In The Complete Book of Chess Strategy, Jeremy Silman offers this advice to chess players: “Learning the basics of endgame play is of extreme importance. I can’t implore you in strong enough terms to correct your flaws in this area. By doing so you will find that your opening and middlegame play will improve, whole new strategies will suggest themselves, and a newfound confidence will enable you to enter endgames with the strongest of opponents.”¹ Successful endgames require a great deal of skill. Well-written proposals and well-delivered presentations are not accidents, and they aren’t produced by amateurs, no matter how skilled those amateurs might be in other parts of their professional lives. If you intend to do well here, you must invest here. So what are the goals of endgame? First, you are trying to position yourself to win, to bring successful closure to the customer’s decision, and you accomplish that by creating superior proposals and presentations. Next, if you win, your goal should be to achieve a mutually acceptable exchange of value in the negotiations. Finally, you should prepare yourself to execute the contract in a manner that delights the customer. Throughout endgame, there are numerous opportunities for behavioral differentiation. The first occurs in how you organize and manage the proposal development process.