When we seek funding or respond to an RFP, our proposals meet the criteria requested, presenting well-positioned information to persuade the decision makers to choose us. But winners are chosen by some mysterious set of criteria not only unknown to us, but often unknown to them. I began thinking about this when a friend told me she was writing a grant proposal. With my systems-thinking brain I asked her:<\/p>\n
She had no answers, but resolutely believed that importance of her mission would rule the day. She has a 10% success rate, even though in many instances she knows people on the committee. That means she wastes 90% of her valuable time. Her strong appeal, great writing, and the importance of her message are lost because the criteria of those who might fund her driven by more than merit.<\/p>\n
DECISION MAKERS DRIVEN BY UNCONSCIOUS, UNSTATED CRITERIA<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, there are no ready answers to the above questions, even if they are posed. Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n
Using conventional practices of submitting a well-written, compelling, and provocative grant or proposal, or making a professional presentation, it\u2019s a crap shoot. But it\u2019s possible to have more success by facilitating the decision makers through their unconscious, mysterious process\u00a0and helping them recognize, before they begin, the issues they will need to address to succeed.<\/p>\n
CASE STUDY<\/p>\n
My clients in large corporations (naively) believe they win on either price, relationship history, or quality\/brand. Here\u2019s a real story.<\/p>\n
A global consulting client received an RFP from a Fortune 50 company \u2013 the company historically used Company X as their consulting provider. My client, delighted at the chance to win new business, assembled a large team to respond to the multimillion dollar RFP. \u00a0When I asked them what\u2019s stopping the Fortune 50 company from using Company X now, my client went silent. They called the Fortune 50 company and asked:<\/p>\n
CONSULTING CO: What\u2019s stopping you from using Company X again this time?<\/p>\n
FORTUNE 50: Nothing. We\u2019re going to use them again. We just needed a second bid.<\/p>\n
True story. Since we now knew we wouldn\u2019t win the RFP, we chose a different route. We offered a cover page and a couple of pages of Facilitative Questions [a new type of question I developed that enables Responders to assemble\/recognize unconscious, systemic criteria \u2013 in this case, regarding implementation, buy-in\/consensus, resistance issues that would be a natural fall-out from a project of this size]. We wrote a note:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are interested in winning your business, and we\u2019ve included an overview of the types of services we provide. However, since you will be using Company X, we\u2019ve decided not to respond to the RFP but instead offer you a real service. We\u2019re sending along some important questions to answer before you begin your project<\/em> to ensure a successful implementation. We hope you find these valuable. And if the time comes you would like to have a conversation around how we can serve you in projects such as these, we look forward to putting our best team together to help you be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n I spent some time understanding the human systems that would show up during this project and formulated about 40 Facilitative Questions to help the client uncover answers to problems\u00a0would come up but were not included in the RFP, such as<\/p>\n How will you know when you have assembled the appropriate group of people to give you the full set of correct data before you begin, to ensure you won\u2019t use faulty or incomplete data moving forward?<\/p>\n What would you need to set up at the very beginning of the project to ensure continuing communication among all involved, at each stage of the project, to ensure there is no time or resource wastage due to insufficient information being circulated?<\/p>\n By answering these questions, the client would have 1. Knowledge of potential problem areas that didn\u2019t show up on the RFP, 2. Knowledge that we knew how to achieve successful implementations, 3. Knowledge we were professional, focused on their success, and eager for the business. We didn\u2019t hear back for two months. Then they called and hired my client because their chosen providers didn\u2019t address any of the buy-in\/consensus\/resistance issues we highlighted, and they realized there would be costly (in the millions) implementation problems. My client won the business with no proposal, just the two pages of Facilitative Questions that helped their prospect put their ducks in a row and avoid potential problems.<\/p>\n WHY DOES EXCELLENCE TO OCCUR?<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible to override these problems by helping funders\/clients recognize what they need with by teaching them how to uncover and manage the hidden issues necessary for excellence to occur with minimal disruption. To differentiate yourself,\u00a0use the opportunity of seeking business (i.e. doing a presentation), funding, or responding to a\u00a0proposal to show them you can help them address their systemic shifts and give them the knowledge that you are a knowledgeable partner.<\/p>\n For my clients, I have created a decision facilitation<\/a> model (Buying Facilitation<\/a>\u00ae) that produces about 30% more success with proposals and presentations. You can create your own consensus\/implementation model to add to\u00a0your proposals and presentations, so long as they include the ability to help the clients\u00a0manage the steps they\u2019ll need for success.<\/p>\n ____________<\/p>\n Sharon Drew Morgen is a decision strategist, an original thinker, and author of 9 books: one NYTimes Business Bestseller, and two Amazon Bestsellers. She has just published her newest book on how we can close the gap between what\u2019s said and what\u2019s heard (What? Did you really say what I think I heard?<\/i><\/b>\u00a0at www.didihearyou.com<\/a>). Sharon Drew is a consultant, trainer, coach, speaker, and inventor. She can be reached at sharondrew@sharondrewmorgen. When we seek funding or respond to an RFP, our proposals meet the criteria requested, presenting well-positioned information to persuade the decision makers to choose us. But winners are chosen by some mysterious set of criteria not only unknown to us, but often unknown to them. I began thinking about this when a friend told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,28,1,18],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n