How do you capture and forecast your opportunities? Are you an Excel person? CRM? Pen and paper? This is one of my favorite questions to ask when I meet new contacts. 

The government acquisition process is much different than the traditional sales cycle. You can’t fit it into the mold for typical lead generation-type selling. I mean, you could try, but it’s just unique in so many ways. You really have to know all about B2G sales and fine tune your process. So back to the question – Excel, CRM, or pen and paper? 

Furthermore, what sources are you tracking? How much time are you spending on capture? Are you missing opportunities? Are you seeing them far enough into the future? You surely don’t want to be the one who only sees an opportunity as a presolicitation (or worse yet – a solicitation!) when all of your competition has been gearing up for it for months. 

Capture & Forecast is critical to winning proposals. Effective capture strategy saves hours that could be spent on preparing proposals. I am a huge CRM fan but understand the upfront investment to get it up and running. If things are falling through the cracks or you are missing (or late on) opportunities – consider looking into a solution that is easy to use and does not require a significant cost to implement. A good tool (that people actually use) is highly effective because you can also track all BD activities, contacts, accounts, email campaigns, and also set up work groups for proposals and more.

Do you have a favorite? Or are you still seeking that perfect solution?