Decide which work deserves a yes

A customer asks for a quote. The request sounds specific, the organisation looks credible and there is work to be won. It is tempting to treat the next task as writing the proposal. A more useful first task is deciding what would have to be true for this to be work worth doing.

An opportunity is a possibility, not an obligation. It deserves investment when there is a plausible customer outcome, a credible route to a decision and a way for your business to deliver without damaging its finances or existing commitments. These conditions can be uncertain at first. The purpose of early work is to reduce the uncertainty that matters.

This chapter establishes the standard used throughout the book: a good sale should make sense for the customer and remain workable after the celebration ends.

Separate the request from the outcome

Customers often describe a solution before explaining the problem. A request for a new brochure might come from confusing enquiries, an outdated service range or a desire to look more established. Each requires different work. Delivering an attractive brochure may satisfy the wording of the request while leaving its real cause untouched.

Write the desired outcome as an observable change. Instead of “better marketing”, try “people can identify which service fits before booking a call”. Instead of “improve our documents”, try “staff send customers one approved explanation of what each package includes”. These statements still need testing, but they can be discussed and checked.

Avoid promising an outcome you cannot control. You can commit to preparing a clear service document and testing whether readers understand it. You cannot guarantee that it will produce a particular number of sales when demand, prices and follow-up sit outside your control. Separating the deliverable from its intended effect keeps the offer honest.

Introduce the case

Fieldnote Studio is a fictional two-person business that helps small service firms organise customer-facing information. Its proposed package includes a structured interview, a rewrite of one service information pack and a short handover session. The package is an educational example, not a KEVOS® service offer.

One prospective customer wants a pack updated before a planned service launch. Another wants a complete online store, payment system and brand redesign within the same budget. Both enquiries contain possible revenue. Only the first sits near Fieldnote’s current delivery capability.

Fieldnote could attempt the second by hiring specialists, but that would be a new delivery model requiring its own investigation. Calling both enquiries “qualified” would hide this difference. A decision to explore unfamiliar work should be deliberate, with a bounded cost and a reason beyond fear of saying no.

Establish operating limits

An operating limit is a boundary that protects something the business needs. It might concern competence, available hours, cash, acceptable customer behaviour or the consequences of failure. It is different from a preference: crossing it changes whether the business should proceed.

For the fictional package, Fieldnote writes these initial limits:

These are example conditions, not universal rules. A larger business may absorb uncertainty that a small one cannot. A specialist may accept a difficult technical brief that Fieldnote must decline. Write limits for the business you actually operate.

Some limits cannot be traded for a higher price. More revenue does not create missing competence, remove an unsafe working condition or authorise the use of somebody else’s confidential material. Treat those matters as prerequisites rather than weighted scores.

Use three possible decisions

Early decisions need not be a binary yes or no. Use proceed, investigate and decline or defer.

Proceed means the evidence supports a defined next step, such as a paid assessment or a scoped proposal. It does not mean the whole job is approved. Investigate means there is a specific gap worth resolving within an agreed time or cost. Decline or defer means the present conditions do not support further investment.

A vague investigate decision can become an expensive waiting room. Attach a question, an owner and a stopping point. “Check whether the customer can provide approved source material by Friday” is useful. “Keep in touch” does not identify what would change the decision.

For the proposed online store, Fieldnote records that its package does not include commerce implementation. It offers to explain that boundary and, if appropriate, suggest seeking a specialist. It does not promise to coordinate a supplier it has not assessed. A clear decline preserves both businesses’ time.

Count the work before the sale

Sales effort consumes capacity even when it produces no invoice. Research, meetings, estimates and revisions all compete with delivery. Record enough of this effort to notice patterns. A long unpaid proposal for an uncertain job may cost more than a short paid discovery step for a suitable one.

Do not turn this into a rule that every conversation must be billed. Early discussion can be a sensible investment. The question is whether the amount of effort is proportionate to what is known and what the next step can establish. A ten-minute clarification and a three-day solution design are different commitments.

Exercise: write an opportunity decision note

Choose one real enquiry and write a short note with six entries: the customer’s stated problem; the outcome they want; the evidence you have; the important unknown; the limit that could stop the job; and the next decision with its owner and date. Keep assumptions visibly separate from confirmed facts.

Then ask a colleague, or revisit the note the next morning, and identify any sentence that sounds more certain than its evidence. Replace “will buy next month” with the actual observation, such as “asked for options before a planning meeting”. The purpose is better judgement, not pessimistic wording.

You now have a starting standard for worthwhile work. The next chapter develops the evidence behind the customer problem before the business invests in a polished offer.