Today I am in Nottinghamshire where we are tendering for a significant advocacy contract which, if we win, will strengthen our position here massively.
The meeting went well. There was myself, my excellent Director Business Development, Paul Morrish, and my Service Manager Reiz Evans. The aftenoon before was spent in feverish rehearsal, driven by Paul who, like a Director kept asking for just one more run-through until we were word perfect.
And perfect we were. Today, we were in `the zone' - that space where you lose track of time and space and you know you're performing to the max. As a sales piece, it was strong. They definitely liked us. We were credible and we were in tune with their agenda.
Our downfall is that we are not strictly local. Always a negative, especially with local government commissioners but not necessarily fatal. Its a bit like starting one-nil down in a game. You need to quickly draw level and from there its anybody's game.
Of all the things I do, I think I like sales meetings the best. Up there with public speaking and writing. I know I am good at it and I know I can help bring the best out in the people around me.
Today's commissioners were pretty good, I have to say. Their questions were relevan and they tried hard to engage with us in the right way. We are facing heavy local competition. Weaker competition but I sense their relationships and networks are good.
So let's see how this goes. Before we went in I gave us fairly long odds. Now I think its 50/50. Let's see what happens Friday.
1 comment:
Good luck. I hope that in time the kind of work that we are leading on (see www.mazeadvocacy.net) will be soemthins that LAs routinely commission.
Post a Comment