Several months back I wrote a post about firms being more selective in their RFP responses. The post basically said, “stop wasting time chasing opportunities that you have no chance of winning.” Oddly enough, a Facebook fan (and close friend of mine) commented on the post that “going after any work at all is generally encouraged”. Their comment was basically the antithesis of what my post was all about! However, with the way things went in 2009, that was the sentiment of many firms. “Hey, we can do this work. We should submit a proposal!”
Fast forward to today, when I received the latest issue of Marketer. The cover story was a fantastic read and hit the nail on the head – firms are wasting time on proposals and BD efforts with no strategy! W. Bruce Lea and J. Rossi gathered excellent statistics on what firms that actually WON work were doing well.
Without giving away too much of the article, the firms that won jobs overwhelmingly had developed client relationships pre-RFP, had multiple meetings or get togethers pre-RFP, and had opened the door to multiple points of contact with the client pre-RFP (amongst other things).
There are two ways to look at those survey results. The first is that clients make decisions based on referrals and prior working relationships – that’s it. Fortunately, that just isn’t the case.
The second way to look at those survey results is that a coordinated marketing and communications campaign actually does work. Please note, I didn’t say sales or business development campaign. Sales is only one aspect of the big picture.
A coordinated marketing strategy will help identify new clients before the opportunities arise, so that genuine relationships can be developed. That strategy will include sales efforts or calls inevitably, but it should also have the right mix of networking events, client-focused messaging, direct response outreach, advertising, social media…the list goes on.
Yes, getting new work for your AEC firm is all about the relationships you develop before the RFPs are released…and that’s exactly what your marketing strategy should focus on as well.