Developing Firm Skills

Introduction

A non-profit organization wants a solution to manage donor information and fundraising campaigns. To track effectiveness, it wants to track donors and donations for each campaign. The organization's founder originally kept donor and donation lists in Excel worksheets. Then several volunteers updated donor information using their own version of the worksheets. Multiple versions of the worksheets created a data nightmare.

After spending a long and painful weekend reconciling and merging the worksheets, they saw the need for everyone in the organization to see a consistent view of their data, as well as manage their campaigns. They have a list of three providers offering diverse approaches to meeting their requirements.

A Dreamy Solution

The first provider, Dream Explorers, meets with the organization's selection team. The representative asks each team member what s/he needs from a donor and campaign management solution. She listens intently to the answers, acknowledging each need to make sure she got it right. The team manager shares a requirement to handle fundraiser events where guests would register online.

When the team finishes giving the representative their business requirements, the team manager asks the representative what Dream Explorers would propose for a solution. She replies Dream Explorers will craft a vision of their solution that meets their needs perfectly. The manager wants something more concrete, asking what their solution would look like. The representative says she would need to consult her Dream Design Team, but offers a possibility of converting their master Excel worksheet to Google Sheets to maintain a familiar, intuitive look and feel. The users would adopt the solution seamlessly, with minimal disruption. The team manager asks how that approach would meet their need to handle fundraiser events. She replies the Dream Design Team deals with such minutiae, for a hefty fee. The manager balks and shows the representative the way out.

Something for Everyone

The next provider, Features Galore, struck a contrast to Dream Explorers with a comprehensive demonstration of their Ultimate Donor Management System. The team gets excited by everything the system can do. 

A team member asks about customizing the system for their requirements. The representative appreciates the question, offering to present his deck of 50 slides showing configuration options. The team member defers, saying he’ll “read about it later.” The team manager asks if the system includes a way for donors to register online for fundraiser events. The representative questions their need for donor self-registration since the Ultimate Donor Management System doesn’t offer it. The manager explains the benefits of donor self-registration, which the representative shrugs off. The team in turn shrugged off the Not-So-Ultimate Donor Management System.

There Must Be a Better Way

The selection team now worries if they will ever find a solution provider good enough to meet all their requirements. The team has one more to evaluate, Purposeful Architects. Prior to the meeting, Purposeful Architects asked for documents about the organization, its processes, and a sample donor worksheet.  

The Purposeful Architects representative meets with the team, summarizing what she understands about their requirements so far and asking follow-up questions. She uses the organization’s terminology to minimize misunderstandings. She then demonstrates a donation campaign management proof of concept built on the Salesforce platform. It includes a form where donors can register themselves for a fundraiser.

A team member whispers to the manager how Purposeful Architects seems too good to be true. The manager acknowledges the comment and turns to the representative. She asks the representative about tracking sophisticated metrics, such as a donor’s capacity and inclination to increase donations. The representative asks how they would get the data for the metrics while clarifying the terms. The manager answers her questions as much as she can. The representative offers some approaches while stressing the need to fill gaps in understanding. The team expresses their appreciation for Purposeful Architects’ preparation, attention, and demonstration of what they offer.

A Balanced Decision

The selection team debriefs to decide on a solution provider. The manager knows everyone wants to go with Purposeful Architects, so she cautions everyone to make a balanced evaluation of the providers. One team member likes how Dream Explorers listened to everyone on the team and confirmed what they needed from a solution. Another team member appreciates Features Galore demonstrating a real working system, even if it didn’t meet all of their requirements.

Another team member notes that Purposeful Architects saved the team a lot of time by learning about their organization and processes before coming to the meeting. The manager agrees, saying that Dream Explorers and Purposeful Architects had the best “soft” communication skills. The team member who appreciates Features Galore points out their Ultimate Donor Management System could meet most of their requirements, once they learn how to configure it. The manager comments that Features Galore showed the most “hard” technical expertise. 

Another team member points out that Purposeful Architects balances empathetic listening with enough technical expertise to show a proof of concept that would better meet their requirements than the Ultimate Donor Management System. The manager realizes that Purposeful Architects not only balanced their hard and soft skills, but combined them into firm skills to show the proof of concept. 

The team member who advocated Dream Explorers turns to the member who advocated Features Galore and says that both of those providers dismissed their need for donor self-registration. The Features Galore advocate asks the manager how long he has to keep pretending he likes them. The Dream Explorers advocate asks the same question about her “favorite” provider. The manager says she has heard enough and takes a vote for the decision. Everyone voted for Purposeful Architects.

Develop firm skills by combining empathy and understanding of a customer’s business needs with technical aptitude. Firm skills enhance understanding of the customer’s needs and showing solution models that meet their needs.