If you’re wondering how to improve your RFP win rate, it’s likely that you’re on your fourth cup of coffee, staring at a 200-page RFP and wondering if it’s too late to switch careers.
Sounds familiar?
You’ve probably responded to countless RFPs. Win some, lose some. But you’d like to reassure your team that you have a good chance of winning this one.
Right now, however, you’ve got 200 pages of mind-numbing legalese to read. Someone has already started their response shell, and they’ve mispelled the issuer’s name. Two people are complaining they don’t have time to work on their response sections, and your boss wants to know what potential profit margin you can expect if – when – you win it.
Sound familiar? We’ve all been there.
Well, that frantic, reactive scramble is never how you win. If you really want to improve your RFP win rate, you need to take a breath and think strategically. Not just about the proposal you’re writing right now, but about the whole pursuit from start to finish.
Grab a coffee or make a fresh pot (you’ll need it). Let’s walk through this together. I’ve been managing and writing RFPs for over 20 years. Here’s my experience to help you improve your win rate.
Prepare Before You Begin the Response Document
One of the most common reasons organizations lose RFPs is that they respond to everything, regardless of whether they’re a good fit for the work. They see dollar signs, get excited, hit submit, and then wonder why they keep losing. The reason they keep losing is that they weren’t a great fit for the work in the first place.
Before you start your response document, the RFP team at your company should sit down and review the RFP together. Consider the following questions and compare them to the issuer’s document.
- Can you do this work well? Not just “can we do this,” but “can we do it well? Are we the best at this?”
- Is this our ideal client? Industry, size, geography, contract type, and budget range. Ask yourself if the issuer would be a good fit with your organization. Do they match your ideal client profile? (Hint: If you don’t have an ideal client profile or persona, you need to take another step back. We can help you with this.)
- What is the proof that you can do the work? Case studies, measurable outcomes, client testimonials, and references are important proof points in an RFP response. If you don’t have these documented yet, building that library is job one.
- What makes you different? And no, “we’re customer-focused and results-driven” does not count. Every company says that. Every single one. What actually sets you apart in a way that a buyer can verify and that a competitor can’t easily copy?
Developing what’s called a rubric, or guidelines, for choosing your RFP is work you should do before responding to any RFP. You need to know what to consider and what to pass on. This step can improve your RFP win rate because you’ll stop chasing every opportunity and, instead, pursue the ones that you have a better chance of winning.
Know When to Pass on Opportunities
Every time you bid on an RFP you shouldn’t be bidding on, you’re wasting money. Your team is spending hours on something that doesn’t pay off. That time could be going toward opportunities where you actually have a shot.
A solid go/no-go framework or RFP rubric is one of the best investments you can make. Ask yourself:
- Do we meet at least 90% of the mandatory requirements?
- Do we have relevant, recent past performance?
- Do we know this buyer, or have any relationship with them?
- Can we realistically compete on price and value?
- Do we have the bandwidth to write a genuinely competitive proposal?
If the answer is no to any of these, reconsider the bid. It’s better to bid on opportunities that are better aligned with your company’s core strengths than to go after ones that are a long shot.
Where to Find RFP Opportunities
Now that you know what you’re good at and what you’re looking for, you can be much more intentional about where you look for opportunities.
Government procurement portals are the obvious starting point if you’re in that space. Also check out industry-specific bid boards, private-sector procurement networks, and (this one is a pro tip) direct outreach to organizations you’d genuinely love to work with. Partner referrals are also great opportunities. Partnering with another company on a bid can be tricky, but it’s well worth your time if they can introduce you to companies with which you’d like to work. (Partnership is another article for another day.
When you open an RFP announcement and get the feeling it was written for your company, you know you’ve got a hot opportunity.
Read the Full RFP (Including all the Amendments and Forms)
Never skim RFPs. Find a quiet spot, sit down, and read it. Every. Single. Document.
Boring, I know. But hear me out: it’s important.
The complete RFP package is a roadmap. Every section, even the boring administrative stuff, provides valuable information. The evaluation criteria tell you what the buyer actually cares about (hint: weigh these sections heavily). The questions help reveal differentiators and information to highlight in your response.
Formatting Requirements
The formatting requirements are essential because if you don’t follow these, your bid can get tossed out before it’s even looked at. I know it sounds picky to write your response in 12-point Times New Roman, but I have seen bids tossed out on a technicality – and it’s painful.
One team I knew many years ago experienced this. They spent a week, almost around the clock, writing a heavy technical RFP and forgot to check the formatting. They knew they had a page limit, so they reduced the font size and narrowed the margins to fit more words on the page just before submitting it. It was heartbreaking to see so much hard work tossed out because someone forgot to check the requirements!
Mirror the RFP Language
When you write your proposal, mirror the language of the RFP. Use their terminology, not yours. Structure your response the way they asked you to. Address every requirement explicitly—don’t make them guess whether you can do something. The evaluator reading your proposal probably has a checklist. Make it easy for them to check every box.
A winning proposal feels like it was written for this buyer, not repurposed from last month’s submission. Buyers can tell the difference, even if they can’t quite articulate why one proposal feels more relevant than another. It’s because it actually is.
Do Your Homework on the Incumbent
Here’s a question people don’t ask enough: who has the contract right now?
Some RFPs are actually written for the incumbent. The issuer wants to continue the contract, but they are required to issue an RFP. If an RFP sounds like it was written for your competitor, chances are good it was. That’s why reading it from start to finish is vital. And so is researching the incumbent.
How do you find out who has the existing contract? For private RFPs, conversations with the issuer can help. If you have a good relationship with the client, you can ask.
Federal and state procurement portals typically publish the name of the current contract holder. Some government portals publish previous RFP responses, and you can download them to see how your competitors responded.
Build Relationships and Reputation Before the RFP Drops
Relationships. Brand reputation.
Both are hidden factors in improving RFP win rates.
Relationships with the issuer should start well before the RFP drops. This means things like getting to know them in person (at events and trade shows, for example); following them on LinkedIn; and genuinely showing an interest in their needs.
Your own brand reputation is also important. Procurement officers may search online for more information about your company if they aren’t familiar with it. What they find – your website, press release, social media profiles, Google reviews, directory listings – paints a bigger picture.
Online brand reputation management is also a vital component of winning RFPs.
Get Your Internal Process Together
Having a logical internal process for responding to RFP is essential to improving your win rate. If every response is a fire drill, you’re going to make mistakes. Someone’s going to drop the ball. Someone’s going to refuse to stay up until 4 a.m. writing the proposal. (Yes, I’ve been there, done that, and I won’t do it again. I learn from my mistakes.
What does a good RFP process look like?
- Choose the RFP response team well before the RFP drops.
- Once the RFP has been issued, evaluate it according to your internal rubric. Is it a bid or no bid?
- If a bid, schedule a kickoff meeting. Circulate the full RFP bid package. Note the due date and how to submit the response: via the online portal, email, or in person.
- Ask the team to pre-read the RFP. The kickoff meeting should discuss:
- Strategy
- Win themes – how can you differentiate yourself to win this RFP?
- Products or services to highlight
- Case studies to share
- Other requirements, such as forms, insurance certificates, etc.
- Make sure the RFP writer has the required information by the due date.
- Start discussing pricing now, too. Don’t wait until the last minute.
- Assign proofreaders and people to check the final bid against the scope.
- Some companies call this a red/blue team review.
- Decide how you want to handle it, but you do need checks for scope (did you address all the needs?) and formatting (does the format match the requirements), as well as for random typos.
- Prepare the response.
- Submit well before the deadline. Don’t leave the submission until the 9th hour. Procurement portals can crash, as can your own internet. Give yourself time to upload the documents.
- Confirm submission and follow the RFP until the winners are announced.
- Hold a debrief session after submission.
- What worked well?
- What can be improved?
If this sounds like a lot of work, guess what? It is. That’s why it’s important to be choosy about which RFPs you respond to. And it’s also why having a company like Seven Oaks Consulting by your side can help. We take the heavy work of writing the RFP draft off your team so you can focus on pricing, win themes, checking the draft, and submitting the final draft.
Price to Win, Not Just to Compete
“Price to win” doesn’t mean “be the cheapest.” It means understanding what the buyer is willing to pay, knowing roughly what the incumbent charges, and positioning your price so it makes sense in context. Sometimes that means coming in lower. Sometimes it means coming in higher but demonstrating why your value justifies the premium.
Do the research. Understand the market. Know your costs. And when the format allows, consider offering options or tiers that give the buyer flexibility. Sometimes that flexibility is exactly what tips the decision in your favor.
Measure Everything and Use the Data
Here’s a habit that separates organizations with improving win rates from those who stay stuck: they track their outcomes and actually learn from them.
You should track and measure:
- Win rate by opportunity type.
- Win rate by client industry.
- Common reasons for loss.
- Pricing feedback when you can get it.
- Compliance gaps that keep showing up.
- Proposal quality issues that reviewers flagged.
- Feedback from the procurement team, if any, is provided.
This data is genuinely valuable, but only if you use it. Build it into a regular review process. Let it inform your go/no-go criteria, messaging, pricing strategy, and team training. The teams that measure their performance improve it. The ones that don’t tend to repeat the same mistakes bid after bid.
The Bigger Picture
Here’s what I want to leave you with: improving your RFP win rate isn’t just about writing better proposals. It’s about pursuing the right opportunities, understanding the competitive landscape before you bid, aligning your strategy to what the buyer actually cares about, and building the kind of relationships and internal discipline that compound over time.
None of this is magic. None of it is complicated, really. But it does require intention and a willingness to let go of the frantic energy of any individual bid and think strategically about your pursuit process as a whole.
So yes, go write a great proposal. But first, know your strengths, choose bids that are a good fit, build relationships, build your online brand, understand the incumbent, price intelligently, and measure what’s working.
Do all of that consistently, and the win rate takes care of itself.
Now go make a fresh pot of coffee. You’ve got work to do.
RFP Writing Services from Experienced Proposal Writers
Seven Oaks Consulting helps companies find, manage, and write proposals to respond to RFP opportunities. If you lack a dedicated RFP writer or proposal manager, we can easily fill that gap with experienced RFP writing and proposal management services. We’ve crafted response templates for companies, written winning bids, and found new opportunities. Contact us to learn more if you want to expand your RFP team without incurring costly overhead.
Jeanne Grunert is the founder of Seven Oaks Consulting, a seasoned fractional Chief Marketing Officer, and an award-winning writer and marketing expert. Her focus on content marketing, SEO, and RFP response writing combines a lifetime of storytelling experience with marketing expertise. She holds an M.S. in Direct and Interactive Marketing and an M.A. in Writing.