Plan today to win contracts tomorrow
This excerpt is from a column I wrote for the?Daily Journal of Commerce,?06/11/2012.
A national survey by the?Society for Marketing Professional Services?asked architecture, engineering and construction firms to identify why they had won their last project in which selection was based on criteria other than solely price.
Eighty-one percent of respondents said someone in their firm met with the client before the request for proposals was published. The average number of meetings they had with the client was five. The average number of months before the RFP was seven.
Those numbers are compelling proof that preselling and relationship building well before the RFP is a real competitive advantage.
Too often firms take the qualification route to business development: “We are just as qualified as anyone to do this project, so let’s submit a proposal.” They take their chances and count on winning some of the time.
Folks who refer to it as “chasing work” are late in the game and running to catch up in the pursuit. They are perennially at a disadvantage to those who have been more strategic and ahead of the RFP: the longer the lead time, the greater the opportunity to obtain a favorable position.
When one gets locked into answering RFPs almost exclusively for business development, the human connection is missed.
The qualification route is seller-focused: How well can we represent our qualifications? But the relationship route is buyer-focused: What do the people really care about in this project? As the survey indicates, relationships tip the scales when all things are equal.
Providing Targeted Marketing Solutions for Architects, Engineers & Contractors
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