That's the thing though: it's an extremely wide range. For example, anywhere from $25,000 to over $1,000,000. It's impossible to say upfront whether it will fit your budget.
The reason we take a consultative approach (as opposed to a traditional sales approach and leading with the price) is because we want you, the customer, to control the scope of the project. We work with you to understand your requirements, then prepare a preliminary proposal and SOW with the price. You can then say, "well, this is a bit out of our budget, but maybe we can postpone features X and Y until the next phase" and we go back and forth until the final scope and associated price are acceptable to you.
I can't disclose our ratio of RFP submission to customer. But the thing about RFPs is that they are rarely objective. In the vast majority of cases, the client's preferred vendor helps the client write the RFP. And in a lot of cases we end up being that vendor, because the clients trust us after seeing our methodology.
Thats surprising - In my state (NV) someone would be fired for that as it would be considered collusion.
http://www.slideshare.net/pmcloughlin1/how-to-help-your-cust...
The most important thing to understand about RFPs is that they aren't designed for making the "most fair" selection. They are designed for making the "safest" selection. An RFP is basically a CYA (cover your ass) mechanism for the procurement team. That's why collaborating with preferred vendors when the RFP is being written is a very common practice. Teams writing the RFPs rarely have the subject matter expertise necessary. So they receive help (which is a good thing).
I imagine getting that first contract though wasn't easy - as that initial connection had to likely come through an RFP? and what is the ratio of RFP submission to actual customer?