Where's My Check?!

I once had the opportunity to proof a proposal for a friend (and executive director) who was soliciting a certain "Mr. Moneybags."

Clearly, a great deal of time an money had been spent on making this proposal razor sharp. It was beautifully written, tons of pictures and graphics. Detailed reports about all of the programs and activities. Beautiful!

Just one problem.

Nowhere in the proposal was there any mention of a request. Nowhere. I flipped through the whole thing again, just to make sure that I wasn't losing my eyesight. It's as if this organization suddenly had no problems whatsoever, and just wanted to let Mr. M know that everything was a-ok! I found this very eye-opening.

Since then, I encourage all of my clients to mention money first, whether the conversation is initiated via phone, e-mail, letter, whatever. Yes, it's counter-intuitive in our line of work, where tact and ambiguity are our left and right hands. But the "money thing" needs to be out there right away.

"Wait! What?! Then he'll be able to turn me away outright?!" you exclaim franticly.

That's true. And that's his prerogative. And that's why we don't get emotionally involved with new prospects when our "hit rate" is about 1:20. But still, that's called getting off easy, compared to spending time, money and bitter tears on man that has no intentions of coming through for you.