A really big potentially lucrative and very complex prospect came our way and like every prospect you must assess how much time and work you need to put into the plan between the:
- Initial briefing
- Background research
- Brainstorming ideas and approaches
- Writing the plan
- Getting it ready visually
- Rehearsing the pitch
- Presenting the plan to the prospect
This one was really big and our ambitious team decided to go for it and they dug very deep spending days and nights working on the plan until the day came to present.
A big challenge here is that this work must happen alongside the normal client work, which helps to keep the lights on after all!
Apparently of the five agencies that were invited to pitch, two had withdrawn from the process and we were one of three who were remaining.
Our guys made their presentation, which they felt went really well so their confidence levels were up and then the anxious waiting and very painful period begins.
A strange thing happens when these prospects come to you – at the beginning it is a simple case of ‘will we or won’t we‘ and other than the possibility of a new client there is no emotional investment at this time.
At the point of presenting when you have poured heart and soul as well as bucket loads of time you are totally invested in the result with a huge emotional investment in the result.
The news came though via a very polite call from the prospect…
We didn’t win, we came a close second!!
We were the personal choice of the person who called us but someone more senior voted for another service provider, a mammoth of the consulting world.
While this was a disappointing loss in particular for those in the core team who worked on it, I explained to them genuinely that I believed it was really a win.
Nelson Mandela made a famous quote: “I never lose, I either win or I learn”
Taking Mandela’s inspirational quote we did learn but we also won – our team had a chance to demonstrate two of our Core Values, they were Ambitious and they were Brave, they had the opportunity to showcase the deep expertise in our team and they had the joy of working closely together, even when there was a good chance the odds were stacked against us.
On our Fuzion Friday (we go for lunch every Friday with the team) we toasted our Dig Deepers, our true winners!
Bravely onto the next big challenge…
Greg
