Quotes from Tom Sant

Qualifying an opportunity at the outset helps you determine whether it's worth pursuing at all, and, if it is, with how much effort.

Poor project management is the leading cause of failure in technical projects

Once you've taken the time to develop a comprehensive list of differentiators, you will want to use them quickly and efficiently to support the value propositions you offer.

into the hands of the final authority, the one person charged with responsibility for signing the contract or issuing the purchase order.

These are tough choices. You may find yourself torn between wanting to propose the very best, most effective solution you can and wanting to submit the most competitive proposal possible.

And, after all, winning business is what writing proposals is all about.

If somebody else is the incumbent, your chances are very low.

Although a great proposal by itself seldom wins a deal, a bad proposal can definitely lose one.

Does it go on the "keeper" pile or does it go on the "discard" pile? That's the first question your prospects are probably going to ask, because it's likely that the reviewers are staring at a pile of submissions much larger than they can reasonably handle.