Business Proposal Checklist

The capture manager scores ICP fit, competitive position, incumbent presence, and win probability against the bid criteria. Document MEDDPICC gaps — missing Economic Buyer or Paper Process is the most common reason proposals lose. Pursue only if win probability clears the threshold.

If no-bid, send a courteous decline preserving the relationship and update CRM stage to Closed-Lost with reason "No-bid". Skip remaining sections.

The AE confirms Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Paper Process, Identify Pain, Champion, and Competition are all populated in Salesforce. Stage cannot advance to Proposal without these fields filled.

The proposal manager convenes AE, SE, deal desk, and subject-matter experts. Walk through the buyer's evaluation criteria, decision process, named competitors, and any RFP/RFI requirements. Assign section owners and confirm the submission deadline.

Pull from discovery-call notes (Gong, Chorus) and the champion's stated business case. Capture current-state pain, future-state outcomes, and the quantified success metrics the Economic Buyer will use to evaluate ROI.

Identify 3-5 win themes tying buyer pain to your differentiators. Pull battlecards from Highspot for competitor ghosting. Discriminators must be facts the buyer can verify, not marketing claims.

List named competitors in the deal and the incumbent (if any). Note where they are strong and where the buyer has raised objections during discovery. Reference last quarter's win-loss interviews for patterns.

Review the MAP with the champion — every step from proposal submission through security review, legal redlines, and procurement to countersignature. Time-box each step. Slipped procurement is the most common reason proposals miss quarter-close.

The AE builds the quote in Salesforce CPQ (or DealHub/PandaDoc). Include ramp schedule for multi-year deals, list price, requested discount, and any add-ons. Verify SKU mapping against the current price book.

Pre-approved discounts under 15% are AE-discretion. 15-25% requires manager approval. Over 25% or any non-standard terms require deal desk. Quoting outside these thresholds without approval forces a clawback later.

Open a deal desk ticket with the pricing rationale, competitive context, strategic value, and any non-standard terms. Deal desk SLA is 48 hours — build this into the MAP timeline.

Pull the current MSA and order form template from Ironclad or DocuSign CLM — never reuse a prior deal's draft. Flag any buyer-requested redlines (limitation of liability, indemnification, DPA) for legal review before submission.

Lead with the buyer's business problem in their language, then the proposed outcome with quantified value. Two pages maximum. The Economic Buyer often reads only this section — make it count.

Map each capability to the buyer's evaluation criteria. The SE owns technical accuracy. Pull reusable content from Loopio or RFPIO rather than rewriting; flag anything that needs SME validation.

Use the buyer's stated metrics from discovery — not generic industry benchmarks. Every claim needs a substantiation source per FTC §5; unsupported ROI numbers are a compliance and credibility risk.

Coordinate with the Implementation Manager on realistic phases — kickoff, technical config, integrations, pilot, broader rollout. Avoid commitments to dates that depend on the buyer's IT availability without their confirmation.

Pull 2-3 references that match the buyer's industry, size, and use case. Check the reference availability log in CRM for blackout periods and approved-use constraints before naming any customer.

Pink team reviews the draft for strategy fit, win-theme execution, and competitive ghosting. Reviewers should not have written the content. Capture revision requests in a single tracked document.

Red team verifies every RFP requirement is addressed and scored against the buyer's evaluation criteria. Missing a mandatory requirement is the fastest path to disqualification on a formal RFP.

Section owners address every gap flagged by the red team. Re-circulate to the red team lead for sign-off before continuing.

Final sales leadership approval before the proposal leaves the building. The VP confirms pricing, commitments, and competitive positioning align with quarter strategy.

Generate the final PDF or DocuSign-ready package with order form, MSA, SOW, and appendices. Verify file naming matches RFP submission requirements — formal RFPs often reject incorrectly named files.

Submit via the channel the buyer specified — procurement portal, email to the named procurement contact, or DocuSign envelope. Capture timestamp and confirmation. Late submission disqualifies on formal RFPs.

Attach the submitted proposal, pricing rationale, deal desk approvals, and competitive notes to the opportunity record. Move stage to Proposal Submitted. Sales operations uses this for forecast inspection and win-loss analysis.

Schedule the debrief with the buyer 30-60 days post-decision, conducted by a neutral party (RevOps or external firm), not the AE. "Lost to budget" without a real debrief is the laziest lost-reason and corrupts future bid/no-bid decisions.