If you’re after behind-the-scenes information on your target client or your competition, your richest sources might well be right under your nose . . . in the form of your own colleagues and employees.
It’s not uncommon that, during a bid strategy workshop, participants automatically place their focus outside their own organisation – when building a list of “inside” information sources.
But if you work for one of the public infrastructure sector’s larger players, then some of your best “sources” might be a lot closer than you think.
It’s a pleasant fact that the public infrastructure / design and construction industry, for the most part, enjoys the stability of employees who have dedicated their entire careers to it.
Thus collectively, in any large organisation, there’s almost always a copious number of people who have been involved with every conceivable client industry, client type, and even possibly, client organisation – and likewise in terms of competitor companies. More often than not, this pool of intelligence potential can shed light on every client, every competitor, every project type, and every potential issue.
In many instances, the possessors of this knowledge are instilled with a wealth of insights and contacts you might well be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. And they have at least some degree of vested interest in imparting it to you.
So how do you identify these people and, when you’ve found them, how do you drill out and apply their pearls of industry, client or project-specific wisdom?
Here are two specific action points to help you optimise these sources of readily available intelligence. (In fact, you’ll be decidedly behind the eight-ball if your competitors are taking these actions and you are not.)
Smoke Them Out
Knowing what information is walking around in the heads of your own people is a good start in terms of being able to tap into it.
If your company has a centralised team of bid or proposal managers, an important (albeit laborious) task you should charge them with is the compilation and constant update of a register of internal information sources.
The categories of information you might choose to build “source” lists for are many and varied. As varied, in fact, as the project types, client industries and prospect organisations of relevance to your company’s bidding activities.
There’s much to be said on this point alone. However, for the purposes of this brief educational piece, suffice simply to prompt you to start viewing your fellow employees as more than just names in the company telephone-and-email directory.
Shine a Non-Threatening Spotlight
Most of your colleagues will be co-operative in terms of allowing you to tap into their personal-professional knowledge base if you can demonstrate the value of their input. Everybody likes to feel they are a valued asset to their employer organisation.
It goes without saying, however, that you should be sensitive to any way in which your enquiries might risk someone feeling compromised, either for personal or professional reasons, and desist immediately if you detect any discomfort.
For the most part, though, the nature of the insights you’re looking for aren’t anything clandestine, especially in terms of the prospective client. They’re more along the lines of an “insider’s view” of the client organisation and its background / political / operating environment, and the issues they may be grappling with that could have a bearing (in any sense) on the project you’re bidding for.
