r/sales • u/mojojojo31 • 2d ago

Sales Topic General Discussion RFP Hunting

Anybody going through government RFP portals to look for RFPs? What industries are you working for and what are you looking to sell? Wondering who uses those portals and how they use it. Thanks

30 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

53 comments sorted by

74

u/N226 2d ago

RFPs are a lot like children, if you're not there when it's being made, odds are it isn't yours when it comes out.

7

u/bitslammer Technology (IT/Cybersec) 1d ago

I feel like this stance is a bit overblown. I say that as someone who has spent more time on the side putting them out. There's absolutely some truth to that, but to ignore them wholesale is leaving money on the table.

To me there are 4 possible scenarios for RFP creation:

  1. They have an existing vendor they want to stick with and design around that.

  2. They are looking for something new and have been coached by a vendor in the space.

  3. They are looking for something new and already have an idea on their own who they want.

  4. They are actually putting out a "clean" RFP.

My take is that you need to be able to discern which of the 4 cases is in play. 1 & 2 are going to be hard to overcome and may not be worth the effort. In scenario 3 they may be on point or they may have made some poor assumptions you can then use as a coaching moment in some cases. Of course in #4 it's all on you.

It's sometimes easy to read an RFP and pickup on other competitors talking points or phrases which can be a big tell and a case where I'd just flat out ask them "did ACME help you write this" and if they say yes ask them why? That can lead to some interesting conversations some of them good.

1

u/N226 1d ago

Guess it depends on the industry, in mine, they're almost always written to a singular manufacturer's spec.

In many cases they're more of an RFI, which ish the same thing.

I've been able to flip them in the past, but that's an exception rather than the rule.

2

u/fidelkastro 10h ago

What if you sell a commodity like toilet paper? That should be basically be a low cost wins right?

3

u/AlltheBent SaaS 1d ago

This is fantastic

5

u/Tall_Kinda_Kink 1d ago

Amen

2

u/Tall_Kinda_Kink 1d ago

Thanks for the award, u/n226!

1

u/Sebsnitobby1111 4h ago

not unless you get deal reg or pricing is competitive across the board and you can actually show your value add through customer service and great qualifying (ie saving the customer money) i get what you’re saying but i feel like this is an ae perspective vs like an acct manager one

1

u/N226 3h ago

I'm on the manufacturer side, so a little different lens.

14

u/Strokesite 2d ago

I searched the portals for purchases under $10k, as that is the mandatory minimum that forces agencies to issue a formal RFP.

The vast majority of purchase orders fall below this threshold.

So, I would go after agencies that could actually buy wherever they want without the burden and scrutiny that accompanies RFPs.

3

u/mojojojo31 2d ago

Insightful comment!

6

u/Strokesite 2d ago

You will discover multiple agencies that break up purchases into multiple $9,000+ blocks in order to game the system.

1

u/mojojojo31 2d ago

Do you use the same government portals to find those under 10k?

1

u/Strokesite 2d ago

Yes. I used GovSpend an it shoes ALL purchases.

1

u/TransCanAngel 2d ago

I think it’s $25k in most states…?

1

u/Strokesite 2d ago

I was focused on Federal RFPs

1

u/awarENTP 1d ago

I mean I talk to procurement often and in SLED it’s normally $101k threshold for an RFP requirement.

$10k they normally have to get multiple quotes and look at multiple vendors even tho they prob going with the same.

1

u/Strokesite 1d ago

Well, rather than debating the minimum RFP threshold, just do a search for purchases under $10k. I found a bunch and made contact to sell them.

1

u/awarENTP 14h ago

I’m not debating. I’m just talking about differing industries and thresholds and offering some insight.

God ppl are annoying.

33

u/whofarting 2d ago

I sell to government, but i only submit on RRP's if I drove the spec.

24

u/MaddisonoRenata 2d ago

I saw a quote here i like to steal for my gov rfps “RFPS are like kids. If you weren’t there 9 months ago, it probably aint yours”

2

u/c_south_53 2d ago

This is so true. I've seen it happen many times. Guy already has the inside connection and has the RFP designed to mimic his business, right down to what products to use, qualifications of the engineers/installers, etc... And if he knows his competition, he can include their weaknesses. I knew one guy who knew his competition had a lot of guys with records working for him, so he had the RFP include background checks.

4

u/6_string_Bling 2d ago

I have never won an RFP that wasn't functionally made for my business.

7

u/PseudonymIncognito Technology 2d ago

We have people in marketing who do that for us.

1

u/mojojojo31 2d ago

What product or service do you sell to the gov?

2

u/PseudonymIncognito Technology 2d ago

Laboratory analytical instruments.

1

u/mojojojo31 2d ago

Super niche!

6

u/PseudonymIncognito Technology 2d ago

Wait until I tell you about the guy on our sales team who covers a product line where North American annual sales generally total in the range of 4-6 units, and we have competition.

1

u/turniplayer 2d ago

I’m in the same industry, your marketing team fills your RFPs out?

2

u/PseudonymIncognito Technology 2d ago

No, they just monitor the sites and forward relevant ones to us, not infrequently before our local contacts at the accounts let us know.

2

u/turniplayer 2d ago

Got it! I was going to be extremely impressed if they filled the actual RFP out.

13

u/PsychologicalArt878 2d ago

Set up a Sam.gov scraper in Claude and have it run every day

2

u/wllmnthny 2d ago

Interesting - care to share any more resources or insight on this to look into?

2

u/PsychologicalArt878 1d ago

Like anything if you ask Claude how to do it, it’ll tell you. Use Cowork so it can use your browser. Sam.gov has API access built in too.

Ask it to create a scheduled task that runs every morning and if you connect slack it can even DM the results to you.

0

u/Saulthewarriorking 2d ago

I would also love to more friend and it would mean a lot.

8

u/SassyCannon 1d ago

engineer at a defense contractor, not a rep, but from the inside.. if you’re finding it on the portal as an RFP you’re usually already late. the game is in the sources sought and RFI stage, before there’s a solicitation. that’s where the requirements actually get shaped. the portal is the paperwork, not the opportunity

3

u/ConferenceDense2151 2d ago

i do some rfp hunting in my spare time, mostly for av and event production gear since that's my world. gov portals are a mess but you can find stuff if you know the right keywords

not sure about other industries tho, feels like construction and IT have way more luck with those

1

u/mojojojo31 2d ago

Thank you!

3

u/Adept-Diamond5561 2d ago

Yeah, the portal sprawl is the real killer here, there's no one place that has everything and half the counties still post a PDF on their own site. If you're just starting out, SAM.gov plus the one or two state portals where you're actually registered is plenty, and construction/road work/staffing is where the volume is. Everything else is a lot of scrolling for a couple of hits a month.

3

u/justSomeSalesDude 1d ago

Mostly useless. Focus on getting into the account before the RFP happens.

3

u/No_Market5794 1d ago

Look for city municipality RFPs/solicitations. Much higher chances at winning some or all of the business in a scope. Even better if you are SWaM

4

u/ForHireLeadsHQ 2d ago edited 1d ago

For federal work, the main place is the official federal contract opportunities site, which is where agencies post solicitations. Searching by NAICS code is usually more reliable than keywords, since agencies describe the same thing in very different ways. You can read the awards side too: public federal award history shows who bought what and from whom in past years, which is handy for figuring out which agencies actually buy what you sell and when their buying tends to cluster. Also keep in mind that state and local governments run their own separate portals, so a lot of the opportunity sits outside the federal site. And if you ever want to bid federally, the federal contractor registration is free and has to be renewed every year.

2

u/tilldeathdoiparty 2d ago

I bid on government jobs through a GC.

2

u/Race-a-roni 2d ago

I have to look for bids and RFQ’s which I can try to feed my customers to bid my products. It’s a fuckin slog though and success rates are incredibly low.

2

u/Perfect-Audience5691 2d ago

you're not asking who uses RFP portals, you're asking who to sell to. BidNet and GovWin already have that list.

3

u/ItsRamonaBlueBitch 1d ago

Govwin, usaspending, Sam.gov,

1

u/SquizzOC 2d ago

Why would you not just use AI for this? It’s kind of what it’s good at

1

u/justSomeSalesDude 1d ago

Given the sketchy nature of RFPs, I've always thought of RFP search websites as being kind of a scam service.

1

u/Jadubya405 23h ago

Craft the requirement with the customer and by pass that entire RFP / RFQ / RFI process. Several DLA managed contracts allow for customer to put the requirement out to bid as an overall solution vs commoditized line items. Margins are protected and competition marginalized. No desire to race to the bottom and spend bandwidth putting proposals together for inexperienced and ill equipped contracting officers.

-1

u/TransCanAngel 2d ago

I think less than 10% of RFPs get awarded to someone who isn’t already engaged pre-RFP, unless it’s for small stuff, and even then…