Right now, a must-win recompete is slipping away and you’ll be the last to know.
Not because of performance, pricing, or competition.
But something that has lost more recompetes than all these factors combined.
This silent growth killer lies beneath every surface-level discussion, costing you the customer intelligence needed to win—but by the time you recognize it, it’s often too late.
Many professionals, including engineers, SMEs, PMs, and Contracts personnel, struggle to effectively engage customers beyond routine conversations.
Eric was a brilliant engineer. Years of program execution had earned him his customers’ trust.
But when his PM asked him to help win the recompete, he worried about how this would damage his credibility.
“That’s BD’s job,” he thought, “I don’t sell.”
In customer meetings, his mind often raced thinking what he will say next.
This meeting was no different. As the customer spoke, he wondered, “How could I change the topic without sounding awkward?”
Then came the perfect opening. The customer mentioned modernizing their infrastructure. Without thinking twice, Eric passionately covered several innovation ideas for how the team could support a modernization effort.
When recapping this ‘excellent’ meeting, Eric’s PM asked, “Why did the customer say they needed to modernize?”
Eric suddenly felt anxious—he hadn’t thought to ask.
The PM continued, “You probably gave a great capability briefing, Eric, but without knowing what they need, you might have done us more harm than good.”
Eric was stunned.
He thought he’d done everything right, but obviously, he hadn’t.
To help, the PM recommended that Eric attend a customer engagement training program. He reluctantly agreed, but the Masterclass he attended changed everything.
Eric learned that successful customer engagement wasn’t a result of technical know-how, capabilities, personality, or even luck.
Success came from truly focusing on the customer.
As an Engineer, many times you focus only on the technical aspect of a call, but this training helps you develop skills around the emotional focus on customer engagement. It has really helped me have a different perspective for my customer calls, in order to improve my relationships.”
In role-play exercises, Eric quickly realized he had a tendency to solve the customer’s problems prematurely, missing out on the true drivers beneath the surface.
His confidence increased. He now knew how to gather intel to create the best solution possible, and had a repeatable engagement method that took the mystery out of connecting with customers.
But more importantly, it shifted his mindset:
Engaging customers in discussion beyond project tasks wasn’t “selling”—it was caring enough to spend the time required to understand their needs and ensure they got the best solution possible to ensure mission success.
Eric’s big breakthrough came in his next customer conversation.
When they mentioned hardware frustrations again, Eric was ready, and instead of launching into a capability monologue, he asked:
“Why are you frustrated?”
Those four words changed everything.
The customer opened up, sharing consolidation plans and other emerging operational changes that would strain their network hardware.
Eric resisted the urge to talk; instead, he listened and asked follow-up questions.
Soon, Eric realized how little he understood about their emerging needs and how badly his premature solution missed the mark.
When the RFP dropped, it was clear that the modernization plan Eric and the customer had discussed was their preferred solution.
They won the contract, and during the debrief, the customer simply said:
“No one understood our needs like your team.”
This lesson taught Eric that real engagement wasn’t about being the smartest person in the room or having the quickest solution.
It was more about human connection, listening, and caring more about the customer’s success than his own—and the team knew they would win long before announcement day!
Fear of customer engagement from those closest to the customer leads to:
- Vague, unreliable, or assumptions about customer needs
- Poor understanding of changes to procurement strategies and requirements
- No vetting of potential solutions or shaping customer thinking
Masterclass transformed how Eric approached customer engagement. Once he understood that gathering client intelligence was simply part of understanding and meeting customer expectations, he was more confident to:
- Strengthen customer trust by showing genuine care
- Ask questions that uncover real requirements without feeling like a salesperson
- Listen more intently about their needs
- Protect—and even enhance—his technical reputation by communicating differently
This training isn’t about turning SMEs into salespeople.
It’s about giving them the tools and confidence to engage in ‘growth’ focused conversations that enhance professional relationships and deliver customer value.
When teams learn how to engage without feeling like they are selling, resistance fades, and they see growth as an opportunity to impact the success of the customer’s mission.
The result?
Confident, authentic, customer-focused meetings that gather the type of customer intelligence needed to win and that your competition just can’t get.
Addressing this “silent growth killer” immediately improves customer relationships and intelligence. Improved intelligence reduces assumptions and makes your capture process more effective—resulting in better qualification, solutioning, and teaming decisions.
When SMEs like Eric improve their engagement skills and mindset, their confidence improves, as does their ability to positively impact organic growth with the customer driving (asking for help), opening the potential to add millions in new opportunities to your pipeline.
“I was a bit blindsided by Masterclass—in the best way possible. As a highly technical person, it put me out of my comfort zone and made me reevaluate all my relationships and interactions not just with external customers, but coworkers and personal as well.
You are guaranteed in the end to see things in a new light.”
The course provided a different perspective on business development, one more focused on personal connection and problem solving, less on transaction and solution-positioning. Their approach was much more natural for my personality, and it gives me a new set of skills to pursue growth for my company.
