You just found the perfect RFP. Budget's right, timeline works, and you've solved this exact problem before. You fire off your proposal to the contact listed—and then silence. Weeks later, you learn you lost to a competitor who somehow got face time with the actual decision-maker while you were stuck emailing procurement.
Sound familiar? This scenario plays out daily across enterprise sales teams, crushing win rates and wasting valuable pre-sales resources.
Here's what most proposal teams miss: the RFP contact is rarely the person who signs the check. They're usually a procurement officer, an admin, or someone tasked with "running the process." The real power sits elsewhere—with budget holders, technical evaluators, and end users who will actually work with your solution.
We've seen companies transform their RFP win rates by mastering one skill: stakeholder mapping from the outside in. No insider knowledge required. Just smart, systematic detective work that anyone in your pre-sales workflow can learn.
The Three Layers of RFP Decision Power
Every enterprise RFP has three distinct groups you need to identify and influence:
The Gatekeepers - Your listed contact, procurement team, and anyone managing the administrative process. They control access but rarely control decisions. In most organizations, they enforce compliance but lack budget authority.
The Evaluators - Technical teams, department heads, and subject matter experts who score your proposal. They have veto power but not signing authority. These stakeholders judge your solution's technical fit and implementation feasibility.
The Deciders - C-suite executives, budget owners, and board members who make the final call. They often never read your proposal but trust their team's recommendation. These are the people who can override procurement processes when they see value.
Most RFP response teams stop at layer one. Winners map all three.
The LinkedIn Intelligence Playbook
LinkedIn isn't just for job hunting—it's your RFP reconnaissance tool. Here's the exact process we've seen successful proposal teams use to uncover decision-maker networks:
Start with the obvious search. Find your RFP contact on LinkedIn. Look at their title, tenure, and most importantly—who they report to. If they're in procurement or admin, they're definitely not your decision-maker.
Map the reporting chain. Click through to their manager, then their manager's manager. Keep going until you hit VP level or above. That's where budget authority typically lives in enterprise organizations.
Identify the user department. Search the company for keywords from the RFP's scope of work. Building a new CRM? Search for "sales operations" and "revenue." Need IT services? Look for "infrastructure" and "technology." These people will evaluate your solution and determine if it meets their daily needs.
Find the mutual connections. This is where magic happens. Check if you have any 1st or 2nd-degree connections to these stakeholders. A warm introduction beats a cold email every time. We've seen single introductions flip entire RFP outcomes, even when a competitor seemed preferred.
Document recent moves. People who joined in the last 6-12 months often champion new vendors. They haven't formed loyalties yet and want to make their mark. Target them aggressively as potential change agents within the organization.
The Pre-Bid Meeting Hack
Most vendors treat pre-bid meetings as information sessions. Smart ones treat them as networking events with critical intelligence value.
Show up early. Stay late. The real intelligence gathering happens in the margins—during coffee breaks, while people are setting up, or in sidebar conversations after the formal Q&A.
Ask strategic questions that reveal power dynamics: "Who will be the primary users of this solution?" "What's the approval process for a project of this size?" "Has the evaluation committee been formed yet?"
Watch who answers. The person who jumps in to clarify or correct others often has more authority than their title suggests. Pay attention to non-verbal cues when technical questions arise—who do people look to for confirmation?
Building Your Coalition from Zero
You've identified the players. Now you need to reach them. Here's what actually works in today's complex RFP environments:
The LinkedIn InMail that gets responses: Don't pitch. Instead, position yourself as a resource: "I noticed your team is evaluating [solution type]. We just completed a similar project with [comparable company]. Would you be interested in seeing our lessons learned? No sales pitch—just sharing what worked and what didn't."
The connection request that doesn't feel sleazy: "Hi [Name], I saw your team posted an RFP for [project]. We're considering responding and would love to ensure our solution aligns with your actual needs, not just what made it into the RFP document. Would you be open to a brief call to share your priorities?"
The email forward technique: Email your official contact with a substantive question, but craft it so they'll need to forward it to the technical team for an answer. This creates a paper trail and gets you on the radar of evaluators who might otherwise never see your company name.
Reading Between the Organizational Lines
Every company has tells that reveal who really calls the shots in their proposal management process:
Press releases and earnings calls often name executives sponsoring major initiatives. If your RFP aligns with a stated strategic priority, find out who owns that priority at the leadership level.
Company org charts (sometimes published, often reconstructible through LinkedIn) show reporting structures. Decisions typically require sign-off one or two levels above the listed budget—follow this chain to identify key approvers.
Recent vendor announcements reveal preferences and decision patterns. If they just hired Salesforce for CRM, the same decision-makers might evaluate your related services. These technology decisions leave breadcrumbs about who influences purchasing.
Employee reviews on Glassdoor can reveal whether decisions are centralized (everything goes through the C-suite) or distributed (department heads have autonomy). This helps you understand how high you need to reach.
The Team Assembly Strategy
Going solo against established vendors? You're fighting with one hand tied in today's competitive RFP landscape.
Smart pre-sales teams build coalitions for each RFP opportunity. Find a partner who has what you lack—whether that's specific expertise, prior relationships, or just additional bandwidth to work the opportunity properly.
We know teams that maintain standing partnerships with 3-4 complementary firms. When an RFP drops, they can assemble the perfect team within hours, not weeks—dramatically improving their bid response quality and win probability.
Split the stakeholder mapping work. One partner focuses on technical evaluators while another works executive relationships. You'll cover more ground and look more substantial to the client organization.
When to Walk Away
Not every RFP is worth mapping. Your proposal team's time has value. Skip opportunities where:
The RFP contact has an out-of-office message during the submission period
No budget range is mentioned anywhere in the documentation
The timeline from RFP to award is under two weeks (often indicates a pre-selected vendor)
You can't identify a single stakeholder beyond the listed contact despite research
The incumbent vendor's logo is all over their recent presentations and case studies
Your resources have value. Spend them on RFPs where relationship building can actually make a difference to your win rate.
The Follow-Through That Wins
Stakeholder mapping isn't a one-time activity. It's an ongoing intelligence operation that continues through submission, evaluation, and negotiation phases of the RFP process.
Track every interaction. Note who responds quickly, who forwards your emails, who asks the smartest questions. These are your champions—cultivate them carefully for both this opportunity and future business.
Follow up on the award date, even if you haven't heard anything. Especially if you haven't heard anything. The vendor who demonstrates they're tracking deadlines and staying engaged often stands out in a sea of "submit and forget" competitors.
Your Next RFP Is Your Test Case
Theory is worthless without execution. On your next RFP, commit to identifying at least three stakeholders beyond the listed contact. Reach out to at least one. Track what happens to your proposal's progress and reception.
Most of your competitors will blast generic proposals into the procurement void. You'll be building relationships with the people who actually matter to the selection process.
That's how underdogs win enterprise deals. Not through prettier proposals or lower prices, but through understanding that RFPs are about people, not paperwork.
Trampoline.ai is an AI-native project manager for RFP responses. It turns a messy RFP into an actionable board. Every requirement, question, and task becomes a card with owners and deadlines. That structure frees time to map stakeholders and work the room.
Add stakeholder mapping, intros, and pre-bid follow-ups as cards. Track every touchpoint next to the technical work.
Assign SMEs and partners in one place. Role-based access keeps control.
Use the AI side panel to pull proven language from past bids and draft evaluator-specific answers.
Use the browser extension during emails and Q&A to check facts and reuse validated content.
Generate the final proposal from completed cards in the format the client expects.
Trampoline reduces the admin load so your team can focus on finding and influencing the real decision-makers.