Pricing takes more internal work to prepare than any other part of a cooperative proposal. A cooperative invitation asks for prices in a defined format, and member agencies order against those prices for the life of the contract. A vendor has to build the pricing file in that format, using current costs and current product data, before the deadline.

The two pricing formats

Most Texas cooperative invitations use one of two formats, and some use both in the same packet:

  • Catalog pricing. The vendor submits a catalog or price list and offers a discount percentage off that list, stated by category and, in some invitations, by product line.
  • Line-item pricing. The vendor prices each item the cooperative names, one row per item, in the spreadsheet or table the invitation provides. Each row carries the item description, the unit, and the vendor price for that unit.
  • A mix of both. A vendor prices named items line by line and offers the rest of its catalog at a stated discount. The invitation defines which items fall in each group.

The format is set by the invitation. A pricing section filed in the wrong format cannot be compared against the other proposals at evaluation.

What a catalog submission requires

A catalog submission starts with a current price list. Staff confirm that every product in the list is still sold, that list prices match the prices the company actually publishes, and that discontinued items are removed. Some invitations set the file format: BuyBoard pricing files, for example, call for columns that identify the item, its description, its unit, its list price, and the discounted cooperative price.

The discount needs to be one the company can hold for the contract term. Cooperative contracts commonly run for a year with renewal options, and the awarded discount applies to orders across that period. A discount built on old cost figures can leave the vendor selling below margin for months, and price is a scored factor at evaluation in most invitations.

Line-item pricing and the details that matter

Line-item pricing requires attention to the unit in each row. A price entered per case where the row asks for a price per each produces an order total that is wrong by a factor equal to the case count. Freight, delivery, installation, and service charges belong where the invitation places them: some invitations require them inside the item price, and others provide separate rows for them. Evaluators score the file as submitted.

Vendors also match each priced item to the specification in the invitation. When the named product has been replaced by a newer model, the vendor prices the current model and notes the substitution where the format allows it.

The internal work behind the pricing file

Pricing work consumes staff hours inside the vendor company on every cycle. Sales and operations staff pull current costs from suppliers, confirm list prices, check which items are still available, and rebuild the file in the cooperative format. That work has a shelf life: supplier price changes, discontinued products, and revised freight rates make a pricing file stale within months, so a file built for one invitation usually needs substantial rework before the next one opens.

What Tejas Cooperative Partners does

Tejas Cooperative Partners builds the pricing section of a client proposal from the client's current price data. The firm reads the invitation pricing format, maps the catalog or line items into the required file structure, checks units and charge placement, and flags stale prices and discontinued items for the client to resolve before filing. The firm also records the submitted pricing so the next cycle starts from the filed version.

Tejas Cooperative Partners is an independent consulting firm. It is not a cooperative, it is not affiliated with BuyBoard, TASB, or TIPS, and it guarantees no award and no sales level.