Avnir

A Sunday thought to close out the week.

We've been unpacking the four pre-RFP moves all week — Co-Creation, Early Access, Committee Coverage, and Pre-Trust. But underneath all four of them is a single arc that explains why the firms that win consistently do what they do.

Five stages. Relationship. Problem surfaces. Early conversations. Co-creation. Proposal — optional.

That last word is the one that changes everything.

When you've invested in the relationship, been present while the problem formed, helped shape the thinking, and built a shared diagnosis — the proposal becomes paperwork. The committee isn't choosing between vendors. They're looking for a reason to choose the firm that's already inside the problem with them.

The firms that treat the proposal as the starting line are entering a race that's already been run.

The proposal is the last stage. Not the first.

Thank you for spending this week with us. The session replay is still live — share it with someone at your firm who needs to hear it.

https://avnirinsights.com/the-deals-decided-before-the-rfp

See you tomorrow as we go deeper.

-

A Saturday thought on how buying actually works now.

Think about the last time your firm submitted a proposal for a competitive engagement. How many people were in the room when that decision was made?

If the honest answer is "we only really know one of them" — that's worth sitting with.

The structural shift in enterprise buying over the past several years is real and underappreciated. Decisions that used to run through a single senior buyer now run through committees of six, eight, ten people — each with their own concerns, their own risk calculus, their own silent vote.

Your champion inside that account — however warm and committed they are — is one voice in a room full of voices you've never spoken to.

One champion is a hope. Five is a deal.

Committee Coverage is the third of the four pre-RFP moves we've been unpacking this week. The session replay is live and goes deep on all four:

https://avnirinsights.com/the-deals-decided-before-the-rfp

Happy weekend.

-

Here's a question worth sitting with this morning.

Think about your most important accounts right now — the ones where you'd love to be the first call when a real opportunity opens up. What stage are you at with each of them?

There are four stages to being the firm that wins before the RFP drops: Trusted Advisor, Early Access, Problem Shaping, and Co-Creation.

Trusted Advisor is where most firms live. The client knows your work, respects your thinking, would take your call. That's the foundation — but it's not enough to win in a competitive process where someone else has been shaping the problem from the inside.

The firms that consistently win the deals that matter have climbed to Stage 3 or 4. They're in the room while the question is still being formed. They're helping articulate the problem before anyone writes a scope.

That's not luck. It's a deliberate climb — earned through the right conversations, at the right moments, with the right posture.

Whiteboard, not pitch.

We're unpacking this all week. Replay from Tuesday's session is live at the link below if you missed it.

https://avnirinsights.com/the-deals-decided-before-the-rfp

-

Here's what stayed with us after yesterday.

We asked the room to do a simple exercise: take your last three shortlist losses and mark on a timeline when you first heard about each one. Then honestly estimate when the firm that won probably first heard.

Most people went quiet.

Not because they didn't know the answer — but because they did.

Almost universally, the winning firm had been in the conversation earlier. Not because they were sharper. Not because their proposal was better. Because they were having informal conversations while everyone else was waiting for an RFP.

That's the whole shift. Five things the room discovered — and one of them lands hardest: the proposal is paperwork. The decision was made weeks before it was written.

If you were in the room yesterday — thank you. If you missed it, the replay is live and worth your hour.

https://avnirinsights.com/the-deals-decided-before-the-rfp

This week we start unpacking the four moves that change the timing.

-

It's happening today.

1:00 PM ET — we go live with "The Deals Decided Before the RFP."

If you've been with us all month, today is the payoff. We're taking the Hidden Deal Timeline from an idea to a playbook — four moves, real context, and a framework you can start applying to actual accounts this week.

And if you're joining for the first time: you don't need any background. Just come with an honest question about a deal you're watching — or one you lost and still don't fully understand why.

The deals you'll win next quarter are being decided right now, in informal conversations most firms aren't in yet. Today we talk about how to change that.

Join us: https://avnirinsights.com/the-deals-decided-before-the-rfp

-