Tools - Pre-Sales Checklist

Do not underestimate "Pre-Sales or Concept" work activities that need to occur before you Initiate a project. The level of formality should be aligned with the Tier Rating of the project.

As discussed, before a project starts, you can set up a foundation (well worth it)..... or set up a mud pit (do not be surprised when that extra level of stress and anxiety appear - and help others understand this too).

PMI does not even do this approach justice. The PMI process groups start with Initiation.

I would like to see the following process groups:

• Concept/PreSales
• Propsal
• Initiation
• Planning
• Executing
• Monitoring and Control
• Closure

This also helps people understand, business, operations and projects are all in the same family, they need each other and integrate with each other to deliver ultimate value for the client.

In this very first stage, one could leverage a checklist such as below:

ID #	Project Tasks
1	Confirm key owners, influencers and recipients
2	Define Justification (e.g. market demand, business need, technology, legal, societal, client request, etc)
3	Analyze Sales/RFP or other project documents that are associated with starting a project
4	Define very high level resource requirements (money, people, material, equipment, tools, time, etc)
5	Identify possible sources for resources
6	Confirm engagement strategy
7	Analyze Organizational Design capability and strength associated with potential work
8	Review project potential with business vision, mission, mandate, values, strategy, model and objectives
9	Conduct peer reviews
10	Complete Account Plan
11	Complete Sales Response Strategy and Documentation
12	Start Project Proposal or Charter (as per methodology)
13	Review Key Information accuracy and levels of risk/source of error
14	Confirm Project approach (phased/staged workflow)
15	Understand negotiation strategies and boundaries
16	Review Plans with resources
17	Refine and Present SOW and PSA
18	Attain final approval/modifications on formal documents
19	Sign off on SOW, PSA and formal documents
20	Identify and begin Project Acceptance Table
21	Start a high level (informal) lessons learned / feedback forum
22	Present and ensure understanding of project vs operational environments and approaches to be taken
23	Temper the excitement of “wanting it all – or scope creep before we know what we are even doing” - with the understanding of trade-offs, constraints and prioritization (support management of expectations)
24	Enhance the excitement of new value for the organization
25	Communicate project gate closure and move to next stage

NOTE:

And of course, assumed it already an integral part of the Pre-Sales/Concept stage, is to ensure the value and the business case work.   WE ALWAYS do work for a return in value and the level of probability of success associated with receiving that value is dependent on the risk tolerance of the organization.  Ensure that is talked about and very clear, as always right at the start!