The new business filter – and its secret benefit

We designers are passionate folk. Not always to our advantage.

As soon as we get a sniff of a piece of new work, our tails wag frantically, and we bolt headlong after it.

We shouldn’t.

It pays to take time to assess opportunities first. To put them through a thorough and structured Qualification process.

Qualification is your filter.

If business development is a funnel, think of qualification as your filter.

Why should we qualify?

There are lots of reasons why we shouldn’t blindly chase after every piece of work that comes our way.

The most immediate is to determine how much time and resource we should put into trying to win the work.

Or to decide whether we should go after it at all.

1. Fit

If you have a company strategy, or business plan in place, every piece of work you take should take you a step closer to achieving your goals. You should ask yourself whether the piece of work on offer will do that.

Do your values align with those of the client prospect? Do you see eye-to-eye? I’m sure we’ve all experienced that feeling of poor chemistry, moved forward anyway, only to later regret not trusting our gut. Painful.

That might sound idealistic in these tough times. Perhaps you’ll pursue the work for tactical reasons, or just to pay the bills. Or despite knowing it’s not a great fit. That's fine. But you should still take the time to understand what you’re getting into.

2. Chance of winning

Your odds of success depend on many things.

Most obviously, is the work in a sector where you’ve worked before? Or does it require a discipline that you’re really good at?

Then, of course, there’s the competition. Are you the only company being considered for the work? How many others are you up against? And who are they?

Unsuccessfully chasing work, that you have a very remote chance of winning, can be extremely costly.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained

You could choose to take a ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained’ approach. Or perhaps you’re quiet and think ‘Well, I’m paying my team anyway, so we might as well have a go’.

Don’t forget the opportunity cost

There’s sense in both, but don’t forget the opportunity cost. Time spent chasing work you’ll never win could instead be spent doing an even better job of existing projects. Or you could use the time to develop more work from existing clients. Or on marketing and sales efforts that will help you win work closer to your wheelhouse.

Telling a prospect, especially a new client, that a project isn’t suited to your company will build trust. Then, when another opportunity comes along, in an area you’re really confident in, the client will believe you when you tell them it’s perfectly suited to you.

Don’t be afraid to decline

You don’t want to take work that you’re going to struggle with. Clients will notice, and doing a poor job won’t stand you in good stead for future work. Play the long game. Don’t be afraid to decline.

3. Value

Before pouring resources into attempting to win a new piece of work, you absolutely must understand the size of the prize.

Budget can be a thorny topic, and you probably won’t hear an accurate number. But at the very least, you should establish that your understanding of the project’s value, and the client’s, is in the same ballpark.

Before you start working on winning it.

Dollar signs might be flashing in your eyes, but your client will often have a very different expectation.

I’ve had many, long debates with agency folk about whether we should ask a client outright:

“What’s your budget?”

I’ve concluded we shouldn’t.*

Fun, Fame and Fortune

Work can bring other forms of value to your business, beyond financial. Remember the other two of the three Fs – Fun and Fame, as well as Fortune.

You might decide that the project will be Fun – good for company culture and morale.

Or it could fit into the Fame category – a project that will make a great marketing story. Perhaps it’ll help you enter a category or discipline in which you have little experience.

You may simply decide to proceed based on the potential of a bigger future opportunity. But beware of the promise of future rewards that are never realised.

‘Jam tomorrow’ as they say…


* More on this in my Qualifying new opportunities and Negotiating with clients training courses.

Eyes open

The topic of free pitching has come up (yet) again recently. There’s been lots of hand-wringing from industry pros – most of which I agree with. For the record, I don’t believe we should give our strategic, or creative work away for free.

But…

That doesn’t mean there aren’t times to invest.

The reality is that we often have to compete for work. Just like almost every company selling its services.

Pitches and competitive situations, even when underpaid, can carry huge upside. If you’re a young company with little experience, or you’re trying to break into a new sector or discipline, you’ll almost certainly need to invest. Which means taking risk.

Understanding risk and reward

That’s fine. It’s a fundamental part of business. The qualification process is about gaining an understanding of both the risk and the reward, in order to make an informed decision.

Then you can allocate an appropriate amount of resources. Just try to stick to it!

The secret benefit of qualification

The less obvious, hidden advantage of conducting a thorough qualification process, is that it dramatically increases your chances of winning work.

And getting paid well for it.

How we show up during this early stage in the sales process is critical to our chances of success.

Simply behaving professionally helps. As does not appearing too desperate! Confidence is very alluring.

But the real unlock comes through asking intelligent questions. And deep listening.

As well as seeking to protect yourself, thoughtful, considered qualification should:

• Seek to understand the aims (and risks) of the project thoroughly

• Explore a broader scope of work than what is asked for

• Shape the engagement to your favour

Above all, qualification should cement your position of experience and expertise.

People often ask me how they can win higher-value, more strategic, upstream work.

How you act and the questions you ask at the qualification stage of an engagement is a big part of the answer.

My Commercial Skills for Creatives training follows the five steps agencies go through to win work.

The second course in the series is called Qualifying new opportunities

It covers:

• What qualification is, when we should do it and why

• The two main aims of qualification

• High-level contextual information we need to gather

• A variation of the BANT process, tuned specifically for the design industry

• Handling competitive situations

• Deciding whether to proceed and how much resource to allocate

• Miscellaneous practical tips and techniques

  
  

Outcomes

✔ Learn to qualify thoroughly and effectively

✔ Establish a common process and vocabulary across your team

✔ Avoid wasting time chasing the wrong opportunities

✔ Increase your chances of winning the right kind of work

Here’s a link to the training course. Click the red ‘View course’ button for more content info.

I built a 100-person international design consultancy, before selling it.

Now I work independently, providing:

GROWTH ADVICE: Invigorating creative leaders

COMMERCIAL SKILLS TRAINING: Boosting creative careers