Focus on CLIENTS, Not Just Projects

Good morning. I'm John Woodcock with The Family Business Institute, where we build better contractors.

Last week, I introduced the concept of early, middle and end game into our sales cycle. And I spent some time talking 
about what happens in early game. Early game is about identifying the right clients and then positioning ourselves with 
those clients. We're not selling here, and we're not focused on projects. We're focused on clients because we believe that 
the best clients are the source of our best project opportunities. So, if that's what early game is all about, what happens 
in middle and end game? Middle game is about qualifying opportunities. In some of our organizations, the default 
approach to finding and qualifying opportunities is an exercise in scanning the marketplace for RFPs and then responding 
to those that we think we have a chance to win. We consider the project, our capabilities and resources and the 
competition, and we decide where to invest our bidding and proposal resources.

But for the most successful contractors, the identification and qualification of opportunities happens well before the RFP 
comes out. It happens in middle game, and it happens as a direct result of the work they did in that early game phase. By 
doing this early game work, we've put ourselves in a position to know our client's hot buttons. Know their critical 
operational and facility needs and maybe even know their preferred design partners, suppliers, and other key players. 
You've got superior intelligence about the decision makers and their decision-making process. The priorities for their 
business, their operation, and the things they really value in a business partner.

Now because of these insights, you're now in a position to do two really critical things. One, you can determine if this 
opportunity is in fact the best and highest use of your limited resources. And not just your project management and 
supervision, but also your preconstruction and estimating resources, marketing talent, as well as those hard assets like 
cash and equipment. And if it does qualify, now you can really dial in your RFP response and the things that really matter. 
You're going to use your scarce resources in the most effective and efficient way, and only on the best opportunities. Once 
we do that, now we're in a position to go to end game and end game is all about winning that project.

And winning is by no means easy. But you're going to be light years ahead of the contractor that learned about this 
opportunity the day the RFP hit the street. In fact, it's fair I think to say that in some sectors, healthcare, I think is a good 
example. If the RFP is already on the street, it's not worth pursuing. Too many competitors already know about the 
opportunity and are way ahead of the queue in the game. They already know the design team. If they're a general 
contractor, they've probably already locked up the key trade partners. And if they're a trade, they're probably already well 
down the road, working with that front-running GC, doing some early budgeting and preconstruction work. And whoever 
they are, they probably plan their staffing accordingly, so they're in a position to put their best team in front of the client 
on proposal day. For them, their end game work becomes about leveraging all of these advantages and using them to 
formulate the most compelling proposal.

They can capitalize on their strength and on the knowledge, they have of the project and the client. They have the best 
chance to win in the end game and secure the opportunity. And likely will do so in with terms and conditions that are 
aligned with their goals and financial objectives. I want to pause here and speak specifically to those of you out there that
play mostly in the hard bid world. Where primary selection drivers are going to be some combination of price, schedule 
and maybe value. I recognize it may seem a little bit fuzzy to understand how early and middle game plays out for you 
when your access to clients and decision makers is difficult, or maybe in some public procurement scenarios it's even 
prohibited. But let me offer a couple of thoughts.

First, regardless of your market or delivery method, the objectives are the same, getting clarity of the best sources of 
future work and gathering knowledge that lets you be more selective about the project opportunities so that you can 
make use of your limited resources. And second, this approach will still help you get ahead by bringing early focus where 
you can create the most advantage. Whether it's locking up those best subcontractors if you don't, self-perform all of the
trades. Or developing strategies of how you're going to leverage your assets like equipment and talent to deliver the most 
compelling proposal or the best price.

Now I've mentioned three phases, early, middle and end game. I'm going to throw in a bonus here. And I call that the four 
stage I call that, next game. Next game is all about making sure that the client's project experience is positioning us for 
that next opportunity. How this happens might vary from project to project, client to client. But is there any better way to 
win that next job than by capitalizing on the opportunity we have at the current one? We'll never have more time 
engagement and interaction with the client than we will, as we deliver the current job. And if we're intentional, we can 
use that time to deepen our understanding of their business and their future business needs.

Now, while all of this may sound like it's only about sales and marketing. I like to think it's also about great risk 
management. In a week or two I'm going to be back and I'm going to talk about how, and especially where and when we 
can add some great go, no go, practices to help us make the best choices and conserve those valuable resources. In the 
meantime, please share any thoughts, reactions, or ideas in the comment boxes below. One of our values at FBI is 
appreciation. And we genuinely appreciate your feedback. It helps us be better and it helps us move closer to our vision 
of being that firm that more contractors turn to for a better life. Thanks for tuning in and have a great week.