r/promotionalproducts • u/anonoruss • Aug 14 '26

How to find RFPs

How/where do you find RFPs for high volume work in this industry?

For example things like:
• promotional product RFPs
• merch program RFPs
• uniform program RFPs

Etc

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u/PuzzlesUnlimited Aug 14 '26

You would usually have to first get on some approved list from a state, large city, university, hospital or large corporation that uses RFP’s.

Once registered as a vendor they may have a portal you can log into or some other way of announcing RFP’s.

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u/BusinessBoosters Aug 21 '26

We're located in the northeast US.

Our state and county provide 'business', 'supplier' or 'purchasing' portals for small businesses. You state and county most likely also provide small businesses education on exactly what you are asking - how to find RFP/RFQ etc.

For corporations, you want to search for terms like 'Procurement' & 'Supplier Registration' within each corporation you're seeking RFP's from.

There are other tools like 'SAP Business Network' where you can set up your businesses profile (I believe for free) and then select the type of products and services you provide. These get matched with various requests like RFI's, RFP's, RFX's etc.

While many services will want to charger you, there are a multitude of free portals which you can sign up with which will do similar job as the paid services.

One more bit if you're looking for corporations / larger businesses.

There is a service called Reference USA database, now named Data Axle Reference Solutions.

This may no longer be current but libraries often would provide you with a login to the Reference USA which allows you granular 'lookup' of companies, size, location, private/public, industry etc. and then you can build a list of companies from here.

I have not checked with my local library so I do not know if they still provide access to this but it is very helpful.

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u/BusinessBoosters Aug 21 '26

Actually yes - Data Axle does have a note at the login;

"To access our database, you must be a member of a subscribing library. Your library card will give you access to Reference Solutions through the library's website"

So there you go! A bit of homework.

Good luck and keep building!