Getting To Yes - Tips for winning funding for projects

While failing to sell projects is a common problem, especially for departments like Communications or HR that are often unfairly viewed as cost centers, there are an increasing number of resources available to help understand how to ensure that decision makers perceive the value of your proposal.

It’s a common experience in the corporate world. A communications or HR professional identifies a problem within his organization. He researches options for solving this problem, the pain of which is self evident to everyone he talks to, and prepares a highly detailed 60-page proposal explaining how the solution functions. He gives a copy to his boss, who in turn promises to have it put on the agenda at her next executive team meeting. He then prepares to initiate the project, and rehearses how best to accept the praise he will inevitably receive for the excellent work.

Two weeks later, his boss informs him that the President shot down the proposal because there’s no room in the budget. What happened? Did an unenlightened executive team, insulated from the real world by their mahogany wall, become so divorced from real issues that they failed to grasp the value of his proposal? Or did he fail to present his idea effectively?

While it’s true that the pointy-haired boss in Dilbert is an amalgam that includes real examples, executives will always reject proposals if the people presenting them do not link the proposal to measurable corporate objectives. And even if the measurable objectives are there, the proposal can be rejected if presented in a language and format that hyper-busy executives cannot quickly absorb. In the example above, the communications/HR professional observed the pain within the organization, but neglected to determine if the problem impacts the company’s business results, nor did he consider how to package the proposal in a format suited to executive decision making.

While failing to sell projects is a common problem, especially for departments like Communications or HR that are often unfairly viewed as cost centers, there are an increasing number of resources available to help understand how to ensure that decision makers perceive the value of your proposal.

Understanding Decision-Makers

In an excerpt for their recent book,

, authors Dave Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank state that: “Influence with impact occurs when HR professionals start with the beliefs and goals of the receivers....

When these requirements are fully understood, then the HR professional can show how an investment in an HR practice will help the stakeholder gain value as defined by that stakeholder.”

As the authors point out, you must understand the objectives of the audience to whom you are pitching. And, in the case of executives, you’ll quickly discover that there is only one goal: profits. They attain that goal by either increasing revenue or decreasing costs. Any suggestion that fails to address one of these concerns will likely receive a quick “no."

Money Talks

Another resource that has been well received, Prescient Digital’s white paper called

, provides numerous examples of companies in which communications and HR professionals have successfully pitched intranet proposals based on measurable top- and bottom-line business benefits. It provides examples and methodologies for developing proposals that are much more likely to receive a “yes” than a “no.”

While the white paper will deliver the tools needed to address the values and goals of executives, you can’t neglect the other lesson learned in the example above: you must use language and a format that hyper-busy executives can quickly absorb. In today’s business environment, managers receive hundreds of e-mails every day, have their budgets cut quarterly and must constantly measure results. In other words, we’re talking about people with no attention span, a strong motivation to turn down requests for money and a respect for data.

To reprise our example above, the communications/HR professional does his research, and determines that the specific problem he’s identified is low employee productivity due to mammoth inefficiencies in accessing information. He reads all of Finding ROI (even the ROI Study Findings!) and calculates that for an expenditure of $50,000, his company can save $500,000 in the first 12-months, delivering an ROI of 1,000%.

He then goes to his manager and states: “By webifying and aggregating disparate tools and pools of information on the corporate intranet or portal, employee users become more productive with quicker and more accurate access. And the investment would be $50,000.”

Unfortunately, the executive hears: “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the investment will be $50,000.” Then she’ll say, “No, we don’t have $50,000 budgeted.”

A more successful approach might be:

“I’ve identified unnecessary costs of $500,000 resulting from the inefficient process currently in place for accessing information. I’ve thoroughly researched a solution that would offer an ROI of 1,000%. With your permission, I’d like to provide more details.”

She’ll hear: “$500,000 in savings, inefficient process, 1,000% ROI.” And respond: “Tell me more… while I run my fingers through my pointy hair and strategize about how to best to take credit for this proposal.”

OK, you can’t neglect the pointy-haired boss factor. Nevertheless, once the project receives funding, you can commence managing a high-impact project that will produce measurable benefits for your co-workers and job satisfaction for you. But getting the “yes” requires understanding the importance of linking project proposals to measurable corporate objectives, quantifying the benefits and presenting the data in a language and format that hyper-busy executives can quickly absorb.