How Does Client Sense Support Your Pitches and Proposals

In this article:

• Short answer
• Why it matters
• What this looks like in practice
• How to do it in Client Sense
• Turning the output into action
• Common pitfalls
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Short answer

Before a capability statement or tender leaves your firm, Client Sense tells you whether anyone at the firm already knows people at the target organization, who they are, and how strong the connection is. That information shapes who joins the pitch team, what goes into the document, and who makes the approach.

Why it matters

Pitching is expensive. A serious tender consumes partner hours that would otherwise be billable, and the difference between winning and coming second is often not the quality of the team but the quality of the homework. A submission that reflects real knowledge of the buyer shows clients that you value the opportunity. 

Existing relationships are the cheapest source of that knowledge, and firms routinely fail to find them. The traditional method is an all-staff email asking whether anyone knows anyone at the target, which reaches everyone and is answered by the least busy. The people with the strongest connections may be the ones who never reply.

There is a second cost. Without visibility, two people can approach the same organization independently, which reads to the buyer as a firm that without coordinate. That impression is difficult to recover from inside a competitive process.

What this looks like in practice

Mullins Lawyers, a Brisbane commercial practice, describe the problem precisely. As a multi-disciplinary firm it was not uncommon for a partner to go looking for a way into a target client while another fee earner was already positioned to make the introduction, and the only way to surface that was a stream of cumbersome all-staff emails. Using the Client Sense search function instead, internal connections with a prospective contact are flagged immediately, including tangential ones such as connections to other individuals at the same organization.

The detail worth remembering is what they found on one critical tender. The system revealed that the firm had previously sponsored a charity associated with the target organization, and they used that to strengthen their bid substantially. No relationship map hands you a fact like that directly. What it does is point at the people who turn out to know it. Read the full account in the Mullins Lawyers case study.

A worked example runs like this. A tender lands with a fortnight to respond. Before anyone drafts, you search the target and find four colleagues with contact there across two offices, one of whom has met the general counsel three times this year. That single fact changes the team, the tone and probably the outcome.

How to do it in Client Sense

Three steps, in the order you need them.

Search the target before anything is drafted

Type the organization into the search bar with Organizations selected. Partial names work, and the search also matches on web domain, which catches subsidiaries and trading names. Results are ordered by most recent contact, so live relationships appear first. Full steps are in How to use the Search functionality.

Do this at the go or no-go decision, not the week before submission. The point of the search is to inform whether and how you bid, which is a decision that has usually already been made by the time drafting starts.

Map the buying group

A tender is rarely decided by one person. Build a list of the individuals who will influence the outcome, then produce a heat map showing which of them your firm is connected to and which are untouched.

1. Click + Add and choose Favourite List, creating a Static Favorite (Favourite) List. Name it, then Save.
2. Search the company, open it, and click the Favourites button for each person you want included.
3. Close the company view, then right click your list and choose Heatmap Report.
4. Click Export. Changing the date range alters which colleagues appear, based on whether they had contact in that period.

The report is produced in Excel deliberately, so it can be opened and discussed with practice leaders without anyone needing to log into a system. Steps and screenshots are in How to Generate a Heat Map Report for Specific Individuals within a Company.

Turning the output into action

Finding the connection is the easy part. Using it well is what wins.

• Talk to the connected colleagues first. Ask what they know about the organization, the individuals and the key challenges facing that organization. This is where facts like a shared charity or a former colleague surface, and none of them are in the data.
• Pick the team from the map, not the org chart. The strongest bid team usually includes at least one person the buyer already knows, even where they will not run the matter.
• Put the knowledge in the document. Specific understanding of the buyer beats generic capability language and shows the client that you care about thier business.
• Close the gaps you found. If a decision-maker is unknown to your firm, arrange contact before the submission if that is appropriate rather than hoping the document does all the work.
• Debrief either way. Record what the relationship data showed and whether it helped. 

Common pitfalls

• Searching too late. By the time the draft exists, the decisions the search should have informed have already been taken.
• Searching only the exact company name. Match on domain as well, and check parent and subsidiary entities, or you will miss connections held under a different record.
• Assuming the most contact means the best relationship. The highest volume may be an administrator. 
• Naming the connection in the document. Referencing a personal relationship in a formal submission can read as presumptuous. Use what you learned, not who told you.
• Treating a connection as a decision. Knowing someone is a reason to bid better, not a reason to bid. Some pitches should still be declined.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

When in the pitch process should we run this search?

At the go or no-go decision. What your firm already knows about a target should inform whether you bid, how you resource it and who fronts it, and all three are settled early. Running the search during drafting means the answer arrives after the decisions it should have shaped.

We found a connection but the partner barely remembers the person. Is it still useful?

Often yes, though not as an introduction. A colleague who dealt with the organization even briefly usually knows something about how it buys, who decides and what went wrong last time, and that is worth more in a submission than a warm greeting.

Can we see connections to a company we have never acted for?

Yes. The relationship map covers everyone your firm communicates with rather than everyone it bills, so prospects, opposing parties, referrers and former colleagues all appear. This is precisely why it is useful before a first pitch.

Should the connected person join the pitch team?

Usually worth considering even if they will not run the work. A familiar face changes the temperature of a presentation. Ask them first, since a relationship they value can be damaged by being volunteered into a competitive process.

How do we handle two partners who both know the target?

Decide before either makes contact. Two independent approaches to the same organization during a live tender is the specific impression you are trying to avoid creating.

Does this tell us what our competitors are doing?

No. Client Sense records your own firm’s communication, not the market. What it can show is whether contact with a target has been consistent or sporadic, which is a fair proxy for how present your firm has been.

Can we get a list of everyone at the firm who knows anyone at the target?

Yes, and the heat map is the right format for it, since it shows both the connections and the gaps in one grid. It exports to Excel so it can be discussed in a pitch meeting without anyone opening the system.