41. All of the above should have instilled an appreciation of the importance of planning and time-tabling. IPTs should not underestimate the time taken to plan for this stage and should be mapping out progress to financial close with the preferred bidder, its lenders and all other interested parties within days of appointment of preferred bidder. Simple things like asking key players (including advisers) when they are on holiday during the next six months/year and enquiring what other major deals advisers are acting on (which may conflict with your project) will assist in building up a realistic timetable to completion. IPTs should not be optimistic about timing - however pressing the demands of the customer may be - and must manage the customer's expectations in this regard. The preferred bidder process can be long and arduous - especially where guidance such as that contained in this note is not followed. It is far better to build more time into the process than you believe is necessary than to find your negotiation position prejudiced by an overly ambitious deadline which has been set without any regard to the maturity of the project or external influences such as the availability of advisers. An IPT should never find itself conceding points because it has imposed an artificial and overly ambitious deadline on itself - a wily preferred bidder will spot such "drop dead dates" and may actively manipulate the process to its advantage.