My clients come in all shapes, sizes and sectors. Civil engineering, construction, design, events marketing, law, pharmaceuticals, property development, recruitment, signage, transport and waste management are some of the sectors I've worked in. Clients include a small graphic design house, a not-for-profit photographic agency, a regional, medium-sized law firm, a Big Four accountancy firm, a global publishing company and an international ‘magic circle’ law firm.
They compete in different sectors. They vary enormously in size. They bid for private and public sector contracts. What they all have in common is a desire to win more competitive tenders more efficiently, with less stress.
(If you're concerned that you don't see your own industry in that list, don't worry. I've developed seven principles of winning tenders that apply to virtually every tender. Of course, the devil's in the detail of how you apply those principles, which is where my skill and experience come in.)
"You're looking at our bid team: me. I churn out three tenders a week. I need a fresh approach that's going to produce great responses and stop me losing the will to live every time I clap eyes on an ITT."
"I work in a fast-growing company that feels it has to go for every tender. Our sales people burst in with 'Let's take a punt!', not appreciating how much work is involved. I'm swamped. We need to be harder-nosed about what to bid for and what to leave."
"I run my own business and I've never tendered to the public sector before. It's a closed book to me. I've heard about the hoops they put you through. How do I do it? What do I need? Where do I start?"
"We submit a lot of tenders every month, but we don't win as many as I'd like. Raising our win-rate a few percentage points would make a huge difference to the bottom-line. I'm just not sure what to do differently."
"We've got a good product but we write poor tenders. Our bid documents are as dull as ditch-water: we trot out the same tired old clichés and buzz-words. We need help designing and drafting tenders that hit the client between the eyes."
"We've been short-listed for the presentation stage of a major tender and we need help pulling it all together. Some of our managers are not strong presenters and need coaching; others are OK but the core messages are getting lost. And loads of people are sticking their oar in. It's a mess."
My usual contacts in organisations experiencing these feelings are MDs, CEOs, Business Development Directors, Marketing Directors, bid managers and individual team or business unit leaders. If you can relate to any of these scenarios, we should be talking.
And if you hold one of these positions, we are more likely to work together successfully if...
...you are genuinely committed to winning the tender. Half-measures don't work. Competitive tendering calls for wholesale commitment from everyone in the team. If you or your management team aren't prepared to put everything into your bid, including freeing up key people from their day-jobs, you won't win.
...you take responsibility for the outcome. Sometimes new clients ask me if I can do all the work, submit the bid on their behalf and just bill them for my time. Although I'd make more money that way at first, I always refuse. I call it proposal prostitution. It's vital that you 'own' the bid and are immersed in it at every step. That way you've done all the hard thinking required to come up with a powerful proposal, all the benefits are crystal-clear in your brain and you go the extra yards to convince the client that your're the right people for the job.
It's as much about showing the client how badly you want the contract as saying or writing the right words. Besides, I'll never understand your business as thoroughly as you do (although I can ask basic questions and challenge some of your assumptions).
...you are prepared to take a few risks. Companies which insist on approaching the tenders in the same way every time tend to do badly; their bid teams also get bored. Try something new. Taking informed risks can teach you about your market and stimulate new ideas that will differentiate you from the competition and make clients sit up.
Now that you know the kind of clients I work with, the issues I can help you resolve and what you need to do to be successful, please click on this link to learn more about How I Work.