Strategically Position Your Firm to Get More Work

Most firms are actually very good at answering all of the questions clients pose in their RFPs.  Unfortunately, that isn’t enough to win proposals on a consistent basis.  You must go two steps further In order to do that.  First, you need to clearly identify the critical, make-it-hard-to-sleep-at-night challenges facing the client for the project at hand.  Then, you must demonstrate how you are going to address those scary challenges differently and better than anyone else.  That hugely effective strategy is built upon strategic positioning.

As you address each of the RFP questions, you need to connect your answer to the bigger picture, which is pounding home how you are going to solve the client’s problems.  (Are you starting to notice a theme here?)  You also need to keep in mind how each of your competitors is likely to answer that same question.  What strengths of theirs will they tout?  What weaknesses of yours will they try to exploit?  Most importantly, how can you answer this question in a way that demonstrates how you will address the critical challenges better than anyone else?  Keep in mind it isn’t even enough to simply address those challenges.  You need to address them in a way that is different and better than everyone else.

You can’t strategically position your firm, of course, if you don’t know all you possibly can about each of your competitors.  (Too many firms don’t even know who their competitors are as they pursue proposal opportunities.)  It is also critical to start with a clear-eyed assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of your own firm—through your client’s eyes, not your own.  Then do the same kind of brutally honest assessment for each of your competitors.  Know their strengths and weaknesses almost as well as you know your own.  These assessments take real courage and honesty.  Most firms with whom I have worked have an impression of their own firm and the competition that is not at all consistent with what their clients see.

That is the start of strategic positioning.  In future blogs, I will discuss what to do with this knowledge and how to strategically position your firm in a variety of competitive scenarios.  Here is some homework to do in the meantime:  Consider Apple and Southwest Airlines.  How do these strategic geniuses position themselves against their competition?

Ken Tichacek, Founding Principal 

Think Like Your Clients LLC