•Dollars. How big is this, how soon can we see it, and how long will the opportunity continue to pay us and is there a bigger payout later? But even more important than that is the rock solid assurance that a trigger event has occurred that will make certain this deal happens, and an unshakeable knowledge that a budget of sufficient size has been allocated to do the work. Without these, the dollars are dreams, not dollars.
•Dates. When the deal is going to close is less relevant than when it will bill. More importantly, what control do we have on moving the dates forward versus waiting for things to happen?
•Decision Making. You have to know the criteria upon which the awarding of the work will pivot. If we don’t know how the fears that the deal will alleviate in the client’s mind, we don’t know enough to win.
•Decision Makers. Is the economic buyer involved and have we personally engaged with them yet?