Prepare for the marathon: What to consider before submitting your new business proposal
Sameer Patel
Digital Transformation Leader, Advisor, Supply Chain Expert, Board member, Change Maker
A new business opportunity is a marathon and not a sprint. As with all marathons the preparation, dedication and commitment at the beginning will pay dividends throughout the race.
3 keys to takeaway from this post:
- Understanding if you should submit for a bid, proposal or information request is as important a decision as what goes into your submission.
- Separate the "must have's" and "nice to have's" according to what is being requested so your proposal is on point and does not cost you more than necessary. I review 5 nice to have's I would suggest you have ready.
- What are the 4 mistakes to avoid when engaging with or following up to your proposal.
To kick off, lets review a few abbreviations that will be important to the overall post. The 4 abbreviations below will be important for you to get familiar with as we begin the journey. These should be familiar to most business journeymen.
Assess the opportunity: Before you even begin to put your proposals for a RF(x) together take a step back and first consider if you should put in a bid for the specific need. There could be several reasons why you don’t put in a bid. A few for example:
- The customer or solution is not aligned to your business strategy, niche or goals.
- Your company may not have the expertise required to support the request.
- The time & cost of the overall exercise will not yield a positive financial result.
Must Have's & Nice to Have's: We’ll cover some of those in detail with a future post. Of importance in that list is to not underestimate the cost & time investment required in submitting a bid. The greater depth you go to at the beginning to setup the deal, the easier the management of it will be upon execution. If you can’t commit to the time or cost at 110% then let this one pass and get ready for the next time an opportunity comes around. The last thing you want to do is come across as not fully committed mid way thru the effort and hurt any future opportunities. If you do decide to put a bid in I’d recommend breaking your bid into 2 categories. The “must have” and “nice to have”. This will help you determine where to spend your investments for the overall bid.
“Must have” items are easy to identify. These are usually defined on the RF(x) document as “required” or part of the "specifications" listed. If they are not there, then ask you buyer’s contact. Make sure it is 100% clear to you. Missing any one of these could eliminate your application and mean a ton of your time wasted and a potential opportunity lost. Once you know what is required, execute these flawlessly. Make sure your response is:
- Is easy to read, detailed to the requirements/specifications.for RFI's & RFP's - Answer what is requested and leave room for some engaging questions to create an opportunity for a 2nd level of conversation.
- Demonstrates your value, expertise and creativity (if problem solving).
The nice to haves list could be endless and unique to each RF(x). A few that I’ve encountered in my past include:
Financials: At minimum are a balance sheet & your revenue statement for the last 24 - 36 months. The financial details you provide allow the buyer to get a detailed view of how strong (or weak) of a company you are. This is a challenge for many small businesses as it could expose their current financial situation. The financial information is important because the effort of going through this bid process requires a time commitment from both sides. As a buyer selecting a supplier that is healthy and won’t disappear tomorrow because of financial mismanagement is critical and assures the buyer that their time was not wasted if they select you. Your strong financial position, access to capital and overall fiscal management can mean the difference between being selected and 2nd place. We’ll go into some more detail on financials in a future blog.
To continue reading the complete article including additional "nice to have's" as well as the things not to do when submitting a proposal, please click the link to my blog below. If you have any feedback, suggestions for my blog or future article suggestions let me know. I'd love to hear from you. Here's the link to read the full article:
Education Professional at Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R & D Institute of Science & Technology, Chennai
2 年Night Marathon https://www.avadinightmarathon.in/
The future is unwritten.
6 年Sameer and Michael I wish more CEO’s and CFO’s had this courage and foresight. I too have been a Dir of Procurement needing assurances from potential suppliers that they had the capacity to meet their commitments. The suppliers must have a sense of partnership or this becomes an excessive demand in their Estes. May we all do the right thing. May we all have the courage to step forward into partnership.
Chief Operating Officer at Lab0
8 年Hi, Sameer - Great article. Regarding financial preparation and transparency, I have worked for private companies that argue this is private and confidential and not available for distribution. In place of the actual data, these companies have provided Altman Z-scores, liquidity ratios, etc., in place of the real data. Typically, these would be provided by an accounting firm so that a third party is in place. The argument against providing full financial data is mostly one of potential gross margin impact and negotiation of pricing. The owners of private firms often believe that financial transparency is not necessary to do business, however having been on the purchasing side of the fence, it is critical to understand the ability of a supplier to deliver and that includes the solvency and financial capability of the supplier. What are your thoughts and suggestions which could help balance the needs of private firms which think this way?