4. Customer’s budget. A contractor who knows how much money the customer has budgeted for a project should not submit a price that exceeds what the customer has available. This is where good pre-RFP marketing is important.

By helping a potential customer identify a need or submitting an unsolicited proposal with estimated costs, a contractor can help the customer determine a budget for the project. Then, if the customer issues a competitive RFP (and does not disclose the amount budgeted for the project), the contractor with the customer budget “intelligence” information may be in a better position to submit a proposal with an acceptable price than are contractors who have not done similar homework.