Estimate the actual total cost of preparing the proposal. Pretend that the money required to prepare the proposal is your personal savings. Would you invest your savings in a venture that has a high probability of losing all of your money?

It is extremely important to apply a systematic, objective, and rational business procedure for evaluating win chances of every market opportunity. This is the only way a company can develop a reliable approach for increasing its win rate or percentage of winning proposals.

Each company must develop their own, unique system for assessing win chances. While an assessment system may follow general principles, it is simply not practical to import the system of one company into another. However, the basic two-part structure for a market opportunity assessment system is essentially universally applicable.

The first part of any firm's system must be a clear and objective method for qualifying a market opportunity. A firm whose method consisted of asking one question: "Does anyone want to propose on this?" and if one person said yes, they proceeded to prepare a proposal, does not have a method. Needless to say, their win rate was well below their peer group of firms' average and their cost of doing business was high.

When you assess an opportunity and decide to make it a marketing target, you are making an investment decision. Wise investment decisions are financially disciplined and carefully made.

The second part of the evaluation process is assessing the chances of winning. Again, an objective and rigorous approach is required. If your chances of winning are high, than make a decision to prepare and submit a proposal - if they are low, cut your loses.