In a previous newsletter we discussed a Just Do It campaign for writing winning proposals. No one wins them all and successful companies find out the real reasons why the lost. Note I said real reasons. A debriefing with the customer is an essential first step in the process. View a debriefing as a sales session where you make get some hints on why you lost but probably not the real reason.

Then go to your sales and technical staff and ask them to get to the end users and find out why you lost. Their answer may be: "We really don't know the end users." Now you know why you lost and you probably shouldn't spend any more money trying to dig deeper.

Most importantly, don't repeat the mistake of blind bids again or a the very least know precisely what you are doing when writing a proposal to a customer you don't know.