Why AEC business development starts before the RFP

By George Valdes, co-founder at Toolblocks.

You’re in the middle of a proposal, someone on the team is asking for a detail that isn’t in the folder yet, and then the email arrives: “RFP Released – Due in 21 days.” For a second it feels like the starting gun just went off.

A lot of the time, it didn’t. By the time the formal package lands, some firms already feel like they belong in the room. They’ve done work with the client before, someone on the team knows the PM from a past job, or they were the ones who actually showed up to the industry lunch six months ago when nothing was on the line. The RFP still decides a lot. It just doesn’t wipe the slate clean.

This is especially true on the relationship-driven side—private developers, institutions that keep a short list, repeat public clients, work that comes through GCs or other consultants. On the wide-open public side it counts for less, but even there, who people know and trust still moves the needle more than most scoring sheets will admit. Either way, what you do before the solicitation shows up shapes how your name lands when it does.

The packet only tells part of the story

RFPs are good at one thing: telling you what they want and when they want it. That part’s useful.

What they almost never include is the human layer. Who already has the client’s ear? What shifted in their organization last quarter? Does your team feel like a safe bet or a cold name? That context leaks into how your proposal gets read, even when everyone is following the same rules on paper.

So the useful question isn’t usually “Was this fair?” It’s more like: What do we actually need to know to write something that lands? And how much of that isn’t in the attachment?

What pre-RFP work actually looks like

It’s just staying in the conversation while the opportunity is still forming. Keeping relationships warm, noticing when something changes, and not letting the thread die the second a project deadline swallows your week.

Some people call it networking. That’s fine. In practice it usually comes down to a few habits that are easy to name and harder to keep: knowing who actually matters in the markets you’re trying to grow, noticing when something changes—a new person, a new project, a firm moving into town—and having something real to say because you paid attention earlier, not because you’re frantically googling at midnight. And deciding what happens next after a call or a coffee so the momentum doesn’t just vanish.

If you’re a seller-doer, that last part is almost always where it falls apart.

Signals worth paying attention to

You don’t need to catch everything. You just need a short list of things that give you a legitimate reason to reach out without feeling like you’re spamming people.

• Someone got promoted, moved firms, or now owns the decision.
• A project milestone or announcement that connects (even loosely) to what you do.
• A firm opens an office, changes leadership, or shifts their portfolio—does the fit change?
• Activity in a city or sector you care about.
• The loose ends you already have: the intro you promised, the conference follow-up you never sent, the reference still sitting in your drafts.

Use these as a reason to be thoughtful, not as an excuse to blast a list.

A weekly check-in that fits real life

Most weeks I try to carve out about 30 minutes on the same day. Same time helps. Some weeks it’s 15 minutes on the train or between site visits. The point isn’t to be heroic. It’s to make it something you can actually repeat.

I usually run through this in order:

1. Targets – one sentence each on who’s next and how I’ll reach them.
2. Quiet relationships – who’s gone cold longer than I’d be okay with if the roles were reversed?
3. Signals – quick scan of the top 10–15 accounts for one real thing I could mention without making it up.
4. Meetings – anything coming up that needs a one-pager or a follow-up plan?
5. Live pursuits – if I’m tracking anything formal, I try to separate the actual relationship moves from the compliance checklist.

If I finish early I’ll add one account that deserves more attention or drop one that’s clearly never going to fit. It’s not perfect, but it keeps the pile from turning into a black hole.

Where this stuff usually falls apart

Treating “real” as something that only arrives with a formal solicitation. I’ve seen teams wait until the PDF shows up before they start acting like the opportunity matters. By then you’re already behind. A decent rule of thumb: if you can name a decision-maker and actually get on their calendar in the next couple weeks, it’s live.

Everything living in one person’s head. When the project work heats up, the follow-up dies. Writing down the last touch, the next step, and one line on why the account matters somewhere the team can see it is the difference between “we meant to” and “we did.”

Letting the list grow without owners or next steps. New names pile up in a spreadsheet and then sit there. Adding someone without a named owner and a due date for the next action is how you end up with 47 “interesting” companies and zero momentum.

Rewriting the same story every time. Seller-doers burn hours reconstructing the account narrative under deadline pressure. A short, living account brief that you update when something actually changes saves a ton of that time.

Dropping the thread after events and intros. You meet someone, have a good conversation, and then the week swallows it. Putting a follow-up on the calendar within 48 hours—even a two-sentence note—keeps the door open.

Being busy everywhere and deep nowhere. Spreading yourself across too many accounts usually means no one gets a thoughtful touch. Keeping the active list small enough that you can actually serve it beats looking productive on paper.

A simple way to know if you’re on track

You’re in reasonable shape when you can answer, without scrambling through old emails: which accounts matter right now, and what you’re actually going to do this week to stay in the conversation.

That’s not a knock on procurement or fair process. It’s just how a lot of relationship-driven work actually moves.

FAQ

What does pre-RFP mean for architects and engineers?

It means staying in touch with the people and context that shape an opportunity before the formal timeline takes over—so you’re not guessing at the last minute and next steps don’t disappear the second a project deadline hits.

Is it unethical to pursue work before an RFP is issued?

No. Be direct about what you can deliver, use public information and normal professional relationships responsibly, and don’t misrepresent capacity or facts.

What are examples of pre-RFP signals?

Things like leadership changes, project announcements, portfolio updates, public milestones, firm expansions, or events and introductions that give you a legitimate reason to reach out.

How many target accounts should a small firm carry?

Most 1–10 person teams do better with a short list they can actually touch every few weeks than with a long list they neglect. If you can’t give an account a thoughtful touch at least once a month, it probably shouldn’t live in your active pile.

How does this relate to formal proposals?

Proposals are writing and compliance. Pre-RFP work helps you guess less and sound less generic—especially when the rules leave room for relationships and reputation to matter.

Where does Toolblocks fit into this?

We built it so tasks, relationship context, and research live in one place instead of scattered across inboxes and random sheets—so the BD work stays light enough to keep doing while you’re running real projects. Start from the use cases and architecture pages.

About the author

George Valdes is the co-founder of Toolblocks. He previously led product as Head of Product at Integrated Projects (AI-powered Scan-to-BIM) and was Head of Marketing at Monograph. He co-founded Architechie NYC and serves as a board member for the 1735 NY Ave Investments Fund at the American Institute of Architects (AIA). He is based in St. Petersburg, Florida, and is bilingual in English and Spanish.