In my ongoing praise of Weld Coxe and his book, "Marketing Architectural and Engineering Services," I want to tell you that I actually said an excited "Yes!" out loud when I read the following (on page 84):
"Who they know" matters not in the sense of who will get the job, but "who they don't know" may have a lot to do with who will not get it."
You may know the key person who will swing the selection committee to a final decision regarding the firm or team to which they will award a project. But I promise you, many of the other firms competing for the award also know that person.
In fact, you may know that person very well. And again, I promise you that at least a few of the other firms chasing the project will also know that person very well.
But what if principals and senior staff at many of the other competitors know that key person very well, and you have never spoken with him/her in person, or at least on the phone? In that case, the chances are pretty good that you can kiss the opportunity good-bye.
Maybe the client is specifically looking to hire a consultant who has not already taken sides or staked out a position on a local political issue; or who has not already completed four similar projects in other states, all sharing design elements and looking like "site adapt" projects; or whose reputation has not been tainted by involvement in a project that "went south." If any of those situations is the case, being an "unknown" may very well work in your favor.
But it is more likely that, if you don't know the client and the client doesn't know you, this first-time submittal will be an introduction -- a way to put your name and/or face in front of them -- which would be better done when the client is not in the middle of a selection process.
When a complete stranger submits a proposal, the client's decision-makers wonder:
- can they really do this kind of work?
- can they deliver the level of creativity and innovation I want?
- can they really produce the quality of work that I expect/require?
- can they really complete the project within budget and schedule?
- do I know anyone who has used their services before?
- can they really provide me a more enjoyable project experience than these other firms I already know?
When the individuals on the selection committee are stressed by committee responsibilities heaped on top of their normal workload, it is easier and less time-consuming for them to select a known firm than it would be to research the references, reputation and other attributes of an unknown firm.
Coxe is absolutely correct here -- "who you don't know" can impact the selection committee's decision far more than "who you know."
By the way, this is very similar to my argument about the "Go/No Go" process where, if you can't win the project and there is no strategic reason to expend resources on a losing effort, that's an automatic "No Go." In this case, if you are a stranger to the client, and he hasn't expressed a desire to hire a stranger (i.e. hire someone outside the local politics or giving a new firm a chance), there is similarly no reason to expend resources on a losing effort.
"Cow-quarium"
(Austin downtown art-cow collection)