A consulting firm's most valuable asset is what it has already done, and the least accessible. Proposals live in one folder, final decks in another, the post-project review in someone's inbox, and the honest account of what went wrong in nobody's file at all. When an RFP arrives, the first hour goes to asking around.
The questions that keep coming back
- Which past projects are most like this RFP, and what did we charge?
- Who on our staff has worked in this sector, with this kind of client, on this kind of problem?
- Have we pitched this company before, and why did we lose?
- Which engagements ran over, and what did the close-out say caused it?
- What did we promise in the last proposal that we should not promise again?
What happens to your files
Upload proposals, statements of work, deliverables, project reviews, and CVs as they are. Desk reads them and remembers what a partner would want to know: every engagement, who the client was, who did the work, what it cost, how it ended, and what the review said afterwards. When six proposals mention the same client, Desk treats them as one client with six stories behind it. When the same partner appears in twenty engagements, that is one person with a track record. Nothing has to be tagged or filed. The next time someone asks "have we done this before?", the answer is a list with the files attached, not a memory.
Questions Desk answers well here
"Which engagements in financial services involved a pricing model, and who led them?" finds the engagements on that topic and the people who worked on them. "What was the fee range for diligence work last year?" reads the fee facts off the relevant engagements and shows the file behind each. "Have we worked with this company before?" returns the company with every proposal and engagement attached, including the lost ones and the stated reason.
Routines worth setting up first
- Every Monday: new engagements added this week, with client, lead, and fee, for the partners' meeting.
- On demand, when an RFP arrives: the five most comparable past engagements, with outcomes and who led them.
- Monthly: engagements whose close-out notes mention scope creep or overrun, grouped by cause.
What to upload first
Start with the last two years of proposals and final deliverables, plus close-out reviews if you have them. That is enough for "have we done this before" to work on day one. Add CVs so that "who" questions resolve to real people, and add older material as time allows.
How Desk helps
Desk turns the firm's own history into the first thing consulted.
- Proposals, deliverables, reviews, and CVs are read once into engagements, clients, people, fees, and lessons, each with its source.
- "Have we done this before?" returns the comparable engagements, who led them, what they cost, and why a pitch was lost, in the files' own words.
- A routine assembles the comparables the moment an RFP arrives.
Thinking about how this would work for your team?
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