Some questions in clients’ or customer’s EOI/RFP/RFT documentation appear to invite particularly standardised answers . . . and bidders usually give in to the temptation to cut and paste their responses from the last 17 submissions they produced.
After all, how do you make the answers to such standard, black-and-white, non-subjective sections anything other than standard response?
Easily.
You get inside the client’s or customer’s head.
To avoid coming off like a cut-and-paste, or a textbook or procedures and policies manual excerpt, simply answer the question as it relates to the procurement in question.
By this I mean, asking your team questions like the following:
- What is the client’s underlying concern?
- What are they seeking comfort about?
- Is this a test question in some way?
You should also use these apparently standard questions by the client/customer, as an opportunity to demonstrate how your specific systems facilitate or underpin the message/s represented by your central bid strategy, and by its supporting themes.
For example, let’s say the following question is posed by the client’s documentation:
“Provide details of your program management approach to projects of this size and nature.”
As bid strategist, you might prompt your team’s thinking by asking, “What critical elements of our program management procedures will be particularly beneficial to this project, given everything we know about it so far?”
And, “How have these elements of our program management system worked particularly well on other projects of this type? What potential problems did they ensure against?”
Also, systems and procedures usually involve a variety of component parts. Thus, in outlining these component parts, you might take the opportunity to highlight any that will be particularly important in the context of this project or other form of procurement. State why, and what actions you’re planning to place extra emphasis on this aspect of the overall system or set of procedures.
Again, think everything through – and debate it – in the context of the specific project, application or contract. Demonstrate exactly what risks you have identified as needing mitigated and what element of the overall system will mitigate them. Identify what specific elements will ensure the delivery of which specifically sought benefit.
Approached like this, even the most standard question inclusions in the client’s documentation represent an opportunity to demonstrate your deep understanding of the procurement and its associated challenges and required benefits.
