Case study 2

Cracking a tough public sector nut

Background to the Bid

The Purchasing Services team of a national public sector organisation issued a tender to supply training in e-procurement, as part of a wider initiative to improve its processes and cut costs. I was running an e-commerce team at PricewaterhouseCoopers and we responded to the invitation.

The ITT was muddled, badly written and unclear about the training needs. Although the client had banned contact with decision-makers, we were given the name of a ‘gate-keeper’. We called.

The gate-keeper was junior and couldn’t answer most of our questions, so we were eventually passed to the team leader, Tim. Initially reluctant, Tim soon warmed up when he saw that we had genuine queries and that the ITT was a hindrance, not a help. We had a series of revealing ‘phone conversations which gave us insights into Purchasing’s real needs. Although Tim was duty-bound by public procurement law to share his answers in outline with the other bidders, there was no substitute for hearing his answers first-hand.

What emerged was that the ITT had stressed the technical knowledge of the Buyers, but the real need was to change their behaviour in their dealings with suppliers. Giving them the knowledge, skills and confidence to interact with suppliers and help them move to an e-procurement platform was key.

This changed our whole proposition, including team, delivery style and price.

Even the client had not appreciated the importance of the Buyers’ interpersonal and communications skills: clearly they had not thought it through. By challenging the spec, we had added value to the client without writing a single word.

The Bid

Our bid document captured the new spec, so its content was spot-on. It was also easy to write: we simply reflected back to the client what they had told us. There was no second-guessing about what the client needed or what was on their agenda.

And because we’d got to know them over the course of several ‘phone conversations and meetings, the tone of voice was right. We offered to involve the Buyers in designing and developing a supplier selection tool, and use some of their in-house trainers to deliver the training course — all of which they loved.

Of course we were invited to present in a ‘beauty parade’ against three other suppliers. But I think they’d already made their decision.

Why we won

Tim, the lead client, later left the organisation. We did some consulting together and became friends. Over a beer one day I asked him whether there was one thing the PwC team had done that clinched the win.

He sat back and thought for a moment, before saying:

‘What we really liked about you and your team was the effort you made to understand our business and what we truly needed — as opposed to what we thought we needed.’

‘When we met you we expected a slick, PwC, Powerpoint presentation. Instead you got around the table with us, rolled up your sleeves and got stuck into the business in a genuine, personable way. That impressed the Hell out of us.’