| From our series of articles on how to write a | | | | Qualification Toolkit to help you make those |
| proposal we look at qualifying opportunities and | | | | decisions and it helps you in two ways. |
| making bid/no bid decisions before you write a | | | | Firstly, the Bid Qualification Engine helps you |
| business proposal. | | | | measure the probability of your success in a |
| Once we have an opportunity we need to decide | | | | particular opportunity, but this isn't a one-time |
| whether it is a viable one for us to actively | | | | thing that might stop your business development |
| pursue. Having meetings with clients, preparing a | | | | in its tracks...every time you qualify the |
| written proposal, travelling to a presentation and | | | | opportunity you are identifying strengths and |
| all the other costs of gaining business are just one | | | | weaknesses in your capture planning strategy |
| aspect. It may be that the opportunity isn't quite | | | | (our next article will look at capture planning in |
| right for you - it may not be your core | | | | more detail and how you can develop a strategy |
| competence or could be a distraction from a | | | | to help you win work). Identifying weaknesses in |
| more important project or prospect. Maybe you | | | | you position (and the potential impact of those |
| know that your competition is in prime position | | | | weaknesses) early on in the business |
| for this piece of work and you feel that this | | | | development process helps you overcome them |
| project \"has their name\" all over it (we'll look at | | | | and make your proposal and position stronger. |
| that problem in a later article) and that it simply | | | | Secondly, the Bid/No-Bid matrix helps you make |
| isn't worth you writing a proposal. | | | | an objective decision about the viability of an |
| So how do you decide whether to bid or not? | | | | opportunity. |
| The danger is that you make an emotional | | | | Any sort of formal qualifying process is important |
| decision to bid and write a proposal, even though | | | | and should be done regularly throughout the |
| it may not be the right opportunity for the | | | | development process. Why? Because it will help |
| business, after all you have put in the effort to | | | | inform you about your progress and also will help |
| find or create the lead. You should go through this | | | | you if your bid is unsuccessful and an analysis and |
| process even if a client organisation has given you | | | | report has to be made of what went wrong. If |
| a \"hot\" lead and asked you to respond to their | | | | you can show that you followed a structured |
| RFP or tender document. | | | | process of identifying potential problems and |
| You need to qualify your lead all the way through | | | | mitigating them, it helps feed into improving how |
| the sales process - from the initial prospecting to | | | | you go about writing business proposals and |
| just before the submission of the proposal. At | | | | winning work. |
| Learn to Write Proposals we have our Bid | | | | |