current supplier's performance before you even consider an RFP

You have the data, so before you go to market with an RFP, review all the data related to your current supplier over the entire previous term. These providers can supply you with all kinds of information that can help you understand how they are performing. A deep dive into this historical data will help you better understand your pest control program’s weaknesses and give you some powerful insights into areas that could be improved.

1. 4. Think outside the box if you're looking for cost savings

While some industries have specific third-party requirements that must be baked into the scope of work, there are still plenty of opportunities to review the current program and adjust based on the target pests associated with your specific industry. The number of rodent control devices is a good place to start and may be the first opportunity to streamline the program and capture some savings. Seasonal service items like fly control and exterior power sprays are another. These types of services should take place based on the biology of the target pest and according to the weather patterns that are unique to each site—not just because the provider wants to create a recurring service item on your bill.

1. 5. Target your RFP to a short list of viable suppliers

The old way of Google searching “Pest Control” and sending everyone an RFP guarantees one thing: A flooded inbox full of supplier responses, many of which you’ve never heard of. The challenge for you is vetting their capabilities and weeding out those that don’t qualify. The fact is, even with national suppliers, many of them are stronger in specific industries and certain markets of the US—and that knowledge is critical to ensure the supplier is able to meet your specific needs before making that final selection.

So before your team even considers kick-starting a pest control RFP process, think about alternative options that likely will yield more savings than the RFP, ensure your sites are set up with a program that meets their needs, and free you up to focus on all other categories in your portfolio!