Bid Smartly . . . or Walk Away

By Bill Scheessele

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Just Say No

Let's not gloss over the act of disqualifying. It figures prominently in the measurement of the business development team's pipeline.

This brings up the question about how much emphasis management places upon not disqualifying low-probability opportunities early and, as a consequence, significantly affecting the size of a proposal pipeline and eventual probability of winning the bid. A client recently shared that, from her experience, bidding smartly is not necessarily building a fat pipeline of proposals in process. Though her proposal pipeline is not large, her win rate is high.

There are added benefits to following our process and bidding smartly. From a financial standpoint, by preventing low-probability opportunities from ever entering the proposal process, the business development team is a prudent steward of the organization's resources. Even more critical than the financial aspects are the personnel and psychological ramifications of following this process. Bidding everything that moves has the effect of eventually burning out and demotivating the team while drastically lowering your proposal win rate.

A client recently noted that after too many losing bids, it becomes harder to get the team excited about the next pursuit, given the investment of time and talent that goes into preparing a response to an RFP.

Here's another drawback that's seldom factored in when low-probability opportunities don't get disqualified early on. Although not always required in the bidding process, it's the "orals" or presentation portion of an RFP where enthusiasm plays a big part. It's there that true belief in an organization's capability, or lack thereof, eventually reveals itself.

A Winning Strategy

A robust process of identifying opportunities and qualifications based on intelligence gathering is the missing link in many firms' business development strategy. This rigorous process can set the stage for a solid pipeline, prudently invested proposal budget, high win rate, and a motivated business development team that believes they can and will win the bids for which they compete.

—Bill Scheessele is chairman and chief executive officer of MBDi, an international consulting firm offering a range of revenue generation resources designed to produce rapid and lasting growth.

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