What is QBS (Quality-Based Selection)?

QBS stands for Quality-Based Selection. It is a method for choosing a consulting firm in which the ranking is based on the technical quality of the proposals alone, and price plays no part in it. Development banks reserve QBS for assignments where the quality of the work has a large effect on the outcome and the priority is to engage the best available expertise.

The borrower, the government agency running the project, advertises the assignment, draws up a shortlist of firms, and issues a request for proposals (RFP) with terms of reference (ToR). Depending on the RFP, the shortlisted firms submit a technical proposal on its own, or a technical proposal and a financial proposal together, but the price is set aside until the technical evaluation is finished.

1. The borrower advertises the assignment and invites expressions of interest (EOI).
2. Firms are assessed and a shortlist, usually a small number of firms, is drawn up.
3. The shortlisted firms receive the RFP, which states the terms of reference and the technical evaluation criteria.
4. Depending on the RFP, each firm submits a technical proposal on its own, or a technical and a financial proposal in separate sealed envelopes.
5. The technical proposals are evaluated and scored; price is not scored and takes no part in the ranking.
6. The firm with the highest technical score is ranked first.
7. That firm is invited to submit or open its financial proposal, and the borrower negotiates the contract, including staffing inputs and price, with it; if negotiations fail, the next-ranked firm may be invited.

When a bank chooses QBS, it has judged that differences in technical quality between firms will affect the result far more than differences in price. Letting a lower fee raise a weaker proposal in the ranking would put the outcome at risk, so QBS removes price from the comparison and lets quality alone decide who is selected. Cost is still controlled, but through negotiation with the chosen firm rather than through scoring.

The defining feature of QBS is that price never enters the ranking. The firm with the best technical proposal is selected first, and its fee is agreed only afterwards, in negotiation. This is the core difference from QCBS, where price is scored and can change the order.

QBS is the method banks choose for complex, specialized, or high-impact assignments, where the quality of the work has a large downstream effect and engaging the best expertise is the priority.

• Complex or highly specialized assignments where the terms of reference are hard to define precisely and the bank expects firms to propose their own approach.
• Assignments with a high downstream impact, such as feasibility studies, major engineering or structural design, master plans, and policy or sector reform studies, where a weak study is costly later.
• Assignments that can be carried out in substantially different ways, so that the proposals are not comparable on price.
• The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank both allow QBS under their consultant selection rules for situations like these.

The method closest to QBS is QCBS, and the difference between them is whether price is scored.

• QCBS (Quality- and Cost-Based Selection) scores both technical quality and price and combines them with published weights, so a lower price can move a firm up the ranking. It is the default method for most consulting assignments.
• FBS (Fixed-Budget Selection) discloses a fixed budget and selects the best technical proposal that stays within it, so quality decides among the bids that fit the budget.
• QBS scores technical quality only. Price is left out of the ranking entirely and is settled in negotiation with the top-ranked firm, which is why banks reserve it for the assignments where quality matters most.

• Put nearly all of your effort into the technical proposal, because it is the only thing that is scored.
• Show a clear methodology and, where the RFP invites it, propose your own approach and improvements to the terms of reference.
• Field the strongest available experts and match their CVs directly to the evaluation criteria, since the quality of the proposed team weighs heavily.
• Do not try to win on price; a low fee cannot lift a weaker technical proposal, and the fee is agreed later in negotiation.
• Still prepare the financial proposal with care, because you will negotiate it once you are ranked first, and submit it exactly as the RFP directs.

Silka records the procurement method for each opportunity and gives your team a preparation checklist matched to it, so a QBS bid is built around its technical evaluation from the start.