The origination pipeline
Manufacturing demand before an RFP exists. We grade origination on the machine — the leading funnel indicators — not on closes we don’t fully control.
Three tiers of origination.
Where demand comes from, warmest first. Work the warm follow-on before cold BD — it converts far higher.
Warm references & expansions
Clients who already know the work — the follow-on is ours to lose. Pre-scope it before close.
Adjacencies
Same sectors where a Tier-A logo is the credential — references travel to the next door.
Capital co-funders as originators
DFIs and funds bring mandates to advisers they trust — a pipeline, not a rolodex.
What beats cold BD.
- Pre-scope the follow-on inside every live engagement — name it before close.
- One point-of-view provocation per quarter to a Tier-A/B target: a sharp 2-page "here’s the question we’d ask about your asset." Free, and it originates.
- References travel: every Tier-A logo is permission to open a Tier-B door in the same sector.
- The hook rule: for each target, write the one question that makes them hire AIA. If you can’t write the hook, it isn’t a target yet.
Live opportunities.
The pipeline by funnel stage. When an opportunity reaches a proposal, allocate a bid team with the bid-team recommender. Placeholder examples below — maintain real targets in intranet/data/pipeline.ts (keep client-specific hooks in a private store).
Your volumes underwrite the corridor — here’s your cost-to-serve case.
Landed gas price + bankable tariff — the whole chain, modelled.
The deal structure that banks the monetisation we sized.
Independent bankability + demand-risk review on deals in your pipeline.
The scope we deliberately left out — bring it back in.
Does the tariff/designation lever actually flip competitiveness?