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Find the pain and offer a solution
The easy approach: What is the organization trying to accomplish? What stands in its way. How can your products or services help?
The real world: What is person A trying to do to person B and how does person C feel about it? Do they have a budget? Is it funded? And even if it is, do they have the authority to commit it, or does person D have to get involved? And when will bureaucrat E step in and say three quotes are needed?
It is the role of people, and the inevitable politics and bureaucratic processes, that make most engineers (as well as any other nominally sane person), want to throw up their hands in disgust and say “Why can’t people just do things when it makes sense?” If you keep up like that, you’ll blow a gasket.
Instead, think of it as math, or as a data flow diagram. You have to model the process, which might require a bit of reverse-engineering. But once you understand how data is supposed to flow through the process, then it will start to look less like things get done according to who you know, and more like a workflow process that you can navigate. Don’t get frustrated if you don’t know something. Reverse-engineer the process. Diagram it if you have to. Once you get good at it, you’ll be able to factor in personal preferences and politics into the decision points in the process. Just continue to think of it as a data flow process that you have reverse-engineered and optimized its functionality, otherwise you risk being consumed by the dark side.
Remember, you’re not pushing paper through this workflow without any reason—you are trying to solve a problem. The more the pain relieved by your solution, the smoother your trip will be through the process. Whether you area dealing with a company, a Government Agency, or a non-profit, everyone thinks in terms of Return-on-Investment (ROI). They have to feel sufficiently motivated in order to take the action required to accomplish the goal. If you can solve a problem that causes the customer pain, you’ll find them motivated to help you through the procurement process.
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