Last week, we received an RFP (Request For Proposal) for a new content management system (CMS) and Associaton Management System (AMS). The RFP was great. The work was totally in our wheelhouse, the association is a segment we go after, and there were some exciting elements to the work.
But some parts of the RFP were confusing. So we called and asked for a meeting or requirements gathering call. We were told to submit questions via email, that the organization was not open to a meeting or call.
“Why?” we asked. The answer: “in the interest of creating a level playing field, we are only accepting emails.”
We get this a lot and we almost always decline to respond to those RFPs. It’s not arrogance. On the contrary, we believe that we can’t truly understand the goals and requirements of an organization from a piece of paper. Written requirements also never articulate the non-technical requirements of a project, like the need to make a diverse and quarreling committee happy. We also find that a great meeting can unearth hidden requirements or deprecate others. Plus, you can’t underestimate the importance of chemistry and culture fit between two organizations and you can’t ever really explore that via paper.
So clients and prospects, why refuse a meeting? Won’t an hour or two of deep, engaged conversation be ultimately worth your time? If one vendor stands out because they asked great questions, took the time to get to know your organization, developed a deeper understanding of your needs and ultimately submitted a better proposal, how is that a bad thing?
I have two friends who have walked the Camino del Santiago. The friends are Peter Schwartz, who is my business coach, and Gordon Bernhardt, a member of my CEO peer group. Both of them did the French route, which takes you from St Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela. It's a 500-mile journey that you do on foot over...
Our online identities are, unfortunately, not in our control. The internet was created for communication between computers, but our presence as individuals on the internet is less formally defined. We create online accounts and over time we may forget they exist, if we haven’t already forgotten our passwords. Technology advocates argue that we need an identity layer for the internet. We...
Google for leadership lessons from the martial arts and you’ll get a jillion posts. Most of them focus on skills you’ll develop from practicing the martial arts. Skills like focus, discipline, respect, confidence, flexibility, etc. I recently did a webinar for UST Education on just this topic BUT my leadership lessons are ones I learned from my master, Master Seung Hum...