Rain Man
06-02-2006, 09:22 PM
My firm was thinking about going after a project the other day, and it had three components to it: a survey (our work, believe it or not), and two other tasks that were architecture-related and pretty specialized. We decided we needed a partner on the project, but we don't have any relationships with that particular type of architecture firm.
While we were trying to figure out who to call, we got a call from an architecture firm. They had heard about us and the project, and wanted to team up with us. They had partnered on other surveys with a competitor of ours, but that competitor had bailed on this proposal, so they were looking for a new partner. We jumped on the team and put together our part of the proposal.
Two days before the proposal was due, at the last minute, they called and asked a question about our pricing. I answered it, and they said, "We're still deciding which way to go." I said, "Huh?" They said, "Well, [competing firm] decided that they would go ahead and team with us after all, so we aren't sure if we'll go with you or them."
I politely reminded them that we had already agreed to partner on the project, and that any "change" in that agreement two days before the proposal is due would not give me time to find another partner. They said they'd call back.
Well, they never did, and they submitted a proposal with the other firm. Ticked off, I had no time to get on a team, so I just submitted our already completed proposal as a standalone task, which had almost no chance of winning since it didn't meet all of the project requirements.
It couldn't have worked out better. First off, the offending architecture firm lost the project. Second, the survey firm that they teamed up with had also partnered with another architecture firm, double-dipping behind the first firm's back, and that other team won. Then the other survey firm got on the job and ticked off some people, so they're pulling the survey firm's contract and hiring my firm to join the team. The bottom line is that I'm on the job, and the dirty little backstabbers at that architecture firm lost.
Someone's going to get a nice little e-mail on Monday lamenting the fact that "we won't have the opportunity to work together."
While we were trying to figure out who to call, we got a call from an architecture firm. They had heard about us and the project, and wanted to team up with us. They had partnered on other surveys with a competitor of ours, but that competitor had bailed on this proposal, so they were looking for a new partner. We jumped on the team and put together our part of the proposal.
Two days before the proposal was due, at the last minute, they called and asked a question about our pricing. I answered it, and they said, "We're still deciding which way to go." I said, "Huh?" They said, "Well, [competing firm] decided that they would go ahead and team with us after all, so we aren't sure if we'll go with you or them."
I politely reminded them that we had already agreed to partner on the project, and that any "change" in that agreement two days before the proposal is due would not give me time to find another partner. They said they'd call back.
Well, they never did, and they submitted a proposal with the other firm. Ticked off, I had no time to get on a team, so I just submitted our already completed proposal as a standalone task, which had almost no chance of winning since it didn't meet all of the project requirements.
It couldn't have worked out better. First off, the offending architecture firm lost the project. Second, the survey firm that they teamed up with had also partnered with another architecture firm, double-dipping behind the first firm's back, and that other team won. Then the other survey firm got on the job and ticked off some people, so they're pulling the survey firm's contract and hiring my firm to join the team. The bottom line is that I'm on the job, and the dirty little backstabbers at that architecture firm lost.
Someone's going to get a nice little e-mail on Monday lamenting the fact that "we won't have the opportunity to work together."