Short Lists and Presentations to Win Projects

November 30, 2009 by Taylor Studios in Professional & Industry Tips

Have you ever been on a short list of five to ten other potential firms to win a project? Do you think that is a short list? Have you ever been asked to fly the team that might work on that project across the country with less than a week’s notice? Have you ever been asked to design a job in order to win the job?

We were notified today that we made it to a short list of qualified contractors. For this particular project there were six companies that sent in qualifications. The client ranked all six firms and quantified the results and narrowed the field to three. Additionally, the client will do a phone conference with the qualified candidates to pick their final selection. From our perspective this is the ideal selection process.

We go after over 100 projects a year. Each proposal is a substantial investment. We qualify each potential client before deciding to propose or not. Some of the qualifiers are: how much will we have to spend to potentially win the project, what is our available capacity, have we worked with the client before, is it our type of project, who is the competition and so on.

In a competitive market place, clients can ask for whatever they believe they can get during the proposal process. However, asking for the sky may not be advantageous. Considering exactly what you are looking for in a firm that you will partner with could lead to a more successful project in the long run. If you have quantified your desirable traits or success factors that is even better. In the long run, the firm that does free design work, flies their staff across the country on a second’s notice, and offers the lowest price may not be the best partner for your project. It may mean they will not give you the detailed design deliverables that leads to success later on. It may mean they are not in business a couple years from now to back up their warranty. It means their designers and project managers may be focusing on winning new jobs for the company instead of working on your project. The best selection process would narrow the final candidates to one or two firms, ask the owner or business development to present the firm or phone conference with potential team members.

Posted by: Betty