Beaten by the B Team

Oh, B Team. The Doctor is rooting for you, but she is just one person, and I feel that you need a whole entire cheerleading squad. This is what I’m hearing (and no, it’s not the voices in my head): your roster is set and your locker room is full of Pro Bowlers, but you’re finishing dead last in your division (ugh, like a stake in the heart of a Steelers fan! You are a Steelers fan, right? Isn’t everyone?). 

But ok, B, back to your dilemma. Gosh, I get it. The team you should beat twice a year keeps going to the playoffs, and you blame the refs. And maybe the refs do have it out for you, The Doctor can’t say. But she can say this: you think you’re smarter and better looking than everyone else. You’re like the student who, if he could grade his own homework, would give himself an A (even if he cut class all the time like my brother, but that’s another story!). The deal is, every February, your team sits at home eating nachos, watching million-dollar ads and crying in their beers while another team plays in the Super Bowl. 

The Doctor feels your pain. It’s like tearing your ACL in the AFC championship game. Huge bummeroo. So, let’s run through a little diagnostic to figure out how to get over your strategy deficit. Follow The Doctor’s prescription, and you can fix it in three simple steps.

First, you gotta set priorities and be strategic about your pursuits. Tell me straight, B, are your starters ready to play any game on your schedule, including the preseason games, which count for just about zilch? If so, it’s like you’re just throwing a Hail Mary and crossing your fingers every time you go after a new lead. To win the clients you really want/need/must have, you gotta choose which games you wanna play and which ones aren’t worth the time it takes to put on your helmet. This is what is called a go/no-go process. It only works if you’re clear about your targets and honest about your chances of winning. You have to stick like glue to your guns, including the times your colleagues are begging you to go after a job you have, like, zero chance of winning. Especially then.

Now let’s talk about what you say to those potential clients. I’m sure that you promise exceptional client service, responsiveness, a collaborative approach, and a senior team involved from kickoff to closeout. Blah, de blah, blah blah. Problem is, B, I guarantee your competitors said exactly the same thing. And guess what? That kind of stuff is never ever gonna get you back together with that client. Because good client service is just the baseline and it’s non-negotiable, because that’s the job. Think about it this way, B. If The Doctor botched your diagnosis, you’d be on the phone getting a second opinion before you reached the reception desk.

And here’s the other thing: Clients hire the firms with a point of view and a strategic approach. If you have never worked out what your selling point is, you’re not giving the client any reason to choose you over a firm that’s the cheaper option. And by that The Doctor does not mean chest beating, all-about-you language. You need talk to and with the client, not at the client. Know what gives them pain and what gives them joy. Be the ones who can figure out the former and deliver the latter.

Next, you need to have a strategy. I know you know this, B: you can have the best players in the league, but you will never win without a plan. You can’t just throw 11 guys on the field and let them run around willy nilly. To win, you gotta make the big plays and work like a team (that reminds The Doctor of some grafitti I recently saw: 2 places I ain’t going, back and forth). Like the ruby slippers that transported Dorothy back to Kansas, you gotta know where you want to go and then make a plan to get the client there. 

Are you checking all three of these boxes each time you go after a job? I’m guessing not. Now here’s the big test: just like your favorite NFL team (you said Steelers, right?), look at your recent pursuits. And just like your favorite team (Steelers) would watch the tape of its most recent game so that its players can improve the next time, think about which projects you won and why, and which ones you lost and why. Were you chasing the Vince Lombardi Trophy or your tail? The footage doesn’t lie. The good news is, with these three little tweaks, you can get back on the field in no time.

Now go lace up your shoes and get running towards the end zone. The Doctor expects to see you in the playoffs this time around!

Haus Call: This month’s house is the Alan I W Frank House in Pittsburgh by Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, completed in 1940. Gropius and Breuer designed it as a total work of art, from the structure and furniture down to the fabrics and landscape. It is the largest house either architect ever built and one of the least known. The Doctor went to a birthday party there as a kid, back when it was simply a friend’s house that happened to have a pool inside.