Most B2B proposals lose before anyone reads a word of the pricing. In this episode of Ground Control, the podcast on AI, proposals, and governance sponsored by RocketDocs, host Perry Robinson talks with Will Leach, best-selling author of Marketing to Mind States and founder and CEO of the Mind State Group. A former military engineer turned behavioral scientist, Will spent 25 years studying why people really buy and the answer is almost never the reason they give you.

The core lesson: 95% of decisions are made below conscious awareness, inside temporary emotional states Will calls mind states. Identify the four factors behind one goals, motivation, regulatory approach, and cognitive biases and you can write a proposal, email, or RFP response that fits how the reader actually decides, instead of competing on features.

Along the way Will covers the PULL framework for qualifying real opportunities, how he uses AI to embed psychological cues in his deliverables, the graphic-novel trick that makes buyers feel like the hero, selling to committees you never meet, and Bevi, his behavioral intelligence system that lets brands ask a virtual customer what it thinks. His closing line: all we did was put science around intuition.

Connect with Will Leach

Work with Will: https://mindstategroup.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-leach/

Get the book (Marketing to Mind States): https://a.co/d/0cnopkoY

Find Ground Control

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075

All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast

Find RocketDocs

The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994.

Website: https://rocketdocs.com

Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs

An AI assistant that gave itself a phone number, and a startup that let a bot buy a $40,000 Davos delegacy.

Host Perry Robinson and RocketDocs AI practitioner Bryan Jenkins use those stories to show that teams are adopting AI faster than they are governing it. They cover vendor diligence, data sovereignty, and the new Sovrinty partnership. The mantra: policy is a promise, architecture is a guarantee.

Episode Chapters

00:00 Welcome + what's to come

00:25 What today's episode covers

00:58 AI adoption versus AI governance

02:11 The IAPP and EY study: 77% working on it, 57% not in control

03:59 Most people do not know how their AI handles data

04:45 Open-agent tools and losing control of AI

05:39 The assistant that gave itself a phone number

06:50 The startup AI that bought a $40k Davos delegacy

07:51 Marketing security claims versus reality

09:26 When "secure" is just a contract, and terms change

10:44 Read the privacy policy, not the marketing

13:15 You are the data: cheap AI, big deficits, lock-in

14:13 Trusting AI answers you know are wrong

15:35 Prompt injection in resumes and the proposal space

16:29 Both sides use AI: answering and evaluating RFPs

17:26 Asking ChatGPT how to evaluate AI vendors, and itself

19:34 Vendors that deflect the data flow question

20:58 ChatGPT's own no-go indicators

23:33 Why de-identified and aggregated is not enough

24:55 Court cases, legal holds, and "once it is out, it is out"

26:02 Policy is a promise, architecture is a guarantee

26:50 Contract terms flowing down: a financial services example

27:49 The overnight scramble to re-qualify a vendor

28:39 Coming enforcement actions and downstream fines

29:42 Defining data sovereignty

32:29 How little control most people actually have

33:37 Better AI results from controlling what it sees

35:18 Source citations and countering hallucination

36:06 Introducing Sovrinty: keeping knowledge current and approved

39:00 Portability, Glean, and 150 fractured repositories

41:27 Sovrinty versus Snowflake

45:29 Closing checklist: do real diligence, do not just rely on AI

46:40 Invest now in accurate AI sources

47:20 SOC 2 scope: is the AI even covered?

48:51 Ask for a data flow diagram and the vendor's AI contract terms

51:23 Think different: stay skeptical of AI

52:07 Keep your company's unique voice

53:15 Wrap-up and a call for listener stories

Find Ground Control

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075

All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast

Find RocketDocs

The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994.

Website: https://rocketdocs.com

Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs

Juliet Fletcher has spent nearly 40 years in proposals and helped her clients win more than $1 billion in awards, but the experience that shaped everything came before she ever wrote one. As an intern for the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, she reviewed proposals for compliance and sat through panel hearings all the way through award. That reviewer's seat is her secret sauce: design your document so the evaluator can instantly find what they need, because if they have to hunt for it, they start to like you less. She and host Perry Robinson get into her "human discernment enforcer" mindset, why evidence beats AI-generated narrative, why a strong proposal writer is a persuasive communicator rather than a technical writer, and the bid/no-bid discipline that keeps you from chasing what you can't win. Her mantra: persuasive communication is never about you, it is about them - write without fear, edit without mercy.

Episode Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Juliet Fletcher and her expertise
01:13 Juliet's background in proposal review and compliance
03:01 Designing proposals for reviewer ease
06:06 The human discernment enforcer mindset
07:47 The importance of evidence and proof points
11:07 Organizing proposal content as a database
14:35 Using AI tools for proposal drafting
19:00 Persuasive communication and storytelling
23:28 Challenges with AI-generated content
28:02 Engaging SMEs and making them feel valued
33:47 Starting early and learning from past proposals
39:11 Best practices for post-proposal analysis
44:11 Evaluating AI tools and competitive intelligence reports
51:20 Final advice and how to connect with Juliet

Connect with Juliet Fletcher
Work with Juliet: https://writingiseasy.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julietfletcherwritingiseasy/

Find Ground Control
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ground-control-sponsored-by-rocketdocs/id1896052098
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00xAPsKE61ff5X5YC4ndRA
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rocketdocs6075
All episodes: https://rocketdocs.com/resources/podcast

Find RocketDocs
The response management platform built for regulated industries - trusted since 1994.
Website: https://rocketdocs.com
Book a demo: https://rocketdocs.com/demo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdocs