The Other Firm Was Still Checking Its Math

By Mitchell Schuckman, PCC | Founder, The Schuckman Group

Getting the Call Is Not the Same as Winning It

Two accounting firms got an invitation to bid on the same engagement last year, a family business that had finally outgrown its founder's brother-in-law, who had run the books out of a home office for fifteen years. The business had grown past what one person could manage. It needed bookkeeping, tax planning, and financial statement preparation, the kind of support a company brings on once it stops being a kitchen table operation.

Both firms had some history with the owner. They had crossed paths at industry events, sat on the same nonprofit board, exchanged a few calls over the years. That history was enough to get both firms onto the short list. It was not enough to decide who would win the work, though one of the two firms believed otherwise.

Where One Firm Spent Its Hours

The first firm treated the invitation as a sign they were already ahead. As they prepared for their proposal meeting with the founder and his financial controller, they spent most of their time on pricing: confirming scope, anticipating staffing requirements, running profit models, version after version of the same spreadsheet checked against the firm's own profit expectations and benchmarks.

That instinct is not unique to this team. Most people who succeed in professional services are trained to be analytical. Focusing on pricing and anticipated financial results feels to most professionals like the one variable they can control. Numbers are safe. Relationships, when there is a positive history, feel safe too.

Underneath the analysis sat a quiet assumption. They know us. We have history. We are highly credentialed and know how to do this work. All of that should carry the day. Nobody on the team had a clear sense of what the owner actually needed from a firm he was about to trust with the next stage of his business.

Where the Other Firm Spent Its Hours

The second firm built a price that was competitive, priced to win, and fair to both sides. That conversation took far less time than it took the first firm. They also had confidence in their industry experience, but they knew almost any firm on that short list could say the same thing. Industry experience was the entry fee, not the differentiator.

So they spent their hours somewhere else. They read everything publicly available about the business, mapped the owner's distribution footprint, and came in with a working hypothesis about where his growth was creating complexity he might not yet be tracking, including payroll tax and multi-state sales tax obligations. They also had a point of view on the gap between what his books currently showed and what they would need to show to support the decisions he was likely to face in the next few years.

But the most important part was not the research. It was how they planned to describe what the relationship would look like in practice. They would want to sit in on operations meetings, not just finance reviews. They would want to understand what the warehouse manager was seeing in inventory, what his sales team was chasing in new markets, what staffing decisions were being considered over the next twelve months. Not because accountants needed to weigh in on all of it, but because investing that time and gaining that context would turn accurate tax and accounting work into useful business advice. They practiced their story and they rehearsed as a team.

When they met with the client, the owner leaned forward. They won the work.

The Only Lever Left

Look honestly at where your team's preparation hours go during your next proposal. If most of them landed on the pricing model, or on reassuring each other about the relationship, or on the firm's industry credentials, you have learned something true about where your team feels safe. Being safe is not the same as winning.

The relationship gets you the invitation. Price keeps you in the conversation. Capabilities get you to the short list. By the time the proposal lands, all three are fixed. A team that spends its hours there is managing the cost of entry, not the outcome.

One thing is not fixed: the story. The research, the specific insight, the case built for this client and no one else. That is what gets a client to lean forward. Spend your hours there, while the other firm is still checking its math.

Mitchell Schuckman is the Founder and CEO of The Schuckman Group LLC. He is a Professional Certified Coach credentialed by the International Coaching Federation and the author of I'll Tell You a Great Story. theschuckmangroup.com

Note on privacy: Some examples are composites. All identifying details have been changed.