Use Your Leaders More, And Use Them Well

By Mitchell Schuckman, PCC | Founder, The Schuckman Group

I was coaching a pursuit team on a piece of business large enough that every serious competitor in the market wanted it. It was a name-brand client, the kind of logo that gets mentioned across a firm for years. When I raised the idea of bringing in their CEO early, in the first pursuit planning session, nobody on the team had thought it was needed. I had assumed that using your top leaders strategically to win work was obvious. The team did not.

He's too busy, they said. It's overkill at this early stage. They could handle the opportunity themselves.

I have heard that instinct often, and it rarely comes from confidence. Bringing in the leader means someone at the top sees exactly where the pursuit stands, what is weak, what is soft, what nobody has answered yet. The team was not worried about the client. They were worried about their own boss's boss looking too closely and not liking what he saw.

Keeping Someone Out Rarely Looks Like Keeping Them Out

What finally moved them was not a pep talk. I told them plainly that their strongest competitors almost certainly had senior leaders already on the phone with this client, making commitments of their own. That got their attention. But the way they brought their CEO in was still limited. They gave him a few lines to cover in the pitch presentation. “This opportunity matters to us. We have put our best people on it. I stand behind this team.”

In this case, the CEO sat through the entire pitch, but he participated passively, said his lines when his moment came, and otherwise let the team carry it. The client nodded politely and the meeting continued exactly as it would have without having the CEO in the room.

Nothing about that meeting was bad. It was just sub-optimal. A leader who delivers a few safe lines does not change the game. In high stakes pursuits, game changing moves win work.

A CEO I Coached Directly

Not long after, I worked a different pursuit for a different client, one where I had a personal relationship with the CEO himself. When I was asked to coach a team at the company on a major proposal, I went directly to the CEO and asked him to get involved, not just in the pitch meeting, but with the senior leaders who could influence the decision from outside the room.

He called his counterpart at the client ahead of the orals, one CEO to another, to set the tone before anyone from either side sat down at a table. At the orals, he said the work mattered enough to him personally that he had already discussed it with his own board. He highlighted specific people on the team, and said he would remove any barrier that got in the way of the client getting the best his firm had. He said if fees ever felt wrong, he wanted to hear it directly, because he could authorize a change himself, on the spot. He did not ask for a seat at next year's review meeting. He gave the client's engagement leader his cell phone number, not to get anyone in trouble, but so whatever needed to happen could happen without delay. After the orals, he called his peer again, not to check on the decision, but to repeat what he had committed to and keep the door open.

In the pitch, the room went quiet. Then the whole dynamic changed.

Firm Size Might Change the Approach, Not the Principle

A senior leader from a large firm often enters a room with his firm's broader reach already in play. A board member who golfs with a senior partner. A successfully completed project for another division getting rave reviews. A common alliance with a technology provider creating synergies. That reach is real, and a sharp leader treats it as one more angle worth considering. He decides what matters in this moment and uses it well.

A leader from a smaller firm does not have that web of connections to draw on. What he can offer is himself. His commitment does not run through anyone else's relationship. It is direct, immediate, and impactful. A large firm leader's value often comes from what he can connect. A smaller firm leader's value comes from what he is willing to do himself, right now, without anyone standing between him and the client.

Different firms walk into that room from different starting points, and the right move probably looks different depending on the situation. But the principle underneath does not change. A senior leader who shows up and makes “senior leader impact”, fitted to the moment, wins work.

The Choice Is Rarely Between In and Out

Most pursuit teams do not set out to keep their leadership on the sidelines. What actually happens is smaller than that. A seat at the table instead of a strategic role. A script instead of a mandate. A handshake at the door instead of a real presence in the room. It looks like courtesy. It costs you the fight.

A senior leader, used well, is the strongest lever a pursuit team has. Most teams never pull it.

Scripted lines don't win proposals. Meaningful commitment does.

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: Names and identifying details have been changed. The experiences described are drawn from multiple client engagements and do not represent any single individual.