A past client (and good friend) recently got screwed by one of their prospects. Mind you, this is my own opinion, not theirs. Therefore, I’ll tell the story using alias names.
Here’s what happened. The prospect, a municipality that we’ll call OpportunistCity, had worked with HometownArchitects on several building projects over the years. A substantial project is now on the horizon for OpportunistCity. For some unclear reason, they opted to invite three additional firms to interview for the contract.
My client (CoolArchitects) saw this as an exciting opportunity to unseat the incumbent. CoolArchitects—along with the other two candidates—poured their hearts and souls into their interviews. As all of us in the design and construction industry realize, these efforts are costly. Costly, and emotional. Further, we know that we only have so much time in the day. Therefore, when we suddenly jump through hoops for a prospective new client, we risk becoming distracted from our existing, loyal clients along with our other, tangible prospective new clients.
It is my belief that in this scenario, OpportunistCity was testing the waters, solely to ensure that the incumbent firm was not too comfortable. Perhaps they were even hoping that HometownArchitects would reduce their price from fear that they were now competing for the work.
Well, they decided to stick with HometownArchitects after all. Post-decision, OpportunistCity gave no detailed explanation or feedback on the interviewees. Sure, there was the usual ‘You did a great job’ and ‘It was very close; your firm came in second’. No direct, candid feedback that would at least have made it worth the efforts of CoolArchitects along with the other interviewees for future reference.
These stories incite me, and yet, both as a consultant and as an in-house Business Development Director way back when, I can never seem to convince firms like CoolArchitects to politely decline these so-called opportunities. Granted, I’m sometimes afraid to push my view on this too hard, because I second-guess my judgment and think: “Gee, what if they are right this time? What if this truly is an opportunity to knock the prospect’s socks off and completely unseat the incumbent?” So at first I’m not black and white about it. I will instead suggest an in-depth amount of due diligence including a heart-to-heart with the prospect-contact to get an honest answer on reasoning for interviewing other firms. I’ll suggest going through the trusted network to get any additional intel. But ultimately, I’ve always noticed that the firm—especially if they are hungry, which right now, who isn’t?—will go for it anyway. They will take a ‘what have we got to lose’ attitude.
This is what they have to lose:
- -Valuable time and resources dedicated to a futile interview (This can enter the thousands or tens of thousands sometimes).
- -Inability to focus on paying clients and other prospects that maybe longer term, but are at least upfront and not potentially intertwined with another service provider.
- -Pride and emotional currency.
Similar to the above mentioned story, a friend of mine (not in the AEC industry) just admitted to me today that her firm’s CMO enjoys bringing in service providers (typically financial consultants), learning all the details about their processes (which they obtain in writing through fee proposals)—with zero intention to ever hire the consultant. Nope, instead, they then use that process/approach and execute internally on their own.
The next time your firm gets sucked into an interview/proposal process where you are either competing against 1. far too many firms or 2. an incumbant, think twice. Do your due diligence. Press the prospect on their rationale. If they are insulted by your in-depth queries, then do you really want them as a client? Remember, if they do it once, they’ll do it again.
All this being said, sure, there are indeed times when a prospect has had enough of an incumbant and sincerely wants to explore their options. Nonetheless, that needs to be stated openly and directly, and most likely that will also mean that the incumbant will not have a change to compete. At that stage, it’s an open paying field, and that’s your chance to get in there and win over the hearts (and the business!) of the prospect.