Win or Lose The Job, But Don’t Move forward Without Discovering Why
Many of us gain work for our organizations through a structured client selection process that starts with a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) and culminates with an in-person interview of the short-listed firms.
Yet, whenever we are vying for a job, our tendency after the winner is selected, is to move on.
If the winner is us, our firm is riding on a cloud. The team is more likely to think about celebrating, how they will attack the project to solidify in the client’s mind what a good decision they made, or they might even plunge into the strategy for the next RFQ to keep feeding the machine. On the flip side, if we’ve lost the job, we tend to be anxious to shrug off the stink and quickly move on.
As tempting as these choices are, don’t do it.
Consistently probing into the mind of the client and asking a series of key questions in the right setting can open a diamond mine of wisdom to apply to your next job pursuit.
9 Action Steps to Yield a Productive Debrief
1. Consistently conduct debriefs every time.
Debriefs should occur after each won or lost interview so that over time you’ve built up a valuable portfolio of informative feedback comments. Ideally, the same person would conduct the debriefs for your firm and it should be your best strategist. When you consistently hear the pros and cons of your team’s presentation, as well as tips about the winning team, this data will provide you with immediate feedback to make timely course corrections to your strategy.
2. Document what you heard.
By recording written notes from each debrief, you can share results and look for positive trends that can be replicated or negative aspects to iron out before your next interview.
3. Don’t freak out and drop your strategy.
Consider changing strategy only when you’ve heard something similar from two to three different debriefs.
4. Send the right person to conduct the debrief.
Knowing how to get the client in the right frame of mind, ask the right questions, and get candid, truthful responses is not a skill set that everyone possesses. Yes, many of these traits can be taught. But you need to find a team member who is client-focused, sales-savvy, even-keeled, inquisitive and has a likable personality to unearth the truly golden nuggets of a debriefing.
5. Prepare questions ahead of time.
Never walk in and wing the debrief. This vital action to improve your win/lose hit rate requires a carefully crafted list of questions that can partially be developed from a master list of debriefing questions. However, make sure to sprinkle in specific questions based on interactions your team heard and saw at the actual interview.
6. Share with others.
Debriefing is about enhancing the planning, strategy, creativity and delivery skills of the entire interview team and your organization. So, share what you’ve learned with your team and anyone else interested.
7. Be sensitive about delivering criticism.
Remember the adage: praise in public; criticize in private. When you are sharing information with the larger team, you can share how another firm’s research was stronger or how they found better ways to engage with the client selection team but if one of your team members really blew the Q&A and that was mentioned during the debrief, have a separate conversation with that individual. Building confidence and the skills to be interview-savvy doesn’t come naturally to everyone.
Deliver the feedback with sensitivity and offer 1-2 tips at a time for improvement to encourage effective skill building.
8. Meet with the right person.
While you may not have access to speak to whichever member of the selection committee you want, occasionally you can talk to a couple of members of the owner’s team. When this opportunity presents itself, take advantage of it. Even better, conduct the two debriefs separately. I had the chance to speak to a chief of police and public works director for a lost police station design project and heard different observations from each of them that offered a richer perspective of how their team viewed our team.
9. Set the time and place.
Whenever possible, conduct the interview in person at a convenient time for the client. When an in-person interview is not an option, you can still create a sharing atmosphere over a virtual meeting or over the phone. Wait long enough after the interview for the client to have made the initial contact with the successful firm and unsuccessful firms but don’t wait so long that the owner’s impressions from the interviews become fuzzy.
As mentioned, we can easily believe there is nothing productive the client will share with us when we lose the job because he doesn’t want to hurt our feelings, and we can believe there is nothing to learn if we won, because we did everything right.
Jobs are usually won by making a series of smart incremental decisions, and rarely by a landslide.
Why wouldn’t you want to learn even one valuable feedback tip to apply to your next interview strategy session to help you stack the odds in your favor?
