VIEWPOINT NEWSLETTER December 2012

Are there missing ingredients in your team's proposals?

As companies increasingly sit on their cash and invest selectively, many excellent ideas are not being funded. Yours may be among them, whether you want to solve an internal problem or recommend action to a client or customer. Maybe the benefit just doesn't outweigh the cost. But you may be making a very common error - focusing too much on the solution and not enough on the problem. I have seen this omission across a range of clients.

To justify spending, decision-makers must first agree that the problem is a top priority. Good proposals include key ingredients -- proof that the problem:

• Causes significant, quantifiable and unacceptable harm in ways that matter to the decision-makers
• Must be fixed immediately
• Can be fixed at acceptable cost and risk by your recommendation

In ways that matter to the decision-makers. What do they care about, and how can you tie your recommendation to these concerns? Thoughtful audience analysis will help you answer these important questions and guide your communication strategy. For example, one client saw that the key person in his audience was a former CFO and highlighted the financial aspects of the problem. Another realized that the decision lay in the hands of a newcomer to the organization, who needed an overview of how things worked in order to understand the gravity of the problem.

Developing a strategy before structuring your message does not take long. It does take a willingness to think not about what you want to say, but about what your audience needs to hear. Things that are important to you might not be important to them.

Incomplete or unfocused cases for change complicate life for decision-makers as well. If you are the decision-maker, are your teams providing the kind of decision support you need?

Audience analysis and communication strategy are key pieces of Communications Logic workshops, individual coaching and collaborating with your teams on communications. Please get in touch to learn more.