From Chris Gandy

The first contract Cause & Effective was awarded was instructive from a number of perspectives. Not the least of which was a clearer understanding of our value proposition.

The contract in question was to help a medium-sized not for profit that, due to  Government contractual changes, needed to go through a significant structural transformation.

We felt we had put together a very attractive bid – we had an Associate on the project who was an absolute gun on these types of assignments,  great care was taken with the design and delivery aspects to make sure the organisation had every opportunity of being more sustainable and able to deliver greater social impact at the conclusion and, in our opinion, it was priced very fairly.

Sometime after our bid was submitted I was contacted by the organisation’s CEO who said he had a concern with our bid price – it was  50% lower than the nearest bidder. He was attracted by the price but was concerned that this was indicative of the quality of our offering.

My immediate thought was: “Great, first possible job and we have already given away the farm!”

While the CEO, maintained a high level of discretion about the other bids, we eventually learned that the time we allocated to the project was roughly 50% less than other bidders.

I checked again with our Associate who assured my these types of projects were his “bread and butter” and was adamant he could deliver in the timeframe we specified.

We were awarded the contract and did a great job.

While we were thrilled to get the assignment, the experience caused the “penny to drop” about a significant value proposition we had, up till then,  neglected. That was that subject matter experts not only deliver excellent outcomes but they do it in the minimum amount of time AND time is money.

No procrastination, fluffing around or studying up on the subject. Experts are “in, do the job and out of there” type of people.

From my experience, the best advice I can give leaders of not for profits is: When you need help in dealing with a pressing challenge,  partner with someone who is an absolute expert in that area. The value you will derive will be in two areas: quality of result and speed of execution.

Cause & Effective is there to help you source those experts.

About Chris. He is a former not for profit CEO and  Founder  of Cause & Effective. An organisation that places vetted, affordable experts within the reach of cause-based organisations. You can find a Cause & Effective expert here