13 Questions to Add to Your Go/No Go Decision
Whether you respond to RFPs or not, a clear Go/No Go process is essential to ensuring you don’t spend too much time on proposals that aren’t likely to win. Figuring out how to make that decision is the hard part, however. To help make it easier, here are thirteen questions you can ask to help you decide if you should send out the proposal.
Are we the incumbent? If not, is there one?
Incumbents win 60-90% of recompetes, making it tough, but not impossible, to beat out the incumbent for the project. If you are the incumbent, then creating the proposal is likely a no-brainer, unless it’s a customer that you don’t want to keep working with. However, if you aren’t the incumbent, you will have to do some research to determine if it’s worth it to send in the proposal.
Is the customer happy with the incumbent?
If the answer to this is “yes”, then the RFP or ask that you send in a proposal is likely a formality that they have to follow. In most cases, they’ll award it to the incumbent anyway. It’s often not worth it to send the proposal in this case.
If not, was the RFP released to fix the issue?
That being said, if the customer is not happy with the incumbent, this may be the perfect opportunity to take the project from them. You’ll want to find out if that is why the RFP was released and what the specific issues were that they faced to ensure your company also won’t have those issues.
Do we have a strong relationship with the customer?
Incumbent or not, having a strong relationship with the customer is a key to winning the project. If your sales team has had several meetings that went well, then it’s a good sign to send the proposal.
If you have little to no relationship, then they might use the proposal for information gathering or to try to push your competitor on price.
Does the RFP play into one of our strengths?
Because RFPs are competitive, you have to be able to compete when you send in the proposal. That means if it’s for a solution that is not one of your strengths, then it likely won’t go well. Similarly, if you don’t have references or examples of providing similar solutions to other customers, then you might want to hold off on these types of RFPs until you build up your customer base a bit with projects that don’t require RFP.
Is the RFP geared towards a competitor?
When you read the RFP, watch for any areas that indicate they want to work with a competitor. For example, if the competitor has a specific process they follow and the RFP outlines that process, it might mean the customer already wants to work with that company.
Is the project funded? Does their budget align with our fee?
If the budget isn’t there, you’re not going to get the work anyway, and sending the proposal will be a lot of effort with no reward. Ask during your sales meetings to learn if the project is funded and determine their budget. This will help you figure out if it’s worth pursuing the opportunity.
Are they planning to buy or is this information gathering?
Similarly, you want to know if they actually intend to purchase soon. Some companies will request proposals to learn more about their options with little intent to move on a plan any time soon. Try to find out where they are in the sales process. If they only just started trying to figure out how to address their problem, then they probably aren’t ready to buy.
Will winning the project require heavy investment from us (time or money)?
The goal is to win the project, but what if the project is more trouble than it’s worth? If winning the project means you’ll have to hire several new employees, develop a new process, or make some other massive change, it might be too hard (and less profitable) to manage to make it a good opportunity.
Will winning this project further our goals as a company?
You have areas where you want to grow, and sometimes projects hold you back rather than bring you forward. Just because you can win the project, doesn’t mean you should.
Is the customer likely to be a strong account or an example case study in the future?
This is an important question if you’re trying to move into a new area. As mentioned above, you want case studies and references for projects, and winning a project that can serve as that in the future may be invaluable.
Would winning this give us an advantage over a competitor?
Your competitors might have similar goals to you, and winning a specific project can give you a significant advantage. For example, if they have held a big contract for years and it’s the one they reference in every proposal, then winning that contract will give your company an upper hand. Also, if you’re both trying to move into a new industry, then winning more projects in that industry will give you an advantage.
Are company politics affecting our decision to bid?
This one is a little tougher to determine. Let’s say you have an opportunity to send a proposal to a company that’s owned by your IT Director’s cousin. It’s not necessarily a good fit, but you feel you need to send it anyway because of your internal relationships. At the end of the day, you’ll have to decide if it’s worth sending out the proposal and winning a project that’s not a good fit. If in doubt, don’t send it.
All of the above questions can help you determine if an opportunity is a good fit or better saved for in the future.