Tips for RFP Response Teams When Evaluating Budgetary Needs

Managers, team leads, c-suite executives, and finance teams generally (hopefully) have a good idea of how their budgets are formed. They know where to put their dollars in the next quarter, what projects don’t need as much financing in the next 12 months, and what they need to keep their eyes on over the next half to make sure they don’t go over budget. 

But something that’s a bit more difficult to understand? Evaluating budgetary needs of their prospective clients.

Without working within their prospects’ offices’ (sometimes proverbial) four walls, knowing where they care about putting their dollars can be incredibly difficult to uncover. And those prospects are unlikely to walk you through their budget constraints during the proposal process — or at all — yet it’s an incredibly important aspect of winning any RFP. 

If you want to make sure your RFP isn’t outright rejected due to budget concerns, take some of these tips into account when finalizing your proposed budget. 

Tip 1: Stay Within Budget

This may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised by how many pitches go over-budget with extras and add-ons. If your future client gives you a strict budget or range to stay in, pay attention. It says more about your attention to detail and instructions than you’d imagine! 

Money notwithstanding, the ability to pay attention to their requirements is a solid first look into the type of partnership you will have with them. 

Tip 2: Save Money Internally

When your costs are lower, you can pass on some of those savings to your potential clients. You may not know what their preferences are when it comes to allocating funds, so it’s smarter to err on the side of caution and lower wherever you can, so long as it doesn’t effect the quality of your work.

If your potential client is a penny pincher themselves, they’ll be impressed by your ability to stay within your own budget and pass on those savings to your clients. You’ll be the exact time of vendor they’ll want to work with again and again. 

Tip 3: Give Strategic Discounts

For some clients, the lowest bidder wins. But for ones that truly care about their company and their product, they want the work to be the best possible, so long as it fits in their budget.

You may be tempted to give deep discounts to try to beat the competition, but it won’t necessarily help you win the right bids. Instead showcase your value, skills, and dedication to the work to explain your worth. 

When considering which discounts to give, think about costs that won’t affect your bottom line. Like discounts for longer-term prepaid partnerships or adding bonus services that weren’t included in the initial RFP as value add-ons.

Tip 4: Utilize On Demand Print Solutions for Your Proposal

As digitized as the world is today, printing RFPs and putting them directly into the hands of your prospects can make you more competitive and your print proposal more compelling. Clients are more likely to give extra attention to the details in your proposal, and understand why the budget is what it is, when they have a print proposal budget in their hands.

Research shows that hard copies of documents, from print brochures to RFPs, have a higher ROI than digital copies alone. Having an online proposal is important, but make sure you print and ship proposals to your prospects to stand out. 

On demand print services make it easy to create professional rfp documents online. Online printing platform Mimeo even has a printing rfp template to take additional stress out of the RFP printing process.

Evaluating Budgetary Needs of Your Clients — And Your Own Company

When you use Mimeo as your online print company, you’ll have even more time to print and ship your proposal presentation. Sometimes having just a few extra hours can make the difference in how prospective clients view your work versus your competitors. On demand printing company Mimeo gives customers up until 10pm EST to upload, edit, and send their RFP to print if they need it delivered by 8:30am the next day.