Present Your Company, Present Your Product - Define why you should be chosen. Be clear on who and what you are. Be specific on what you can do. Be specific on features of your product. Ensure that your product covers all points of RFP.

Be specific. Do not embellish. Always represent capabilities of your company and your product without embellishment. In other words do not BS. If your product or company cannot meet a stipulation of RFP, look to forming strategic alliances with companies that can provide in requirement.

Strategic Alliances: One point of contact. Customers do not want to have hassles when implementing, or maintaining a system after implementation. If at all possible define a proposal leader amonst your alliance and define this company as single point of contact for any upfollowing activities.

Structure and Order. Stick to point. Provide a good referencing structure in your proposal. Remember, a proposal is not a Lone Wolf gamebook (the kind where you have to page around to read story). Put all relevant information pertaining to RFP in main body of document. Any ancilliary material goes in an appendix with adequate referencing from body.

Cater to your audience: Proper Mix of Tech and Sales. Keep your proposal readable and believable. This can only be achieved by putting a leash on your sales people and by teaching your techies how to write copy that is readable by human species.

Inspire Confidence. It is always a good idea to include a corporate resume. Only list past projects that are relevant to issue at hand - do not include irrelevant work to fill out your proposal.

Spell out how you work. Define project structure and scope adequately. Identify your personnel and technical competencies berforehand. Create a believable project plan.

Methodology is key. Customers and evaluators want to be reassured that you know what you are doing and that you will attempt assignment in a structured and ordered manner. If you do not have a methodology by which you work, establish one or acquire it. Ensure that your personnel are trained and are conversant in this methodology. Remember, a project plan on its own is not a methodology.

Run proposal process as a project. Time is money and money is time. Resource assignment on a proposal should be justifiable. Do not spend too much time and effort on little jobs, and too little time and effort on big jobs.

Riaan Pieterse is the CEO and founder of Kerberos Internet Services CC, South Africa. Having spent a number of years conducting various consulting assignments in the Far East, Middle East, Africa and Europe to businesses and governments alike, Riaan has a solid understanding of the business and technology issues in today's market.

As we discussed it, I agreed this was a perfect business opportunity! I pointed out that this was a high-priced, high-margin product with relatively low shipping costs. We base our business strategy on establishing relationships with our customers and we can do that best with fewer customers. After all, we’re not trying to be a Wal-Mart or a Dollar Store.

It had advantage of being a product that requiring a good deal of expertise. Which DVD player is best? Which models fit in which vehicles? There was even potential for information products like plans for customizing older vehicles to accept a DVD player.

Imagine long-term potential for offering DVD movies that play well to a traveling audience. Marie-Lynn will be able to warn her customers about movies with car crashes and high-speed chases that may give driver a nervous breakdown, and she can recommend movies that keep her own daughter occupied. Moreover, whom do you think her customers will come back to when they change vehicles? As we talked, we both became excited about possibilities.

I was convinced "DVD Players for Your Car" could be a perfect application of Ride Wave philosophy. Then Marie-Lynn also told me her research showed her that mobile and wireless networking products were selling well now. Everyone wants an always-on Internet connection, and more and more people have multiple computers in their house that they want to network without drilling holes and running wires.

She was thinking about starting a business selling mobile and wireless networking technology and she would include "DVD Players for Your Car" business with it. After all, there isn’t any type of device more mobile than a car, is there? She was worried she might not sell enough car DVD players to make a profit and mobile networking was a high-end market and there weren’t many people doing it. She was also worried that she might not have expertise people were looking for when it came to DVD players... after all, she didn’t even have one in her car yet. She was still shopping!

There’s a good chance many of you will have same experience, though not necessarily with DVD players and mobile networking products. You will have doubts about your idea and doubts about your expertise. You will worry that you won’t make enough sales of one product and you’ll be tempted to add other products to your online store. I’ll tell you same thing I told Marie- Lynn.

Don’t lose focus! The "DVD Player for Your Car" idea is excellent. It would only get lost in a "Mobile and Wireless Networking" Web site.

Remember: Your brand, your business name and its reputation, is your most valuable asset. Your must build and protect your brand over anything else. Your brand will be true secret of your success and source of long-term security of your business and your income. Think of your brand as your position in hearts and minds of your customers. Where are you in hearts and minds of your customers? Remember your business strategy and you have every chance of success. It’s easy to get distracted and lose your focus. Stay on track!