A Delicious Go/No-Go Recipe for Lower Proposal Costs!
June 5th, 2017
The price of chasing work can seem crushing, especially when your firm is hungry and puts all you’ve got into winning a bid… only to come in second place. It’s a vicious cycle when you immediately shift focus to the next RFP in the pile, for a project that you’re capable, maybe even really good at, realizing you only have a statistical shot of winning the job – at best!
When it comes to deciding on projects that you should pursue, the goal is usually two-fold: quality fit work at high win rates.
Don’t dream about pizza and waste good spaghetti!
Huh?
Let me explain. Having a solid go/no-go process helps you improve your win ratios by separating fact from fiction. Chasing pie in the sky leaves you nothing on your plate. Without a decision-making strategy that puts your firm in a winning position, you’re just throwing spaghetti against the wall and hoping some of it sticks. This approach will fail to satisfy your appetite for new business.
Knowing how to logically analyze opportunities for a strategic fit can turn famine into feast by transforming your submittals into served-to-order responses for the RFPs you decide to go after.
Hungry for better-managed growth? Let’s dig in and devour a few best practices in the opportunity analysis process. As you digest the following ideas, keep in mind the strategic marketing principles that are at work…
It’s not about numbers.
I have seen too many go/no-go formulas that involve totaling scores where they instead should be more logically derived. This may sound counterintuitive, but the best processes don't involve math.
Wait a minute! A formula without math? Yes, and here’s why: People are going to simply fudge the numbers if they want to chase after a certain client or project, especially when the data fall short of a ‘go’ decision. You may rank high when it comes to capabilities and experience, but fail to take insider relationships, conflicts of interest or key advantages of the competition into account.
Food for thought:
Before you invest time/money/resources into your next RFP, consider the fundamental connection to business development:
- Does this project align with our firm's strategic objectives?
- Have we been tracking this opportunity?
- Do we know the client and, more importantly, how well do they know us?
- How strong is our portfolio in this area?
- Who is our competition and what are their relationships?
- Will this work prove to be profitable for us?
As you ponder these questions (and perhaps sit there scratching your head, unsure) it becomes clear that mathematical formulas or simple size and scope analyses neglect to take these vitally important aspects of strategic decision making into consideration.
From there, I’d encourage you to think about a few more points:
- Will the project actually get funded, or is it just being talked about?
- Could this be a portfolio builder and, as importantly, do we really need it?
- Will the project employ staff that really need the work?
- How does it feel in the gut? Do we really want this job?
Keep it real.
Above all, be realistic about what you’re in a strong position to competitively pursue and make sure you’ve done the pre-selling work to ensure the relationships are in place to position your firm as a real contender, or the favorite! Chasing after opportunities that should have been no-go’ed can quickly burn out your talented (and likely overextended) proposal staff.
Use these key evaluation criteria to develop (or revise) your RFP/Q evaluation process, and above all, make sure that it works for your firm. I understand that this gets particularly complex when you are working for a multi-discipline, multi-region firm – but do your best to keep the process streamlined, simple and institutionalized. Define your go/no-go guidelines, determine the key decision makers, and set a timeframe for prompt responding. That's what this all boils down to.
If you could use a better recipe on developing a solid go/no-go process that brings home the bacon for your firm, feel free to contact the executive chef here at GEC. We’ve cooked in this kitchen a few times!
