How to Find More RFPs Fast: 5 Ways to Fill Your Sales Pipeline

• Blog •

May 15, 2025

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You spend all day chasing leads, but still, the biggest opportunities slip right past you.

Maybe you just discovered an RFP that perfectly matches your service offering. The budget is right. The scope is clear. You’ve got the experience to deliver real value.

The catch?

The deadline is in two days, and your competitors have already submitted their RFPs long ago.

You’re stuck playing catch-up again.

This keeps happening because you’re spotting RFPs too late. Not because you don’t deserve the win, but because you don’t have a system that finds these deals before they vanish.

If you’re relying on word-of-mouth or occasional newsletter updates to find RFPs, you’re missing a massive opportunity.

The best firms don’t just respond to RFPs. They have a system to find them first.

Look, we’ve seen the best and worst of RFPs. We’ve seen big wins and big losses. So we’ve got the process down to a science. In this guide, we’ll help you create your own system. We’ll show you exactly how to find more RFPs across sectors, platforms, and channels.

Even better: you’ll find them before your competition does.

Key Takeaways

The exact places and tools the pros use to track public and private RFPs, like SAM.gov, BidNet, and even social listening tools.
Use SEO, content, and consulting relationships to land invite-only deals before they’re public.
Once the RFPs start rolling in, automate your response workflow so your team can say “yes” more often, without burning out.

Types of RFPs (And Where to Find Them)

Before getting into where to search, let’s run through what kinds of RFPs exist. Each one lives in a slightly different place and follows its own rules of engagement.

Understanding this will help you build a more targeted discovery strategy.

1. Government RFPs

These come from local, state, or federal agencies. They’re usually published on official procurement websites and follow regulated processes. Think:

Infrastructure
Cybersecurity
Cloud services
Compliance solutions

Deadlines are strict, and proposal formats are standardized.

Best sources to monitor: SAM.gov and niche platforms like BidNet and GovSpend.

2. Private Sector RFPs

These are issued by corporations, typically through procurement departments or via consultants.

They’re harder to find because they’re often invite-only or announced through private networks. They may not follow a strict format, but relationships often matter more here than paperwork.

Best sources to monitor: LinkedIn, Google Alerts, SEO pages, and RFP consultants.

3. Education RFPs

School districts, universities, and education departments issue RFPs for curriculum, technology, facilities, and more. These are typically posted on state or regional portals. They might also appear in education-specific procurement newsletters.

Best sources to monitor: State procurement sites and education-focused RFP boards.

4. Invite-Only vs. Open RFPs

Some RFPs are broadcast publicly (open RFPs). Others, however, are sent to a shortlist of preferred vendors. This is invite-only.

Getting invited requires visibility, networking, and content strategy (more on that below). Often, invite-only RFPs come with warmer leads and less competition. This, of course, makes them especially valuable.

Monitor the Right RFP Platforms

RFP platforms should be your daily hunting ground.

Here’s a list of popular databases that cover government and/or corporate opportunities:

FindRFP: Corporate and government
The RFP Database: Corporate and government
GovSpend: Government only
Bid Search: Government only
Gov RFP Finder: Government only
Government Bids: Government only
BidNet: Government only

Some of these are free and offer premium subscriptions for access to alerts, filtering, and proposal analytics. Use these databases to find bids by category, region, or keyword.

With many of these platforms, you’ll even get competitor insights, award history, and subcontractor listings. This insider info can help you decide if a bid is worth pursuing.

You can also set up saved searches and receive daily digests to avoid missing relevant opportunities. Make this part of your routine. If you’re not monitoring these tools consistently, you’re giving your competitors a major head start.

Pro tip: Bookmark your top 3 and assign someone on your team to check them daily. Also, set up alerts wherever possible.

How to Find RFPs Faster

Now, the issue isn’t that RFPs are hard to find. It’s that you’re not looking where and how the best firms do. The fastest teams don’t just sit around waiting. They’ve got alerts, automations, and daily systems set up to catch opportunities before anyone else has time to blink.

This next section shows you how to build that kind of system without hiring five new people or refreshing 10 tabs all day.

1. Set Custom Alerts on SAM.gov

SAM.gov (System for Award Management) is the primary hub for federal contract opportunities in the U.S. It’s massive. Even better? It’s free.

Why Use It?

Access RFPs from every federal agency
Filter by NAICS codes, location, or contract type
See past contract winners and pricing

How to Find More RFPs Using SAM.gov

Register a free account.
Navigate to “Contract Opportunities.”
Save searches based on relevant keywords or industry codes.
Set daily or weekly email alerts.

Getting yourself set up ensures you’re first in line when a relevant federal RFP goes live. You can also track forecasted opportunities to get ahead before bids are officially released. This will give you more time to prepare. And let’s be honest. Who can’t use a little more time to prep and RFP response?

2. Set Google Alerts for RFP Phrases

Not all RFPs hit major platforms, especially in the private sector. Some are published on company blogs, forums, or niche publications.

How to Set It Up:

Go to Google Alerts.
Enter phrases like:
- “cybersecurity RFP”
- “SaaS vendor RFP”
- “school district IT RFP”
- “looking for proposal [industry]”
Use quotes for exact matches and limit by region or language.

Google will email you whenever a new page matching your criteria appears online.

3. Use Social Media Monitoring Tools

You might be surprised to learn how many RFPs are mentioned on social media before they appear on formal platforms. Procurement teams post in LinkedIn groups, on Twitter/X, and even Reddit.

Best Tools to Use:

Talkwalker Alerts: Includes blogs, forums, social mentions
Brand24: Tracks mentions across LinkedIn, Twitter/X, and Reddit
X Pro (formerly TweetDeck): Set up streams for terms like “request for proposal” or “[your niche] RFP”

These tools allow you to monitor keywords in real time, so you can act quickly when opportunities arise.

Also, don’t underestimate good old-fashioned browsing, especially on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Groups to Watch:

Government Procurement Professionals
IT & Software RFP Leads
Public Sector Sales Community

Search for “[industry] procurement” or “[location] RFPs” in the Groups section and engage consistently. Commenting and adding value to conversations can help you build relationships. Better yet, it can get you invited to more opportunities.

Example: Private RFPs from Social Channels

Example A: A state university’s IT department head posted on LinkedIn asking for cybersecurity vendors. They asked for submissions of interest for an upcoming RFP before it ever hit the official procurement site.
Example B: A city planning agency used Twitter to announce a “Request for Qualifications” for digital signage providers. The full RFP came two weeks later on their site.

In both cases, vendors monitoring social channels had a valuable head start.

4. Partner With RFP Consultants

Many organizations don’t create RFPs internally. They hire consultants to do it. If you build relationships with these intermediaries, you’ve got a great chance of learning about upcoming RFPs early. You may even influence the RFP requirements.

Consultant Types:

Buy-side consultants draft and distribute RFPs.
Sell-side consultants help vendors respond more effectively.

Example:
RFPConsultants.co.uk offers both matchmaking services and proposal development.

By staying in touch with consultants like these, you can position yourself for invite-only RFPs. You’re also more likely to be on a shortlist before the RFP is even published. Some consultants also host networking events or webinars. Showing up to these can open doors to strategic partnerships and insider info.

5. Use SEO to Attract RFP Leads

If people are searching for RFP templates in your industry, they’re probably working on one. By ranking for the right keywords, you can make RFP leads come to you. That’s a fantastic approach to growing business.

Build Web Pages for Keywords Like:

“[Your Industry] RFP Template”
“Example [Your Niche] Proposal”
“How to Write an RFP for [Service]”

Why This Works

You rank in Google when someone is about to issue an RFP.
Your brand becomes the expert resource in that space.
You offer a downloadable asset. Then you follow up with a CTA like “Need help responding? Talk to us.”

Quick SEO Tips:

Use long-tail keywords in your H1 and meta title.
Include internal links to your services or case studies.
Offer a downloadable RFP template to capture email leads.

This builds inbound RFP demand. So you’re not just chasing opportunities. You’re attracting them.

How to Automate the Response Process

Once you start finding more RFPs, the next bottleneck begins. Don’t let manual work slow you down or stop you from submitting a winning proposal. RFP automation is a game changer.

Use Tools Like 1up to Automate

1up helps teams:

Generate draft responses using AI
Pull content from past winning proposals
Collaborate and review with built-in workflows

Our system also allows you to maintain a centralized content library, so your best answers are always at your fingertips.

You can tag answers by industry, solution type, or compliance requirement. This makes future responses faster and more accurate.

The more RFPs you find, the more important it becomes to scale your response strategy. RFP automation gives you speed without sacrificing quality. With tools like 1up, you can increase your win rate while reducing the time it takes to respond.

We automate RFPs for you with fully accurate responses from data you connect, effectively cutting down the RFP process by up to 90%, allowing you to submit more proposals and a lot faster.

Start your 14-day free trial today.

Final Thoughts: Make RFP Discovery a Daily Habit

Finding RFPs shouldn’t be left to chance. With the right platforms, alerts, relationships, and SEO strategy, you can uncover dozens of relevant RFPs every month. You’ll usually even find them before your competitors.

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