9
O P I N I O N
I have long told my clients that requesting a debriefing after a selection has been made should be a standard conclusion of their firm’s “win work” proposal process – whether their team was selected for the project or not. Debriefing sessions There’s a strong case for including marketing staff post-proposal, especially if things didn’t go so well with the client.
attendee(s) may become defensive, and possibly even belligerent and argumentative. Such behavior does nothing positive for your future relationship with the client, who might be an entity with whom you really want to work if you can only figure out how to please them. “I have long told my clients that requesting a debriefing after a selection has been made should be a standard conclusion of their firm’s ‘win work’ proposal process – whether their team was selected for the project or not.”
A debriefing session does a number of valuable things for your firm: ❚ ❚ It tells you what the client liked about your proposal or presentation, so you can do more of that when pursuing other work with them or other clients. ❚ ❚ It tells you what the client didn’t like, so you can do less of that or avoid doing that altogether on future pursuits for that or other clients. ❚ ❚ It signals to the client that you really want to work with them and hope to make the debriefing a learn- ing session. But a debriefing can also be a treacherous time – especially if your firm wasn’t selected for the project – depending on who attends the session. If the principal in charge and the project manager go to the debriefing, and the client is 100 percent honest about where they thought your experience, approach, or proposed staffing section fell short, there is a 50-50 chance that one or both of your
Bernie Siben THE FAST LANE
See BERNIE SIBEN, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER December 11, 2017, ISSUE 1227
Made with FlippingBook Annual report