Offer package brief

Purpose

Turn opportunity evidence into a complete brief for preparing a customer offer. It states the buyer's requirements, proposed scope, commercial assumptions, delivery approach, proof points, and approval gates without inventing commitments.

Scope

Cover opportunity data, discovery notes, customer requirements, requested timeline, proposed deliverables, pricing inputs, assumptions, risks, references, and internal approval criteria.

Excluded: writing the final proposal, approving discounts, contacting the prospect, and promising unverified dates or outcomes.

Data basis

• CRM opportunity with account, stage, value, close date, buying role, competitors, and next step.
• Discovery transcript, request for proposal, requirements matrix, solution outline, implementation plan, and customer success references.
• Price list, discount policy, standard terms, case studies, and approval matrix in scope.

Result

A brief document with customer context, requirement-to-scope mapping, commercial inputs, delivery assumptions, proof points, risks, open questions, and approval checklist, plus a requirements sheet.

Quality criteria

• Every customer requirement maps to a proposed response, exclusion, or open question.
• Prices and discounts cite the price list or approved commercial rule.
• Timeline statements distinguish customer dates from internal estimates.
• No case study, capability, owner, or metric is included without source evidence.

Instructions

Preserve the customer's exact requirement language for material constraints. Separate mandatory, preferred, and unknown requirements. Use the price list and approval matrix as authority; never infer discount authority from deal stage. Identify scope boundaries and dependencies before describing a delivery date. Mark unsupported claims as open questions and make the offer package internally reviewable by linking each section to a source.

Adapt before use

• Map CRM fields, requirement statuses, pricing columns, and approval roles.
• Add the standard offer structure, discount thresholds, terms, delivery assumptions, and reference library.
• Define the target audience, language, currency, and opportunity-stage vocabulary.

Process detail

Frame the opportunity

Capture account, opportunity stage, buyer roles, requested decision date, value, and win criteria.

Data basis: CRM opportunity fields, request document, and discovery notes.

Result: Opportunity header with source citations and known decision milestones.

Acceptance criterion: All supplied header fields are filled or marked unknown with a citation.

Exception: Do not infer a buying role from a person's job title alone.

Extract and classify requirements

List each customer requirement and label it mandatory, preferred, excluded, or unclear.

Data basis: RFP or customer brief, discovery transcript, and requirements matrix.

Result: Requirements sheet with wording, priority, response owner, and source location.

Acceptance criterion: Every requirement has one priority and one citation.

Exception: Preserve contradictory requirements as separate rows and flag the conflict.

Map scope and delivery

Map requirements to deliverables, inclusions, exclusions, dependencies, milestones, and effort assumptions.

Data basis: Solution outline, implementation plan, capability catalogue, and requirement rows.

Result: Scope-to-requirement map and delivery assumptions table.

Acceptance criterion: Every mandatory requirement is covered, excluded with reason, or open.

Exception: Use a proposed milestone only when the plan supplies a duration or date basis.

Assemble commercial inputs

Calculate list price, permitted discount, recurring or one-time fees, term, and payment assumptions from the approved sources.

Data basis: Price list, pricing calculator, discount policy, currency table, and CRM value.

Result: Commercial input table with approval status and formula basis.

Acceptance criterion: Every amount has currency, unit, term, and cited source; totals recalculate.

Exception: Flag a requested discount above policy as approval required, not approved.

Select proof points and risks

Choose relevant references, capabilities, dependencies, delivery risks, and unresolved customer questions.

Data basis: Case-study library, risk log, solution outline, and discovery notes.

Result: Proof-point and risk sections with evidence and proposed follow-up.

Acceptance criterion: Each proof point matches the customer's industry, problem, or outcome on cited evidence.

Exception: Do not claim an outcome when the reference gives only a capability.

Document what could not be assessed

List missing requirements, pricing inputs, approval evidence, customer decisions, and unsupported dates or claims.

Data basis: Requirements sheet, commercial checklist, and source inventory.

Result: Open-questions section in the brief with impact on offer readiness.

Acceptance criterion: Every open item names its source gap and affected section.

Exception: State no open items only after requirements, commercials, and delivery inputs are checked.