There were some amusing off the record conversations a few years ago where it was suggested that a certain household name telecoms company might have clinched a huge multi-year high profile UK government programme when at the eleventh hour a senior exec made a unilateral decision to “just drop a billion” off the bid price.  Now I’m certain this call was not as unconsidered as I have portrayed it, but it all came flooding back to me when I was talking with a prospective customer the other day.   The individual in question confessed that he used to work for a UK division of one of the major US mil-aero operations and whilst there his organisation was one of the last bidders for this same major contract – running its bid according to CMMI best practice, pricing in risk, working with realistic worked estimates etc.  Surprise surprise they did not win the business!

This disguised anecdote backs up a common anomaly found when selling highly bespoke products – namely pricing in all the risk (even as contingency) and building in realistic estimates is often a bad plan unless the entire customer selection team is as mature as you are.  Only then are they well placed to recognise that perhaps the cheapest bid is not the best bid.

This little anecdote bares some similarity with Paul Morgan’s post of a couple of days ago – how do you work ‘by the book in a sustainable and mature fashion’ when your customer does not know what he does not know.  Sometimes its just wisest to give the customer maximum credit for his self perceived maturity and then deal with the inevitable fall out when it happens!

As Paul also said – I’d be interested in your opinions?