Recently I was reviewing current whale opportunities with a client team when the CEO interrupted his group:
“We keep talking about opportunities we’re “tracking.” Shouldn’t we be leading them, not following them?” He was so right!
Remember in the Whale Hunting Story, that if the scouts see the whales breaching it is too late to hunt? Whale Hunters must stay far ahead of the whales’ appearance; the scouts are out looking for signs well in advance.
That can happen in your own whale hunting deals as well. When whales release the RFP or invite bids, they are already well past you unless you are well-prepared.
Here’s a typical scenario. You know that one of your whales has a big opportunity coming up, but they’re not ready to start the purchasing process yet. This scenario happens frequently with government contracts of all kinds, construction projects, office or warehouse moves or expansions or consolidations, new product launches, mergers and acquisitions—you name it. It’s more common in some industries than others, but most big projects have a very long lead time for internal planning, and if you are having conversations with that whale, you may know in general what they have in mind for next year or even two or three years later.
So, what would it mean to lead this opportunity rather than simply “tracking” it? Here are seven tactics to pursue while you wait:
- Discover their fears.
Even when a big new project is at the conceptual stage, the people involved have their fears about what can go wrong. Learn as much as you can as they work through their process. Is there internal discord? Do they worry about cost, time to completion, personnel, quality of outcomes, their ability to get it manage the whole thing? Get your team together to strategize about what they are likely to fear, and get busy on your fear busters if you need some special ones.
- Populate the Buyers’ Table.
If this would be your first project with the company, you have a lot of legwork to do ahead of time. First, find the person or people willing to be your guide, to talk to you about decision makers and influencers and, especially to make introductions. In a large complex project, there can be many interactions between headquarters and branch locations involving multiple people at multiple locations. Now is the time to get to know them and help them get to know you and your company.
- Make yourself useful.
Use your industry knowledge to offer them ideas. Do you know of new best practices, techniques, regulations under consideration but not yet announced? Chances are your team are more up-to-date on your own specialty than their team. You can provide them with information directly or indirectly. Do a new white paper or a blog or newsletter write-up. Then send a link to a few key people. Or send them a link to some relevant content from another source.
- Uncover competitors. Do they have a favorite? Is there a current incumbent? Who did they turn to the last time they did a project like this? How did it go? Why would they consider you? Would they consider you? The more you learn about competition, the better able you’ll be to decide whether or not to pursue. If they have a favorite, you’ll need to find a good reason why they would change.
- Find Partners Will this project be bigger than you can handle? Will the RFP require you to include woman-owned or minority-owned firms as part of your team? Is there key expertise that only another company can provide for you? Now is the time to start looking for co-bidders or joint venture partners. On a huge construction project, perhaps the potential general contractor is actually your whale, rather than the sponsoring company. Give yourself lots of time for consideration.
- Search for Ambergris. Search for Ambergris (SFA) is our ten-step process for finding new opportunities within your current large accounts. If your potential deal is with a company you’ve done business with before, even if the new project will be run out of a different location, division, or subsidiary, you owe it to yourselves to learn systematically what your team already knows about this customer. (Let me know if your team needs SFA training! In person or online formats are available)
- Start your Story. You don’t need to wait until the RFP lands in your inbox before you get busy writing. You can be developing the story line all along as you acquire new information. Remember, my formula for winning RFPs starts with the story—your typical, freshman English 5-paragraph theme: an intro, three (and ONLY three) reasons to pick you, and a conclusion. Write this out ahead of time and then fit it seamlessly into the RFP requirements. How good you’ll feel if you have a lot of this done ahead of time.
What do you do while you’re waiting for a deal to open up?
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