How Much Money Do You Have to Lose?
Timing isn’t exactly
everything, but it can make or break a communications effort. I find it absolutely jaw-dropping how many major proposal or marketing efforts are hamstrung by poor planning and insufficient allocation of time.
Time is a resource and can be used to a company’s advantage or disadvantage. Unlike people or materials, once time is gone, you can’t get some more to replace it with. People (especially salespeople and managers) seem to have a hard time with that idea. A case in point:
I walked into my office one morning to be greeting with the news that a proposal had to be shoved out the door in two days. This was not a small, insignificant proposal, but one that could have netted several thousand dollars for the company. My first question was “Why am I just now hearing about this?” The answer was that the “higher ups” had not been able to make a decision as to whether to pursue the opportunity until very late in the game.
The result put me and my team in a position where there was absolutely no way we could put forth our best effort and deliver the higher-quality product that we were capable of. As I watched the ticking of the clock, the squandering of labor hours and the production of mediocre work (from people who were capable of oh-so-much-more), I wondered, “How much money do we have to lose?” My guess is that we spent $5000 on that effort, and it was an effort that had very little chance of succeeding.
Someone higher on the food chain must have decided that it was okay to gamble with the company’s money. I’m not a gambler and it seems foolish to me to ignore the risk factors and lack of planning. People who have a chronic problem with planning should look at their company’s advertising budgets and calculate how much of that money they can feel like they can safety flush down the toilet before they get fired. I promise that dollar amount is very small. People who can’t land winning proposals or market in a such a way that increases revenue don’t stay in their jobs long.
While computing has made the production of printed documents much easier than it used to be, it is human logic, thought, creativity and contribution that does a document make. We will never be at the point where you “push a button” and an interesting, successful document pops out. Well, that is, until the androids are developed that will do our thinking and working for us, but we’re still working on that.
People not involved in the document production effort do not understand the amount of time and effort needed to produce not just quality results, but work that will stand heads and shoulders above your competitors. If you’d like to be invited to the party later, you’d better look like someone interesting to talk to.
The responsibility to educate these decision makers rests with the proposal or document manager and his or her team. The effort to educate should be sincere, not condescending, with a focus on helping the company meet its goals.
When the effort to educate is graciously received and really listened to, a closer interaction between production, sales and management can be developed. Proposal or document managers and key team members should be brought into meetings regarding whether or not to pursue a particular piece of business as soon as there is at least a 40% chance that the company will go for it.
Then, the question can be "How much money can we win?" and that's a much more positive goal to work for.
