French cooking techniques and recipes have influenced cuisines all around the world. Chefs from every modern cuisine, from cultures worldwide, come to France to learn from the masters there.

One of the defining features of French cooking is the ingredients. You cannot make an excellent, top-shelf French meal without choosing the freshest, most flavorful ingredients. The French are famous for using only the most delicious parts of each ingredient; the tips of the asparagus spear, the hearts of the artichoke, or the tenderloin of beef.

French chefs take their time. They hone their technique using methods proven over hundreds of years. They are dubious of newer, more efficient ideas. “Good things take time,” they’ll tell you.

French cooking is laborious. It wastes a lot of food; it’s inefficient and delicious.

This is also true in your creative firm.

If you want to create world-class results, work that stands out, wins awards, that other people notice,  and yield good margins for you and your team – you have to start with the best clients.

Great clients are eager to take risks; they are excited to let you be more creative; they are willing to spend the money and time to get a great result.

You might not even take every opportunity from those clients. Some projects aren’t ripe yet. Some are not substantial enough to bring the best out of you and your team. You want to work on the choice assignments from the best clients.

Great clients make it possible for you to do your best work.

So, as we’re looking for new business, you’re not trying to find the most clients for the least amount of cost and effort.

You don’t have an open-door policy. You aren’t looking for just anyone with money and a project to buy your services. Instead, you vet clients, and you question opportunities, you search hard to find those projects that will let your team shine.

To do that, you need to be good at making new prospects. You need to have more prospects than you need to survive. You need to hone your business development skills with the same level of obsession and effort you’d use to hone your creative skills.

What would that be like?