Create pre-RFP opportunity notes

A pre-RFP opportunity note is not a proposal record. It is not a pipeline stage pretending to be real. It is a lightweight record of possible future work while it is still forming.

Most firms lose their best BD intelligence in the gap between "we heard something" and "there is an RFP." Memory fades. Staff rotate. The principal who knew the context gets pulled into delivery.

Pre-RFP notes give that intelligence a durable home between relationships and formal opportunities, where it can develop until the firm is ready to pursue or walk away.

A useful note should capture:

• what was heard, in the client’s language, not sales language
• who is involved on the client, collaborator, and firm side
• why it matters to direction and the firm’s proof
• what is still unknown: budget, timing, decision process, competitors
• who has the warmest credible path into the conversation
• what proof may be relevant if the opportunity matures
• what should happen next, with an owner and a date

Notes should stay short. Two minutes of logging beats a perfect write-up that never happens.

Review them in the weekly BD rhythm. Some will mature into pursuits. Some will stay on watch. Some will die quietly when the signal was wrong. All three outcomes are better than losing the signal entirely.

This gives firms a way to manage opportunity formation, not just opportunity response. The firms that win early are often the firms that saw the work forming months before procurement made it official.