Biggest roadblock in coordination?

Hi all! I'd love to hear some thoughts on what you think your biggest roadblock is when it comes to involving other stakeholders, especially those outside of your department/purview.

One issue I find is that Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) often have very different workflows and commitments, making it difficult to pull them into complex projects at the last moment. As I'm sure we've all experienced, RFPs often get dropped in your lap with tight turnarounds, and involving busy Product Managers, etc. can prove difficult at times, especially when they aren't as familiar with RFPIO.

Thank you!

Comments

Lauren Daitz

The biggest roadblock is often that senior management who oversees those areas never specifies that supporting RFPs is part of their job.

Also, we've learned recently that if you focus on the hardest things (i.e. things that need product management, etc.) from the outset, you annoy fewer people. LOL.

Tiffany Ramos

Consistency.

And feedback.

We will periodically ask for feedback on the process. This also helps us address any challenges; if we hear good things, I will create a cute email with creative (canva is my favorite) to distribute. This lets people know it's a good process and it works.

But it won't ever be successful if you don't get the senior stakeholders' buy-in. It has to come from the top down, just like @Lauren Daitz mentioned!

Two absolutely wonderful answers!

As an RFPIO CSM I generally see a combination of these two approaches be the most effective.

Make sure that leadership has laid out clear direction about who needs to be a part of the process and in what capacity.
Once that's understood, make sure those folks have the resources and support they need to complete the tasks. @tiffany_ramos I love the idea of using SME feedback to create material that they'll be able to enjoy and leverage!

Elizabeth Bissell

We have started a project to develop a RACI with all of our company-wide SMEs. We started with the highest priority areas, and are now flowing it to other areas of the organization. We approached them with real data to the highest level. We also know who is Responsible and Accountable. We showed them that X responses with standard content were used Y times, saving them Z amount of time. We showed them the amount of time WE spend on each project vs. the 'deltas' we ask for their help with. It really helped put things in perspective. We also are using the question data we capture in RFPIO to send them information on what 'new' questions the market is asking, which gives them the insight to adjust their priorities to meet Market needs. We use a Pragmatic Marketing framework so this type of data is very valuable to the SME. So, we are developing a 'symbiotic' relationship.

Nick DeMarco

@Lauren Daitz that's a GREAT point! Many sales teams treat the RFP team as an input/output machine and don't really take the time to look behind the curtain. I also agree with your second point; triaging and disseminating information ASAP is crucial to creating stakeholder engagement.

@tiffany_ramos that's a fantastic idea, we were trying to think of how often to ask for feedback; I was thinking quarterly.

@Beth_B interesting, I hadn't thought about using a RACI approach! I definitely want to try to quantify the time savings for the SMEs, since it's hard for them to define that when the RFP workflow is so volatile.

Thank you all for your valuable feedback!

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