Ali Fotovat's company used to close nine deals out of ten. Then the win rate fell to three. The team was sending five proposals a week instead of two a month, cutting prices, and still losing to competitors with weaker technology. In this live coaching session, Rajesh Nagjee shows him why.

Rajesh maps the problem onto three circles: passion, talent, and market need. Proposals built from passion and talent land in what he calls the dreamer zone. They impress engineers and stay unsigned. He uses IBM's billion-dollar home computer flop to show how even the best-resourced companies build for what they love and miss what customers buy.

The fix starts before the proposal is written: find the job each person on the buying committee is trying to get done, and the outcomes that matter most to them and are least satisfied today. It is the same gap behind prospects who go quiet after a great meeting.

What This Episode Covers

• Why more proposals can mean fewer wins

• The confidence loop: doubt, over-explaining, and lost deals

• The three circles: passion, talent, and market need

• The dreamer, the fool, and the taxi: three zones that miss the bullseye

• IBM's billion-dollar home computer flop

• Functional, emotional, and tactical outcomes

• Writing one proposal for a committee of five to eight people

• Applying outcomes to the four client types from an earlier session

Key Ideas From The Conversation

Why do technically better proposals lose? They are built at the intersection of passion and talent. "At that intersection, you go and build it... the world's best mousetrap. And now you're expecting the world to come. But now you're shocked. The world is not coming." Rajesh calls this the world of the dreamer.

What is the dreamer trap? Rajesh uses three circles. Passion and talent without market need is the dreamer. Passion and market need without talent is the fool. Talent and market need without passion is the taxi. Only all three together hit the bullseye, and a proposal that misses market need stays in the dreamer zone, however good the solution is.

How do you write a proposal a committee will approve? A deal of any size is decided by a CEO, a CFO, an IT lead, managers, and users, each trying to get a different job done. "Unless you are able to hone in on that, that committee is not going to vote for you." The proposal has to show each of them the outcomes they care about.