Technical Goals

Technical goals typically adress problems in the infrastructure. For example,a Technical goal might be to automate a labor-intensive process, to provide greater flexibility or modularity in system design, or to enhance quality through the use of automated inspection technology. Our I.T.manager who wants the solution to be microsoft compatible is looking for a technical outcome. Do you know much about microsoft appliances? Well, it's possible of course, that a "technical" goal may have nothing to do with technology. Instead, it might involve implementing quality management methodologies or achieving standards of compliance. For example, a factory might need to reduce emissions of volatile nitrous oxides in order to meet regulatory standards. How they achieve compliance may not matter to them, so long as they can avoid having their plant shut down and fined.

Replace the concept of Business goals with mission objectives

BUSINESS GOALS might include such issues as increasing market share,increasing net profitability, reducing overhead, Creating differentiation in the market place, or reducing unit cost of manufacturing of appliances and other things. Business goals can often be translated into financial measures, although not always. If you are proposing to a government agency, replace the concept of business goals with mission objectives. Most government agencies or departments have a clearly defined mission, and your recommendations should be focused on helping them achieve that mission faster, safer, more completely, or more economically.

What are the goals that the monitoring system must deliver?

As you gain insight into the customer's desired outcomes, resist the temptation to take the first thing your customer contact says as the one,true goal for this opportunity. Sometimes this contact is thinking about Personal parochial interests and not looking at the larger, organizational objectives. For instance,suppose you are talking to I.T.manager and you are learning more about the reasons why this person's company wants to develop an in-house test bed for monitoring engine performance,you know how important it is. You ask question #3:"What are the goals that the monitoring system must deliver? How will you know that the system you purchase is the right one for this application?" And the I.T.manager says, "The system must be compatible, it won't work here."Now,do you think that's the most important goal for the entire company? Or does it perhaps reflect the I.T.manager's anxiety about not being able to support an application that doesn't work in corporate-approved platform and doesn't match the skill sets of his or her employees?
Always push for deeper insight into the goals. In fact, I urge you to analyze the situation in terms of four overlappingareas:Business, Technical, Social, and Personal.

The three criteria your results and outcomes you're noting should meet

* They must be measurable or quantifiable
"Improved efficiency" is not an outcome or a meaningful goal, because you can't measure it. "Reducing system downtime by 20 percent" is a measurable result, assuming there are reliable baseline statistics available.
* They must be organizational in nature
Perssonal or political goals are not the kinds of outcomes that can be quantified or used in a proposal. Results and outcomes are important and defensible if they benefit many people across the organization, not merely one decision maker.
*The results must come as a direct consequence of the impact your services or solutions have on the customer's business operations
There must be linkage between what you specifically are offering (not what everyone who is submitting a proposal is offering, but rather the specific elements of your recommendation that differentiate you from your competition) and the specific outcomes the customer seeks. If you "own" the outcomes in the buyer's mind, you probably own the deal.

What goals must be served by whatever action is taken?

Before you can figure out what to propose,you must know how the client will judge Success. What is the client trying to accomplish and what is he or she trying to avoid? Delivering the right results through your solution is usually more important than quoting the lowest price . In fact ,it's the definition of value.
Compelling value usually comes from a solution that goes beyond merely solving the problem to deliver important improvements. Understood in this sense, results are improvements in an organization's ability to achieve its objectives and function efficiently and profitably.
Ultimately, you have to ask the customer what he or she values. When you look back on this project,what do you hope to see as a consequence? How will the organization be better than it is now? What measures will you use to determine whether or not you got good value for the money?
As you question your customer about how he or she will measure Success, make sure the results and outcomes you are noting meet three criteria:

What makes this problem worth solving ?

What makes this need one that is worth addressing?
Try to look below the surface. Ask yourself why? Why now? As we said previously, there are all kinds of problems and needs that every business confronts almost daily. Most of them will never get fixed,because there just not important enough. So what makes this situation one that can't be ignored? What makes this the right time to take action? Who in the organization is being affected by the problem? What corporate objectives are being blocked? What outside pressures are making this problem something that cannot be ignored? For example, if we go back to our sample problem statemen from above, here are some questions we might ask:
Why does the FAA need a course on customer service and total quality principles? Why do they need it now? Why do they want to combine those two topics in the same course? Why is the course intended for both hourly and management staff? To what extent have recent changes in the aviation industry contributed to the need for this training? We are going to be asking more questions in the next post. Remember to leave a comment to my post, you are welcome.

Ask yourself these questions

(1)What did we sell or propose to provide?
Starting from your own products and services is usually comfortable and easy. Just don't stay theree.
(2) Why did the customer need that service, product, or expertise?
Looking back at previous opportunities,you probably have a better insight into what was going on than you did at the time you wrote the proposal. What was the real reason they were looking for the particular solution you
provided?
(3) Why couldn't the customer wait?
What made this need urgent? Was there a compelling event looming in this customer's business life cycle that had to be addressed? Was there a competitive situation which the company could not endure? Was there a market opportunity?
(4) Why couldn't the customer solve the problem internally?
And what was it about the solution that made it necessary to go outside the company to contract with your firm to get it? Specialized expertise? Speed of delivery? Equipment? Perhaps this isn't part of the customer' core business competency?
The goal here is to understand the problem, define it accurately, and use it as the starting point for what you bid.

One way to start recognizing customer needs

A web search might turn up press releases and news stories that suggest what the problem is.Sometimes a visit to web sites run by your prospective client's competitors will be revealing.The competitors may be hinting at weaknesses or problems that your proposal is intended to fix.
How else can you find out what the customer's needs are? One way to start recognizing customer needs is to work backwards from existing projects or contracts you have with similar companies for similar products or services.In other words,if you have written this kind of proposal before,perhaps reasons that drove that opportunity are relevant in this new opportunity.

The client's main problem

Continue from the previous post.Some how that didn't click for me.It seemed more likely that online payment verification was the bank's way of meeting a broader need of the business.So I asked the account manager the obvious question:
"Why do they need to improve their e-commerce capacities on their
web site?"
"Their competitors have better Web sites,so these guys are losing market
share to them.They're used to selling from their retail locations,and
they have been slow to adapt to online selling,I guess.But now they can see
its hurting them not to have a good system."
After further discussion,we decided that the client main problem or need
was to regain market share and become more competitive by improving its
ability to provide secure,fast transactions online.The ability to verify
credit cards on the web site was an enabling technology to help them
achieve their broader business goal.It was,infact,a key part of the solution.
It wasn't the problem
Try to find out who is feeling the "pain" associated with this problem.
Who is having a difficult time achieving their objectives because of it?
If you are unable to get better definition of the problem,you might consider
doing some research into the company.

One of the most frequent mistakes salespeople make in a proactive situation

In many sales situations, there is no RFP.You are working with a client who has expressed interest,and you have uncovered a need as part of your sales process.The client agrees that it's worth looking at in detail,requesting that you address it in a proactive proposal.This is actually a better situation for you,because you now have the opportunity to offer an unsolicited proposal without facing any direct competition.But you still need to probe that situation carefully to make sure you understand its implications and consequences fully.
In fact,one of the most frequent mistakes salespeople make in a proactive situation,one where there is no formal RFP to define the customer need,is to confuse the solution they are offering with the customer's need.I work with a large company,developing the basic outline for a proposal for treasury services with the account team.As part of that process,we were answering the seven questions to make sure we were client centered.
When I asked them,"What is the client's need or problem?"the senior account executive said, "Well,they need real-time verification of credit cards on their Web site."
"so if they can process credit cards online,they'll be happy?"I asked.
"Right."