Any work is good work, right?

One of my Partners told me that we lost a few engagements based on price recently. In one instance, we were competing with a two-man shop and in another instance, the chosen consultant agreed to do the work for one-third of our quoted rate – yikes! I asked him this, “Doesn’t that imply that those were the “wrong” jobs?” He agreed, but there are folks in my firm that probably wouldn’t… let’s break this down a bit.

What’s (not) in it for us?
In my organization there are a couple of things that make a job desirable; profitability and complexity. (There are others, like industry expertise, location, etc. but let’s concentrate on these two.)

• If we had dropped our price to beat our less expensive competitors, the job ceases to be profitable. And, unless we’ve changed our business model, I think we’re still in this to make money, right?
• Neither one of the jobs was overly complex, so the opportunity to train our staff and expand their skills sets was nonexistent.

Unprofitable and no learning opportunity… I’m glad we didn’t win! This is a great example of how we chose not to adhere to the features and characteristics we’ve defined for attractive engagements.

What is it about winning any work that drives us to pitch the “wrong” jobs?

1. Let’s be honest – compensation. We are a billable resource industry and our consultants are compensated on billing hours – not the “right” hours, just hours.
2. Let’s be honest again – ego. Who doesn’t feel great when they land a job? And we should! We earn respect in our organizations if we can make it rain – not the “right” rain, just rain.
3. Human nature and impatience – I think we can all agree that being patient and waiting for the “right” opportunity is extremely difficult and often contrary to our desire to be busy. Many of us feel much more productive if we’re chasing work – not the “right” work, just work.

So how do we get it “right?”

Ask yourself and the leaders in your organization the following questions:

1. What types of jobs/clients do you want? What makes them desirable?
2. What is your firm’s greatest skill set(s)? What do you do really well? (FYI – you don’t do EVERYTHING really well.)
3. Do your answers to the above two questions match? Do your most desirable clients need your greatest skills? Do your skills meet the needs of your most desirable clients? If you answered no, you may have a bigger problem, but one more question…
4. Have you communicated to your staff/sales force the criteria for a desirable client/job? When you encourage your team to go out into the marketplace and source work, are they clear on the types of prospects they should target?

Ask the above questions and communicate the answers throughout your organization so everyone is on the same page. Be disciplined and encourage your team to adhere to the attributes of the “right” clients and jobs, as you’ve defined them. It’s difficult and as outlined above, slightly counter-intuitive, but it will maximize the utility of your business development resources and create much more rewarding experiences for your staff and clients.