Every RFP says what the client wants. Very few say what the client needs.
That gap — between what’s written and what’s meant — is where deals are won or lost. The teams that can read it accurately build responses that resonate. The teams that take the document at face value build responses that comply but don’t connect.
After years of dissecting RFPs, I’ve developed a process for decoding client intent that takes about 45 to 60 minutes. Here it is.
Step 1: Read the Background Section Like a Detective (10 mins)
Most people skim the background and context section to get to the requirements. Don’t. Read it slowly. This is where the client, often unintentionally, reveals what’s really going on.
Look for three things:
Pain signals — words like “fragmented,” “manual,” “inconsistent,” “legacy,” “siloed.” These tell you what they’re running from. Your response should acknowledge and address the pain, not just describe your solution.
Aspiration language — phrases like “world-class,” “best-in-class,” “future-ready,” “seamless.” These tell you what they want to become. Mirror this language in your win theme — but only if you can back it up.
Timeline pressure — references to board decisions, regulatory deadlines, upcoming audits, leadership transitions. These signal urgency. If the client is under real time pressure, your ability to mobilise fast may matter more than your feature set.
Step 2: Map the Evaluation Criteria to What Matters (10 mins)
If the RFP includes evaluation criteria with weightings — and most formal ones do — treat these as a map to the decision.
Add up the scores. If “technical solution” is 40%, “price” is 30%, and “implementation approach” is 20%, you know immediately where to invest your response effort. A common mistake is spending equal time on every section regardless of weighting.
But go one level deeper. Ask: Why did they weight it this way?
If price is weighted unusually high (40%+), either they’re budget-constrained or they believe all vendors are roughly equivalent — so they’ll use price as a tiebreaker. Your job is to break the equivalence narrative before they reach the price comparison.
If technical is weighted highest, they’ve had a bad delivery experience before. Focus on your methodology, your quality gates, your risk management. They’re buying confidence, not just capability.
Step 3: Count the Word Frequency (5 mins)
This sounds mechanical, but it works. Copy the requirements section into a word frequency tool (or just read carefully). The words the client repeats most are the concepts they care about most.
If “integration” appears 18 times and “innovation” appears twice, don’t lead with innovation. Lead with integration. Your response language should reflect their language — not because you’re parroting them, but because alignment is a form of listening.
Step 4: Find the Questions Behind the Questions (15 mins)
Every RFP question has a surface question and a real question. The surface question is what’s written. The real question is what the evaluator actually wants to know.
Examples:
Surface: “Describe your project management methodology.”
Real: “Have you actually delivered something this complex before, and did it go badly?”
Surface: “Provide two references from similar engagements.”
Real: “Is there someone we can call who will actually vouch for you?”
Surface: “Describe your approach to knowledge transfer.”
Real: “Are we going to be dependent on you forever, or will our team actually own this?”
When you answer the real question — not just the surface one — your response reads as insight rather than information. That’s the difference evaluators remember.
Step 5: Read the Appendices and T&Cs Last (10 mins)
Contract terms, SLA schedules, and appendices are where clients reveal their risk tolerance. If the draft contract has unusually punitive penalty clauses, they’ve been burned before. If they’re asking for parent company guarantees on a small contract, there’s a trust issue somewhere.
Note these signals. They’re not just legal fine print — they’re a window into what the client is afraid of. Address those fears in your response, even if the question isn’t explicitly asked.
The Output: Three Intent Statements
When you’ve done this analysis, write three sentences:
- What this client is running from (the pain)
- What they are trying to become (the aspiration)
- What they are most afraid of in this procurement (the risk)
These three sentences are your brief. Every section of your response should speak to at least one of them.
If you can’t write those three sentences after reading the RFP, you don’t understand the client well enough yet. Go back, read more carefully — or pick up the phone.