Opportunity And Prospect Development
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The tools and techniques described are designed to help you produce a winning plan for a new opportunity or prospect. We have provided some simple versions of the more complex tools we have developed. These are the basic methods to get you moving forward to increase your chances of developing and winning a new opportunity. You can use them all, or just pick the one(s) most relevant to your opportunity. If you want our help with this approach, or any of the tools contact us.
The steps to creating a winning plan
Bid or No-Bid
Decision Tool
Deciding whether you should even pursue the opportunity is key. Don't waste time on what you can't win.
Defining Customer Issues
What issues are driving your customer. These can be external problems or internal desires.
Key Themes And Messages
Identify the themes your offer should convey and how they address the customers issues.
Assumptions Analysis
Capture, review and analyse the assumptions you've made. Use this with "Information Needs" as your response develops.
Information Needs
As you gather information, you'll identify where you need more information. Record and action, and link to assumptions.
IFVP Matrix
Issues, Features, Value and Proofs that meet you customers needs. Use this tool to test 'so what' for your response.
Relationship Matrix
Tool
Use this tool to create and develop long-term relationships with your customers.
Compliance Matrix Tool
Your tender must be compliant. User this tool to capture what you need to supply and ensure they are addressed.
Create A Winning Bid Or Tender
Once you have everything you need, you can start to write your response. Download our free guide to writing winning responses.
Bid or No Bid.
Deciding whether or not to pursue an opportunity can be critical. Use our tool to help.
Need assistance?
Click on the tool to download this free Excel resource. To use it, go through each question in turn and use your judgement to apply a score (1, 2 or 3). If you are uncertain, we would advise you to be cautious rather than optimistic.
The tool will give you an overall score. Whilst you are still applying a judgement, this structured approach encourages you to consider all aspects of the opportunity. You may score low because of lack of information so, you could decide to gather more information before making a final decision on whether to bid or not. We have a more sophisticated tool. Contact us here if you want more information.
Defining Customer Issues.
What issues are driving or concerning the customer with respect to the opportunity?
Need assistance?
Fundamentally an issue is anything that might keep our customer awake at night. These often manifest themselves as external problems they are trying to solve. However, you need to read between the lines and use all the intelligence and information you have gathered. There maybe internal drivers too.
For example, the external problem may be the procurement and installation of replacement parts. Their internal problem may relate to a need to reduce ongoing maintenance costs and increasing reliability.
Click on the tool to download this free Word resource.
By completing the simple matrix below, it will flag up information you have confidence in, as well as information that is actually an assumption that needs testing out. Contact us here if you want more information.
Key Themes And Messages
You've decided to bid and you have information on your customers issues. Time to develop your key themes and messages.
Need assistance?
This is sometimes known as Story Boarding. This is where you develop your key themes that your offer should convey. By identifying them you can ensure that all sections convey the same critical themes.
Remember, many proposals are reviewed in sections. Often different people within your customer's organisation will review different sections. That's why it's important to identify themes so that you can include them in all sections. Contact us here if you want more information.
If you want to know more about telling stories for business we recommend Donald Millers "Building A Story Brand".
Click on the tool to download this free Word resource.
Assumptions Analysis
What do you really know and what are you assuming?
Need assistance?
We have seen far too many tenders, bids and proposals that fail because the organisation that have submitted the tender have made incorrect assumptions or not stated the assumptions they have made.
If you capture your assumptions, you can then look to test them with the client, ask clarification questions or even state them in your tender, so the client knows on what basis you have made your proposal.
Click on the tool to download this free Word resource.
By completing the simple matrix below, it will flag up assumptions you may need to act on. Contact us here if you want more information.
Information Needs
As you develop your plan to win the opportunity you will identify more information that may be required.
Need assistance?
It is important to record the information that you need so that it can be gathered and used effectively. This is usually a live document, constantly changing.
As you explore your customers issues, competitors offerings and the assumptions you make you will generate a list of more information you need to gather and therefore the actions that need to be taken. Use this template to drive actions and monitor progress.
Click on the tool to download this free Word resource.
By completing the simple matrix below, it will flag up information you may need to act on. Contact us here if you want more information.
IFVP Matrix
What value are you bringing to your customer's issues.
Need assistance?
By using this Issues, Features, Value and Proofs tool you will refine the messages that you should be communicating in your proposal. It ensures that you link the benefits you bring to value as your customer will see it.
A key point here is about Value. This is value as your customer will perceive it not as you see it. Put yourself in your customers shoes. What value do you bring to their issues?
Click on the tool to download this free Word resource.
You can link the value to credible proof that your offer will deliver. Contact us here if you want more information.
Relationship Matrix
This tool is used to assess the relationships you have with the customers organisation.
Need assistance?
This is one of the most important tools when it comes to developing opportunities. Far too often we see 1 to 1 relationships with a customer organisations. This means if your key contact moves, you have no relationship.
Even if you are not bidding for work or pursuing a new opportunity we would encourage you to use this tool to strengthen your relationships with your customer.
Click on the tool to download this free Excel resource. Contact us here if you want more information.
Compliance Matrix Tool
What do you really know and what are you assuming?
Need assistance?
We recommend in our "How to Create a Winning Bid" that you create a checklist of all the things you need to include in your proposal. This compliance matrix can help with that. If there are MUST HAVE's in the clients documentation, add these to the list and mark them as "essential". Some tenders even require a compliance matrix to be submitted in which case you may need to add a column or two, to reference the section, page and paragraph from the clients' documentation
Click on the tool to download this free Word resource.
Contact us
here if you want more information.
WRITE A WINNING TENDER.
Ultimately, all of the tools above are only there to help you create, manage and execute a plan to win an opportunity. We recommend that you download our free guide "How To Create A Winning Bid".
To get your FREE copy go here.
