| Identifying the Gaps in Knowledge |
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Finding the Black Holes Black Holes are the things you don't know - yet. As you go through the marketing process, you should take notes and evaluate what information you're still missing so you can identify where the Black Holes are. Once you've found the organizations who have the right CASE, and you've outlined all the BUGS, and you know each of their ISSUES, you have the information you need to construct a winning proposal. This kind of analysis is the opportunity to plan to use your resources wisely. You've targeted the organizations with your marketing plan, you've found the prospects who are in the right CASE, and after investigating that organization, can identify all the BUGS, and you've discovered the ISSUES for each of the BUGS. Any blanks in this list are Black Holes and someone needs to try to fill in those Black Holes. It is difficult to win when you leave Black Holes, and provides an opportunity for competitors to step in. Each of three firms competing for the design of a new bridge used their most recent stunning examples of bridge design for very complex bridges as proof that they were best qualified for a small bridge project. The young structural engineer from the fourth firm, who was hungry to win his own bridge design project, did his site visit just like all of his competitors. But while he was visiting the site, he took a camera and shot a few pictures. And he stayed for lunch at the local cafe and was introduced to the President of a local Homeowner's Association across the river from town. The man explained that they were a retirement community and this was their only way to get into town. "How long," he asked, "would the bridge be out? And what happens if there is an emergency? How do we get out if there is a forest fire?" The engineer took it all in and, later on, made some notes. He knew that everyone would be using the same method to construct the new bridge, a method call "staged construction," in which one-half of the bridge is demolished while the other half stays open to traffic. One half of a new bridge is built and then the new half-bridge is opened while the second half is torn down and rebuilt. But this engineer knew something that the other firms didn't know. He knew that the folks across the river from town were worried about how this would work. He inserted detailed drawings in his proposal to prove to the public works engineer that his drawings would be complete enough to avoid any construction delays. And he also inserted some drawings for the less knowledgeable members of the city council that illustrated the "staged construction" process step by step. The first picture showed a cross section of the old bridge, the next, one-half of the old bridge. The third picture was of one-half new bridge and one-half of the old bridge, the next, one-half new bridge with old bridge torn down, and finally two halves of the new bridge joined together. This young engineer also included a guarantee that he would be on 24-hour call during the construction period just in case the contractor had any questions or problems. The total cost of this extra bit of work? $4.96 for a pager for 30 days and $2.15 for extra sets of drawings. The value of the contract won? $450,000.00!
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There were Black Holes that were missed by the other engineers because they didn't have a system to collect, evaluate, and investigate their market intelligence. They had all the qualifications to do the job. In fact, their qualifications were probably better, but they had several Black Holes they didn't know about: The insecurity of influential community members. The lack of sophistication of some of the selection committee members who needed to explain to residents what "Staged Construction" meant and why it would solve their concerns. And finally, the threat of problems during construction coinciding with forest fires, which required the reassurance of a way out and help on the way. For more about evaluating your opportunity, click here Next page in the Magic of Winning Proposals | Marketing Manager | Proposal Manager | Marketing Team |
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