Notes from a failed pitch - show the map, and the route from here to there

Just a quick write up of notes from a failed pitch.

A consultancy that I periodically work through brought me in on a pitch.

• I had the skills to lead the project
• they could provide the staff
• it was their lead
• they had the client contact and relationship

So we engaged in a joint pitch.




I thought the pitch went really well.

• we discussed what they wanted
• we discussed what they needed
• we looked at their software
• we presented a deep technical risk assessment
• we provided options for going forward
• we showed them a new approach for their stated aims

It seemed to go well and the pitch document was a good summary.

We came second in the pitch process, and as we all know. Second is as good as last because you didn’t win. Not only that, you spent more time on the pitch than the people who did come in last, so its worse than last.

And the stated reason we lost was that the people who got the job looked at their current manual process and talked through how they would automate it.

And why didn’t we do that? Because the client said that their current manual process was poor, inefficient and they didn’t trust it. So we showed them how to automate with a new process that would work better.

It seems as though we didn’t help them understand how they could go from where they current were, to where they wanted and needed to be. We just showed them what they could be.

But the other consultancy showed them how to more from where they were, to where they said they didn’t want to be. And presumably told them that when they automated their current manual process it would all work out OK.

I think they understood our vision, but because we didn’t show them how we could get them there from where they were, they were swung by the familiarity of the competing approach.

I think that I learned a useful lesson from this. Even though you don’t plan to build on the current work, you still have to map your future approach from that to help bring the client with you and avoid them being swayed by a competitor who does.

These are notes to me - always draw the map, and the route on the map, for the pitch to the future client.