In the current trend, selecting a service provider/vendor after floating an RFP (Request for Proposal) or against the requirements from an organization/client depends on many factors like costing, confidence, security issues etc… It is important to know those factors which make some you win a deal. Few of them are Costing, approach and your value in the market.
Let us start from a point when the Sales Team comes up with information about the new opportunity. This information can come in many ways like:
• RFP floated by the Customer,
• A new requirement from a customer with whom you are already engaged from past or
• Information that particular company is looking for this engagement and let us give a proposal in a proactive manner.
In Some cases with the ongoing engagements, we can easily find out that there are other areas where we are not currently engaged. If I propose that I can give a particular service to the client in a more efficient manner which will increase his productivity and save a particular cost for him, will be a good initiative to get business from client proactively.
Apart from the above information, specific to different testing types, you can also ask some questions specific to a particular service. For example, if the customer is looking only for Test Automation services, you should know the number of test scenarios, Test cases to be automated. A demo of the application/product will be a good idea to have before you start estimation.