In last
month’s column, Philip S. Krone of Productive Strategies Inc. talked about the myths
and realities of requests for proposals (RFPs). He told the story of a firm
that lost a major potential engagement, even though the prospect had assured
the firm’s partners they would be awarded the business. Unfortunately, a
competitor “out-discovered” them and, in effect, rewrote the RFP to reflect
what the fundamental, underlying concerns of the prospect were in addition to
those described in the RFP.
Smart Business spoke with Krone to learn what happened next.
We recommended that the partners
make a personal visit to the prospect to learn why they lost out. Although not
their standard operating procedure, they made the trip about three weeks after
losing the RFP. What did they learn?
A new lesson in how personal
visits can pay off as relationship-builders
The prospect said: ‘We haven’t
seen or heard from the firm we gave the work to in the three weeks since we
awarded the contract, and you’re here, even though you lost!’
The prospect was no doubt
thinking: ‘This is impressive, but they’re not going to talk me out of my decision.’
How to play for the ‘next call’
Before their visit, we reminded
our clients that coaches often argue with officials over a close decision that
goes against them. They’re not necessarily expecting to change an official’s
mind on a specific call. But they are expecting to gain an advantage for the next call that might go either way.
Similarly, our clients were making
the trip not to argue for the business
they had already lost but to gain an advantage for getting business in the
future. They were going to ask the right questions in the right way to discover
the issue their competitor used to revise the RFP to their advantage.
Why they lost the RFP
Although the prospects did want to
solve the problem described in the RFP (an international tax matter), deep down
they were much more worried about how large the problem might turn out to be.
They had almost no idea, and the winning bidder discovered that worry and used
it to his advantage.
