The Real Secret to Winning Bigger Budget RFPs
I curate a weekly list of website, branding, and digital RFPs at omariharebin.com/rfps, so I spend a lot of time reading these opportunities.
The more I read them, the more obvious it becomes that bigger budget RFPs are not usually won by the most impressive portfolio alone.
Bigger budgets usually mean more stakeholders, more approvals, more constraints, and more risk for the person or committee making the decision.
So the real secret is not just proving that you can design or build the thing.
It is learning to read the RFP from the buyer’s side of the table.
Most people respond to RFPs from their own side. They read the request as a chance to prove themselves. They try to show how talented they are, how impressive their portfolio is, how many services they offer, and how much experience they have.
All of that can matter.
But the organization reviewing the proposal is usually asking a different question:
Can we trust this person or team to get us to the other side of this project without making our lives harder?
That is the real work of a good RFP response.
The goal is to reduce risk for the person, committee, board, or department responsible for making the decision.
A strong proposal does not simply say, “We can build this.”
It says, “We understand what could make this project difficult, and here is how we would guide it to a smooth launch.”
The RFP is a map of their concerns
An RFP is not just a design brief. It is a map of the buyer’s priorities, constraints, fears, and internal responsibilities.
When an organization mentions accessibility, content migration, CMS training, online forms, payment integration, hosting, security, analytics, stakeholder approvals, documentation, or post-launch support, those are not filler details.
Those are places where the project can go wrong.
Maybe their current site is difficult to update. Maybe staff members are tired of relying on one person to make changes. Maybe the previous redesign dragged on for months. Maybe the board cares about compliance. Maybe the public depends on the site for accurate information. Maybe donations, registrations, or public notices need to work without drama.
A lot of designers read those details as requirements to check off.
A better proposal reads them as concerns to address.
If the RFP says they need training, show them what training looks like. If the RFP mentions accessibility, explain how accessibility will be considered throughout the project. If the RFP includes content migration, describe how content will be reviewed, moved, cleaned up, and tested.
The more clearly you address the concerns inside the RFP, the less risky your proposal feels.
Put your project manager hat on before your designer hat
When responding to an RFP, put your project manager hat on before your designer hat.
The proposal is not only a pitch for your creative ability. It is your first demonstration of how you think through the project.
Before you write, ask yourself:
What needs to happen first?
What could slow this project down?
Who needs to provide content?
Who needs to approve design?
How many stakeholders are involved?
What needs to be migrated?
What needs to be tested?
What does the client need to understand before launch?
What happens after launch?
That thinking is the foundation of the proposal.
A lot of proposals spend too much time saying, “Here is what we do.”
A stronger proposal says, “Here is how we will help this project move.”
That shift matters. The buyer is not just choosing the person with the best taste. They are choosing the person they believe can manage the path from where they are now to where they need to be.
Design matters. Development matters. Strategy matters.
But for many RFPs, especially nonprofit, municipal, education, and public-facing projects, the winning edge is often clarity, organization, communication, and trust.
Pay close attention to the evaluation criteria
Most RFPs tell you how the proposal will be judged.
Do not skip that section.
If the evaluation criteria mention relevant experience, project approach, timeline, accessibility, support, cost, or references, your proposal should make those answers easy to find.
Do not make the reviewer hunt.
If they are scoring proposals, they may be reviewing several at once. Your job is to make it easy for them to see that you understood the assignment.
Use their language. Mirror their priorities. Organize your response around what they said matters.
This does not mean copying and pasting the RFP back to them. It means showing that you are paying attention.
If accessibility is part of the criteria, do not bury accessibility in one vague sentence. If timeline matters, show the phases clearly. If support matters, explain what happens after launch. If experience matters, include examples that relate to the type of organization and project they are describing.
A proposal feels stronger when it is clearly shaped around the buyer’s stated priorities.
Use the Q&A period
If there is a Q&A period, use it.
A lot of people skip this part, or only ask basic technical questions. But the Q&A period is one of the best opportunities to understand how the buyer is thinking.
You can ask about the current pain points with the existing site. You can ask what would make the project successful from their perspective. You can ask who will be involved in approvals. You can ask what content already exists and what content still needs to be created. You can ask whether there are known accessibility, integration, hosting, or maintenance concerns.
You are not just gathering information. You are learning how to write a better proposal.
You are also showing how you think.
Good questions can communicate experience before the proposal is even submitted. They show that you are not only thinking about the website as a final product. You are thinking about the project as a process that has to work for the people involved.
Only propose the ones you actually want
Not every RFP is worth responding to.
Some are a great fit. Some are not. Some are too vague, too rushed, too bloated, too underfunded, or too misaligned with the kind of work you actually want to do.
You do not need to propose everything.
In fact, you probably should not.
A proposal takes attention. A good one requires research, thought, positioning, and care. If you are not interested in the project, that usually comes through. The proposal starts to sound generic because the energy behind it is generic.
But when you find an RFP you actually love, take it seriously.
Read the organization’s website. Look at their current structure. Understand the audience they serve. Notice what is broken, unclear, outdated, or hard to use. Think through what a smoother version of the project might look like.
A thoughtful proposal for a project you actually want is usually stronger than five rushed proposals for projects you barely care about.
A lost proposal can still become an asset
You will not win every RFP.
That does not mean the work was wasted.
If you only propose projects you actually want, every serious proposal can become an asset.
You now have language for that type of organization. You have a project approach. You have assumptions. You have a scope structure. You have a way of explaining the value. You have thought through the needs of that kind of buyer.
If you loved the project but did not win it, look for similar organizations.
Reach out. Ask about their procurement process. Ask how they usually find vendors. Ask whether they have upcoming website, branding, accessibility, content, or digital infrastructure projects.
The RFP becomes more than a single opportunity.
It becomes research.
It becomes a market signal.
It becomes a starting point for future outreach.
This is one of the best reasons to be selective. If you propose projects you do not care about, there is not much to reuse. But if you propose projects that reflect the kind of work you want more of, even a loss can help you build a better path to the next opportunity.
Write the proposal from their side of the table
The person reviewing your proposal may need to defend the decision to a board, director, committee, procurement team, or internal stakeholder group.
They may be responsible for keeping the project on budget. They may need to coordinate feedback from people who do not agree with each other. They may be nervous about choosing the wrong vendor.
So write in a way that helps them feel confident.
Make the process clear. Name the risks. Show how decisions will be made. Explain what you will need from them. Make the next step obvious.
They do not only need to know that you can do the work.
They need to believe that choosing you will make the project smoother.
The real goal
Winning an RFP is not about sounding the most impressive.
It is about becoming the clearest, most relevant, least risky choice for the project in front of you.
Read the RFP as a map of their concerns. Pay attention to the criteria. Use the Q&A period. Only propose the ones you actually want. Think through what would make the project smooth.
Then write that down.
That is the proposal.
If you want a place to practice reading RFPs this way, I keep a weekly list of open website, branding, and digital opportunities here:
But don’t just scan for projects you might be able to win.
Look for the ones you would actually want to carry.
Then put your project manager hat on, think through what would make the project smooth, and write that down.
That is the proposal.
