 As we all struggle with the new business environment driven by Covid-19, one thing is clear - you must do all you can to retain, if not grow, your current client relationships. This is particularly important if you’ve been working on a contract that’s due to expire before things settle into the new normal. If you’re faced with a rebid to keep that client, you have more reasons than ever to do all it might take to win.
At The Artemis Partnership, if we hear from a client that a rebid is imminent, here’s the first question we ask: Have you done a client satisfaction survey? That is, do you REALLY know what they think of you after having worked with you? Why Conduct a Survey? In today’s competitive and nearly chaotic corporate environment, companies will ask a lot from their providers, especially during a rebid. They will expect faster, better and more efficient work than before. That means that your firm needs to demonstrate its competitive advantage in a multitude of ways, including client service. Conducting a survey will provide your organization with new information that will help immeasurably in a rebid scenario. While you often go into a rebid with assumptions, survey results will confirm or reinforce new information to make your rebid stronger. When your firm conducts client surveys, you demonstrate to your clients that you care about the relationship and are open to ways to improve it. It’s All About Timing Feedback is vital. But asking for it only when notified that a current relationship is going to RFP might be too late. One of the biggest mistakes businesses make when gathering feedback is not conducting regular client surveys. We tell our clients to send out the survey well before a rebid, and allow time to implement changes before going through the rebid process. As far as frequency goes, if you have a retainer client, conduct surveys each year, and give your client plenty of lead time to plan for it. Twice a year might even be better. Pair an annual, formal survey, with a half-year briefer, but structured, check-in. When you are planning a survey for a project-based client, send the survey at the conclusion of the project. (For longer projects, check-ins at logical mileposts can make sense.) This also gives your firm another communication touch point following the project to propose the next opportunity to engage with them again. What Should You Ask in the Survey? It’s not enough to send out a survey, the questions you include need to be carefully worded and chosen to deliver feedback that matters and can impact your performance, and ultimately their satisfaction. Avoid yes and no responses, and leave room for open commentary. An important question to ask is “Did we meet, exceed, or fall short of expectations?” Surveys should also include questions about what your organization did well and what could be improved, as well as the quality of the work, quality of the team, and value compared to cost. Finally, once your client surveys are completed, review findings with your teams and create action plans to put the feedback into motion. A client survey can be one of your most helpful tools when used the right way, but could backfire if your client doesn’t see their feedback used meaningfully. The Artemis Partnership can help your organization create, conduct and interpret effective client surveys to positively impact this year’s results. - Bob Wiesner, Managing Partner, The Americas
0 Comments
 Societal norms are being forcibly torn away, customs such as the simple handshake which has been the staple of closing a deal for thousands of years, are now being written off in the face of mitigating the spread of Covid-19. However, despite these cultural changes, this does not impact the ability for clients and businesses to conduct business. What does, however, is the sudden zeitgeist of 'social distancing'.
The '2 metre rule' in force around much of the world has rendered face-to-face selling unacceptable, dangerous even while we are in this situation. Maybe when social distancing restrictions are relaxed then the old ways will resume, but I think we are seeing shifts that will outlast the easing of restrictions. The custom of face to face meetings, the foundation of trade and bartering in our civilisation, and far older than the handshake, has now spontaneously become less relevant. You could say that ever since the advent of high-speed internet and video calling this has been always coming, but this global crisis has certainly accelerated it, breaking cultural barriers in the name of necessity, propelling Zoom and other video calling services into household names. Are we seeing the end of face-to-face selling in this current environment of lockdown and social distancing? Maybe not the end, but certainly a shift. Ask yourself: 'Why do we arrange meetings with clients? What purpose traditionally does a face to face meeting serve?' We all know the answer: to make the client feel comfortable and at ease with you and your business, build trust and rapport, gauge emotion through eye contact and body movements, and the list goes on and on. However, ask yourself now: 'Do you think your client would feel comfortable, or have time to build rapport and trust with you, when they are too busy wondering about what diseases you could be spreading, or how soon they could take their mask off?' Even when restrictions are officially dropped, will people want to go back to the old ways? For those who are thinking video calls will soon be rendered obsolete once lockdown has ended, it is looking increasingly likely that B2B as well as clients will adapt and embrace this shift towards technology over more traditional face to face methods as this will be the way to generate better levels of rapport. Until a vaccine is found and distributed amongst billions of people (and perhaps even after that), a client will never feel completely comfortable in meeting others face to face, and so it is up to you and your business to maximise their confidence and trust in your services and your reputation however you do end up communicating. So what to do – the answer is obvious, simply be better than most when doing video calls. We still need the opportunity to gauge people’s energy levels, examine subtleties from their body language which is vital to communication but now it is online. When it comes to business video calls with clients, a professional and technically sound setup is crucial in this new norm of B2B. No longer are expenses for travel and commutes a priority. Instead spend a tiny percentage of what you would have spent on airlines and car expenses on your video set-up such as the resolution of your camera, your microphone and even the background view of your own home to optimise the professionalism you portray to your clients and prospects. Personal Presentation How you present yourself on a video call is more important than you think. Although it might seem tempting to turn up to a video call wearing 'around the house' clothes, it is vital to view these video calls as an extension of yourself and your business. How you present yourself, and the effort you make in your own personal presentation will influence your perception by the client. They might assume that if you don't care enough to spend some time making yourself appear business-like you may not care enough to deal with their business professionally. In addition, maintaining the discipline of eye contact is crucial in this new digital medium. If your eyes are darting across the screen, although it might seem normal behaviour for using a monitor, to the client at the other end it will simply look like you are nervous or distracted, either of which will send the completely wrong message and does not instill confidence. Make sure to move your camera and the position of your video call on your monitor so that it always appears that you are looking directly into the camera, even if sometimes you might not be. Equipment Spending time to search and invest in the equipment necessary to reinforce client confidence in you during this period is vital. The investment that would yield the most immediate and noticeable difference in your video calls is of course your camera. Despite some high-end laptop cameras being able to record in 720p, your best bet still remains a full HD separate webcam as the ability to adjust and position your camera relative to your monitor is invaluable. Also, it might not sound like much, but the difference between 720p and 1080p when on a live video call will ensure that you client is not distracted or annoyed by a pixely screen instead of focusing on what you are saying. My personal recommendation would be a Logitech C920S HD Pro Webcam which should sell for about £85. This has an inbuilt microphone as well as recording in 1080p and so should be perfect for any video conference call you might need to do. The second most important part of your equipment is a microphone and speaker set up. If you already have a functional webcam, you may not need one, however try recording yourself and listening to it back, you may be surprised just how bad some of those microphones are on laptops, and even on specialised HD webcams. The less said about 'out of the drawer' Apple Airpods or other phone type earphones the better. Another option is business headphones with inbuilt mic, which if high quality like a Jabra headset, can sound great. However, if you are worried this might make you look like a junior person working in a call centre rather than a senior executive you will need a separate microphone and speakers. Most desk microphones are quite large, and also work best when only 10 cm or so away from your mouth so probably the best option would be a clip on lapel or lavalier USB condenser mini microphone. These are low cost around £15 and are small and discreet, looks professional, and most sound very good for voice. There are wireless versions but forgetting to charge it and running out of battery mid meeting, will send a very unprofessional message. For the corded version, make sure you have a cord or an extension long enough to move around easily if you need to stand-up on the call. Background Once you have invested in the equipment necessary for instilling confidence and trust in your client during your video calls, it is important to consider a professional background, and what message that will convey to those viewing it. You have two options, the first being your current home background, however it is important to make sure that it is clean, tidy and professional. A little bit of personality is sometimes even welcome, but ensure that it does not distract from you or your message. The second option being a green screen set up, the support for which is already built into Zoom with no additional programs needed. However, a space is needed for this to cover the view of your webcam, and at present green screen set ups, like all at-home business equipment is in high demand. The danger of a green screen set up, is if you lack a professional background for it, then it can easily undo the trust and confidence built by the rest of your professional set up. For example, having a space background, or a city that you don't live in, may look eye-catching, but will unfortunately distract and in some cases send the wrong message. Lastly give some thought to lighting. Like every visual recording, conference calls work best with a high level of lighting on you and on the background (if you wish to show it). So consider investing in a £50 or so desk light that has a adjustable light for both colour and intensity and an adjustable stand so that you can direct the light onto your face, and have other simple lighting for the background. So that sums up what you need – less than £200 and some thinking will allow you to create an environment for effective face-to-virtual-face selling for as long as it is needed. In the end, however, this digital medium presents you and your business with the opportunity to embrace the new and capitalise on change. Once this virus has been eradicated, you will be surprised how investing in video conferencing will become the new norm. Investing now will ensure you remain ahead of the curve for when face-to-face selling goes the way of the door-to-door salesman. Stay safe and keep selling. - Ian Forbes, Manging Partner, Europe  For many, new business pursuits during Covid-19 feel totally new. Pitches and oral presentations are occurring via Zoom or other videoconference platforms. There are collaboration challenges as the inability of pursuit teams to assemble together during the preparation process is compromised. Establishing chemistry is more difficult. And differentiating a proposed solution in a way that is compelling and convincing is hampered by the lack of in-person presentation opportunities.
Yet, with everything that is different in a business environment where many – if not all – are working from home, it is interesting how some of the fundamental principles still apply. With that in mind, here are six tips toward adapting to the new normal:.
Our bet is that Covid-19 isn’t going away any time soon. And waiting for the old normal to return is clearly not the best approach. Embrace the opportunities presented by the new pursuit dynamics – especially those which are grounded in fundamental principles that have always resulted in a greater win percentage – and use this time to emerge a stronger pursuit team. - Cliff Scott, Associate, The Americas  As states begin to implement, or consider, plans to re-open, businesses must make the transition from cost-cutting (survive) to revenue growth (thrive).
The Artemis Partnership has been advising its clients since March to start preparing right away for growth. We’ve heard strong agreement – in principle – but many have been holding back on the steps that are necessary. Growth requires investment of focus, energy, time and money. And some investment has been hard to rationalize. Now, it’s evident that it’s time to get serious about revenue growth. Revenue Recovery is Now Job One McKinsey recently published this article on the post-COVID-19 business world. Their number one area of strategic focus for companies as they consider how to emerge from the pandemic was Rapid Revenue Recovery. Here’s an important comment from McKinsey: Speed matters: It will not be enough for companies to recover revenues gradually as the crisis abates. They will need to fundamentally rethink their revenue profile, to position themselves for the long term and to get ahead of the competition. (emphasis added) The authors took a B2C perspective. We feel the connections to B2B are clear and tight. Consider their three priority steps to achieve revenue growth:
Identify and Prioritize Revenue Opportunities Careful consideration of your opportunities will go a long way here. Your best revenue opportunities are likely to come from re-engaging those clients you’ve already done business with. Before chasing every new project that surfaces, make sure you’re providing outstanding service and attention to current and recent clients. Then, as you look for new opportunities, place your emphasis on those that are winnable. Don’t spread yourself thin by pursuing too many low value or low probability RFPs. Keep this in mind: Winning requires “intensity.” You’ll need concentrated effort to win in an even more competitive environment. This effort will be obvious to your prospect, as will the lack of effort. Act with Urgency If you do business in a highly competitive market, especially one driven by RFPs, it’s likely there will be fewer being issued over the next 6-18 months. And the income available per RFP might be depressed as well. You must therefore have a line of sight for anticipated new business opportunities, before RFPs are announced. Focus your resources only on those that meet your growth, operating and brand criteria. Then do everything you can to put yourself in the best position to win - that is, to be the hands-down favorite – before the RFP is issued. Establish relationships now. Provide support and thought leadership now. Build trust now. We believe in this idea: You can’t cost-cut your way to growth. We understand how important it’s been to focus on the bottom line in the last couple of months, just to stay in business. The time is here to look seriously at how you’re going to grow your topline. Revenue recovery isn’t for later. The path to it is for right now. Companies that are aware, and aggressive, will thrive. And those companies will be able to rehire employees, support their communities, and delight their clients. This quote from the McKinsey article means so much today: Rapid revenue response isn’t just a way to survive the crisis. It’s the next normal for how companies will have to operate. - Bob Wiesner, Managing Partner, The Americas  Developing winning proposals and responses to RFPs takes enormous planning, strategy and execution from your team. And the restrictions brought on by COVID-19 have made the logistics more challenging. RFP responses and the subsequent oral presentation can easily consume many 100’s of man-hours. More as the stakes go up.
Fortunately, there are ways your firm can find efficiencies to make it less taxing on your pursuit teams both in terms of actual time and mental capacity. Spend Time Gathering Data You can never spend too much time trying to discern the prospect’s real motivations and goals. From the moment you begin developing a relationship with your prospect, your mission is to create as many points of contact as you can, and to get maximum value from every one. Make each moment with the prospect count. And please remember - these touchpoints aren’t interrogations. Try out your messaging. Bring insights. Show real interest in the individuals as well as their businesses. Remember the importance of empathy as your prospect, like you, struggles with the pandemic. All this will turn into trust and ultimately real data for you that will be invaluable in the pursuit. Also, don’t keep the data you’ve gathered to yourself. Share it with the team developing the technical response. They can use that information to deliver a targeted proposal that truly solves the problem in the RFP. Start the Proposal Before You Have a Solution While many teams wait to begin creating the response until the solution is decided, in actuality an effective pursuit team can - and should - begin creating the structure of their proposal or oral presentation well before the solution is final. This thinking will make the inevitable RFI and RFQ responses much more compelling. And, importantly, it will mean fewer false starts and revisions. Efficiencies are realized when content is better on the initial drafts. And here’s a place where you can save a lot of time: The credentials or capabilities part of your submission. Many pursuit teams spend too much time figuring out how to talk about themselves. This is less important - and less differentiating - than many pursuit teams realize. Your credentials only matter in the RFI and RFQ stage if you can make them completely relevant and meaningful based on what that specific prospect is likely to want. Skip the Flashy Presentation Many firms are realizing today that the dense slide show is problematic during this period of isolation. We’ve felt this to be true long before anyone had ever heard of COVID-19. Too many organizations and specifically pursuit teams attempt to wow a prospect with complex presentation visuals, but in actuality, much of the time spent on developing graphics and presentation slides would be much better spent elsewhere. We have found that many losing presentations were way too content-dense, and ultimately difficult for buyers to draw conclusions from. Keep your solutions, big ideas and positioning simple so that your buyer walks away knowing exactly how your organization will bring solutions to their business. And spend more time - even in virtual meetings - making authentic, honest, person-to-person contact. You want the prospect to trust the team, not the slideshow. Spend less time - and money - on fancy presentation decks. Keep this in mind — you can never spend too much time trying to discern the prospect’s real motivations and goals. Once that big idea is decided, a winning presentation has the power to take off. - Bob Wiesner, Managing Partner, Americas  Though much has changed in today’s business environment, we see one thing that hasn’t that matters a lot if you’re engaged in any new business pursuit activities. The typical stakeholder group in a pursuit process remains diverse, large and can easily span multiple time zones and job functions. Harvard Business Review cited research that said, on average, complex B2B sales typically now involve 5.4 stakeholders. In many cases, stakeholder groups include multiple c-suite level execs, and require buy-in from middle managers, adding another layer of complexity. We’re sharing 3 key steps for your pursuit team to win over large, complex stakeholder teams. These steps apply equally to the current environment and the new world that we’re likely to see when we emerge from the COVID-19 restrictions. Step 1: Separate Solution & Pursuit Development Processes Streamlining your solution & pursuit development processes will keep your pursuit team focused on these two critically important steps without confusing the focus of each. Begin the pursuit development process early on, preferably before the solutions development process. This allows your pursuit team to spend their energies understanding motivations and drivers of the stakeholders. They should be experimenting with different win themes and sales messages that are responses to the details they learn about each of them. Separately, your solution team is working on creative, innovative ideas that will eventually be integrated into the proposal. By separating these steps, it allows your team to work efficiently and not tangle thinking required for the two different processes. Step 2: Deep Dive on All Stakeholders Spending time on the front end understanding your stakeholders individually is vital. Don’t short-change this step. It requires lots of time, and is worth the investment. When faced with a particularly large stakeholder group, it becomes even more important. Identify individuals who are clearly champions of your bid, and those who are against. Once you know this, you can strategize how to reinforce the positive perceptions and change the negative ones. You may decide that a certain subgroup is going to vote against you no matter what, and you can identify your biggest supporters too. This intelligence allows you to put more of your efforts into developing messages for the ones you think you can bring into (or keep in) your corner. Step 3: Craft Persuasive Messages Using knowledge from stakeholder deep dives, your pursuit teams can now create different messages for different stakeholders, while also finding ways to connect those messages to help drive consensus. Give each important stakeholder several persuasive messages within your submission that will move that individual to vote YES for you. Your pursuit teams need to leverage knowledge from your research gathering stage, stakeholder analysis and solution processes to craft a response that brings a diverse stakeholder team together. It’s an undertaking that few pursuit teams master, but that is becoming increasingly important in today’s B2B marketplace. - Bob Wiesner, Managing Partner, Americas  Though new business activity has been scaled back at the moment, there are still some pursuits taking place. And more are coming. So it’s timely to take a look at what organizations should be prepared to do to win more often.
Even our most successful clients ask us what they can do differently to keep from placing second in their bids. While it’s encouraging to hear your team’s proposal makes it to the final round, failing to win the deal can be demotivating, not to mention make it harder to meet revenue and new client goals. The P&L impact of losing extends from the top line to the bottom line. Few organizations give enough thought to dollars spent - and wasted - on lost pursuits. Pursue Opportunities You Will Win One of the most important ways your pursuit teams can generate higher win rates is by first identifying opportunities that you may not be able to win. Responding to every RFP results in inefficiencies and wastes your team members’ valuable time. Post-Covid 19, the temptation to pursue every opportunity coming your way, will be powerful. Maybe irresistible. The pandemic notwithstanding, The Artemis Partnership tells our clients to ask themselves these 3 questions to decide if the opportunity is worth pursuing, or if the likelihood of winning is possibly out of their hands:
Ask the Right Questions Once you begin developing the proposal, take the time on the front-end to gather valuable details and information. Winning and losing is directly related to the amount of information a pursuit team gathers from the beginning on the decision-makers and influencers. Then, as teams create proposals, use that information to enhance your positioning and make your solution more compelling. If you find during the data-gathering stage that there are hurdles in getting information from decision-makers, this could be a red flag that your chances of winning the bid are not strong. Generate Constructive Feedback While the best practices in this article are designed to increase your firm’s win rate, there are silver linings to coming in second, such as gaining important learnings for your next pursuit. And that can improve your win rate starting with the next pursuit. Sadly, many prospects aren't telling you the whole story. So asking the right questions during a postmortem interview can give you more concrete information to take back to the team. Some questions you might consider asking:
- Bob Wiesner, Managing Partner b- B  In my previous article, I talked about The New Maths of New Business. You need to change the way you pursue new business because there are fewer projects and RFPs. Your historic win rate isn’t relevant anymore.
I also stated that we’re also seeing changes in how evaluation teams are thinking about and selecting the winners from among those that do get the opportunity to bid on each project. In this post, I’d like to explain this in a little more detail, and suggest ways you can build this understanding into your pursuit activities, even if this requires significant changes in how you pursue new business. The Shifting Landscape of Decision Criteria Our conversations with many companies and consultancies point to some predictable changes in how companies will choose the winners of competitive pursuits: They’re sending RFPs to fewer firms than they did pre-pandemic. They’re spending less time reviewing and discussing RFPs. They’re taking fewer risks in who they select as the winner. We talked about #1 above at length in the last post. So what about #’s 2 and 3? Decision-Making Is Different If there’s a project that has the green light to proceed – and there aren’t many RFP responses to review – decision-making is becoming compressed. Once RFP submissions are received, decision-makers are meeting virtually (doesn’t take long to set this up), and making their selections more quickly. That’s good for them. They can get the provider onboarded and launch the project that much sooner. We might even expect that some decision-making teams will have less patience with submissions that aren’t crystal clear, get right to the point, and show not just thoroughness, but nimbleness and agility. What does this mean to your new business pursuit efforts? A few things: Even before the decision-makers open your RFP response, they must have a very favorable impression of you. And your favorable impressions must be created pre-RFP. Your written submissions have to be especially crisp, clear, to the point. And visual design will probably matter more than ever. The Executive Summary is more important than ever. We’re not talking about a cover letter that tells the prospect how much the opportunity to work on the project means to you. Those platitudes aren’t very believable in writing, anyway. Instead, we’re referring to a true executive summary, that a busy (or distracted) executive can digest in a couple of pages and know exactly why you for this project. The Even More Critical Role of Trust Those projects which are going to be launched – or at least put out for bid – during the pandemic must be exceptionally important to that company. They’re not going to put it into the hands of any partner who they don’t trust completely. As a competitor for the project, you don’t earn trust just through your credentials, or your case studies. And it’s not as simple as saying “you can trust us to take care of your project (or your money) like it’s our own.” Talk is cheap. And viewed even more so in the new world we’re operating in. Instead, you have to earn trust. You do this only through the activities you engage in well before the RFP is issued. It’s then reinforced in how you prove that you’ll do what you promise to do within the submission. Finally, trust is demonstrated in how you conduct the oral presentation at the end of the process – something that’s so much more challenging when done virtually. Trust has always been a big part of client decision-making. It simply matters more now than ever before. We believe that in competitive pursuits, not knowing you is pretty much the same as not trusting you. After all, the RFP issuer has experience with at least some of the firms they’ve invited to respond. If they don’t know you, or can’t see past your credentials to understand you as people, you probably have no chance. If your pursuit process isn’t built to maximize the trust you earn from your prospects, you need to consider substantial, and immediate, changes. - Bob Wiesner, Managing Partner  In last week’s post, I referred to the likelihood that the RFP world is undergoing short-term and medium-term change caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s likely you’ve already discovered this for your business.
In a quick survey among over a dozen of our clients plus consultants who advise on the RFP process, we see that three things are happening now and are expected to continue even when the situation becomes less severe:
Why Fewer RFPs? This is a question with an obvious and a not-quite-as-obvious answer. The obvious – some businesses must retrench. They have to conserve cash. So expensive, or even the less expensive but not urgent projects, will be put on hold. The less obvious – RFPs that are issued will go to fewer potential providers than before. We’re picking up definite indications that this has started. With money tighter, if a project is put out to bid, the originating company wants to be 100% certain that the project will be done well and on budget. Some will feel they can’t take as big a chance on hiring an outlying firm, even if that firm might’ve been given serious consideration in normal times. So, for you the firm in pursuit of the business, the RFP might be out there, but you’re not being invited to pursue. One more consideration: For those RFPs that are issued, in a world where budget is now tight, companies will be looking to spend less on each project that they put out to bid. For the pursuing firms, it means the likelihood you’ll be pressured into lower fees and maybe lower margins. The New Maths: Wins and Losses Matter More So here you are. You’re receiving some RFPs, you have some projects to pursue pre-RFP, but not as many of both as you usually do. That means every win and loss matters more. Let’s say you’ve been happy with a conversion rate that’s historically around 30%. You typically submit five proposals a month, or 60 a year, converting 18. And let’s say each win has been worth an average of $1,000,000 in fees. Here comes the new normal. You’re now looking at 30 opportunities a year. A 50% reduction. Are you confident you can win 18 of 30 (60%) when historically your win rate has been half of that? And maybe the value of the 18 wins is now reduced by 20% in revenue and profit. To meet your new business target, even if you’re winning 60% of the time, you have to make up a $3.6M shortfall in revenue. Take it another step: To make up that revenue gap, you have to win four or five more pursuits out of those 30 available. Now you’re talking about winning 22 out of 30, or a conversation rate of 73%. And that’s from a historical rate of 30%. You Must Do Something Different Most pursuit teams can’t expect to double their conversion rate just because they have to. Teams must consider major changes to how they pursue new business and respond to RFPs. Change can come anywhere in the business development cycle:
- Bob Wiesner  As businesses assess and adapt to the new normal, we’re hearing a consistent hesitancy to resume their pre-virus business development activities. Reasons are many.
“Our own prospects are postponing RFPs” “Our people are remote, our teams are scattered” “We’ve got to cut back on investment” If a company is concerned that current conditions make it hard to engage in new business activities, well The Artemis Partnership has something for that company to consider: Now is the BEST time to ramp up new business activities There’s a fundamental truth which all businesses, especially professional services firms, have to understand and accept, and it transcends the current business situation: The pursuit is won well before the RFP is issued. It’s that time period before the RFP when some competitor has established close relationships with that prospect. And it’s so much easier to do it before the RFP (and before procurement gets involved). By the time the RFP is issued, decision-makers already have a pretty good idea who is most likely to win – or at least who is least likely to win. And the pursuing team has learned how to best position itself and its solution. Now that many projects and their associated RFPs have been delayed, it’s the perfect time to reach out to those prospects you want to work with. It’s the perfect time to show you understand the challenges they’re facing. And you’d like to talk about how you can help them be successful when some kind of normalcy returns. Fewer RFPs is one likely outcome of the crisis Depending on your profession, it’s reasonable to expect fewer projects and RFPs when companies emerge from crisis mode. If your business is oriented toward growth – or even sustaining your P&L in difficult times, you’ll want to get involved is as many appropriate RFPs as possible. And if there are fewer opportunities to pursue, the stakes of winning and losing the ones you do get in are way higher. You simply have to win more often than you were before the crisis. Minimally, then, you must start building relationships and establishing your value NOW. And, given what we said above, you probably have the time to do it, and your prospects have the time to engage with you. What is your firm doing now to maintain business development momentum? Bob Wiesner | Managing Partner, Americas - bob.wiesner@artemispartnership.us Ian Forbes | Managing Partner, Europe - ian.forbes@artemispartnership.com Graham Kean | Managing Partner, Asia - graham.kean@artemispartnership.com |
Copyright © 2020
Website designed by Stirling Forbes Studios