What is different about partner-led pursuit?
There is no bid factory. The people on the letterhead are the people on the timesheet. An RFP that looks small on paper is a utilisation event. selrob’s consultants page is that sentence as a product. These are the rules of thumb underneath it.
Cost the week at billing rate. The calculator defaults are a floor. Your principals may be dearer. Type the truth.
When is it a no before the pack is finished?
When you cannot name who writes and who delivers without double-counting the same two people. When both are at cap through the window. When the RFP is wired for an incumbent and the only argument is visibility. When the fee would not cover the week even if you won.
Fixed-fee with loose scope is a risk fail until the cap is real. Advisory rooms hide in “we will manage it.” Managing it is the job you already have, delayed.
What does a weekly gate look like here?
Twenty minutes. BD has three. The delivery partner has three. The MD speaks last or not at all. The writer is not in the room to start. If the pack is incomplete, the call is review, not a quiet yes. After the date, it is a no without another meeting.
If the meeting becomes a drafting session, you have already bid. Put the slot in the diary as a gate, not as “bid catch-up.”
How does this sit with sub vs prime?
Prime is a different capacity test: you hold the client, the liability, the roster. Sub is a different strategy test: you are someone else’s matrix line. Both still cost a week if the same principals write. See sub-consultant vs prime. Do not treat a sub as free because the page count is shorter. The people are not shorter.
Decline well. A clean no, in week one, is how the next invitation is the one that fits. Silence while a principal writes a maybe is how invitations become a treadmill.