Decision Gate Reviews
Capture Planning, An Overview
February 22, 2023
Opportunity Qualification
February 22, 2023
Decision gate reviews are critical milestones in the business development process at which leadership decides whether to advance an opportunity to the next phase or end the pursuit.
Organizations that repeatedly win new business in complex markets typically approach business development tasks in phases. They win more business at lower cost by aligning their activities in each phase with customers’ buying cycles. This alignment improves customer focus, promoting better solution development and greater competitive differentiation.
Business opportunities are qualified as they pass through a series of decision gates. At these gates, leaders advance and allocate resources to opportunities the organization has the greatest chance of winning and that best match their organization’s objectives. Typical objectives are to capture revenue, increase profit, enter new markets, or extend current market positions.
Decision gate, decision milestone, and gate review are synonymous phrases, used interchangeably.
Effective leadership end the pursuit and withdraw resources from less promising opportunities. This winnowing creates an opportunity funnel as shown in figure 1. Applying decision gate discipline improves win rates because resources not spent on poor candidates can be redirected toward better opportunities. Organizations that eventually bid on fewer opportunities in their pipeline due to smart decisions have historically achieved sustained improved win rates.
Business development professionals sometimes use decision gates poorly and confuse them with color team reviews. These critical milestones have starkly different objectives:
- Decision gates are to determine whether to advance or end business opportunities.
- Color team reviews are to improve the probability of winning of those opportunities remaining in the funnel.
