Robust Theme
Dec 09, 2019 2020-04-08 7:40Robust Theme
Double Digit Growth In The Great Recession
The great recession began in the Fall of 2008 and started what was to be carnage in the AEC industry. Layoffs, massive revenue declines, and very limited profitability (if any at all) were the norm. For those of us who were around, it was scary times.
How One Tough Decision Equaled A Winning Moment
The commercial construction company that I was working with at the time watched as over 20 companies bid on a public, hard bid project in January of 2009. The only thing certain was the winner would have to take the project cheap, or even at cost, and take tremendous risk with the sub numbers on the street, to “win” the job. It was most-certainly a loser. But the prevailing wisdom of the day was this:
You must chase every opportunity in the marketplace, pricing every hard bid, responding to every RFQ and RFP, to have any chance of surviving and keeping your team working.
We had to make a decision. Do we react like all the others or do we take an entirely different approach?
CHALLENGE
We decided we would double down on our Chase Less, Win More® philosophy. It was scary but we committed as a team that we would not waiver. We actually started pursuing less, but with intense focus. While all the other firms were highly reactive, we were proactive. We picked the clients and projects we wanted, said no to the others with conviction, and went all in.
SOLUTION
We data mined our clients thoroughly, tailored our approach, solved their problems, zippered up the relationships, and crafted our win messaging with great intentionality. And it happened. We started winning at a crazy high rate, well over 50%. The rest of the market was stunned with our success. Maybe we were too, a little.
WIN RATE: 50+%
ANNUAL GROWTH THROUGH GREAT RECESSION: 15%
ADVANCED 8 MARKET SHARE POSITIONS TO BECOME: #1
FINAL WORDS
Why You Should Always Practice What You Preach
We actually never had a down year in the Great Recession, growing over 15% per year in both revenues and profits, and came out of the Great Recession having moved up 8 market share positions, ultimately securing the largest General Contractor/CM in the state position by 2012. Before 2008, I always sort of liked our approach, but after what I experienced during this time, I became a real Believer.
And its what Equalizer9 teaches and preaches!
