If you lead a B2B organisation that bids for
high-value contracts – and you believe your bid
production skills are reasonably sharp – there
may, in fact, be a whole new level to which you
can take your company’s performance in this area.
When it comes to the thinking and content
that goes into high-stakes bids, proposals
and tenders, most organisations focus
this on themselves.
The more sophisticated bidder focuses it
- conversely – on the prospective client organisation,
and its needs and intended procurement.
But that’s where even the best of bidders
generally stop. All their researching, thinking
and strategising stops short of the one
critical key to the next stage of insight,
savvy and quality in this fundamental,
rubber-meets-the-road aspect of business
development (i.e. that which is represented
by the Expression of Interest / Request for
Proposal phase).
Key to Differentiation
Lies in the ‘Big Picture’
That is, they stop short of developing
an appreciation (much less an active
appreciation) of the connection between
the immediately procurement-related
objectives of the prospective client, and the
overarching corporate goals . . . and, also
importantly in many cases, the goals and strategies
of the relevant individual departments that
represent components of those peak organisational goals.
Yet, it’s the bidder that demonstrates its capacity to understand,
to “strategise”, and to operate as a genuine working “partner” within
this “big picture” perspective that, by virtue of that ability and
willingness, demonstrates its value as a genuine “business partner”.
The starting point in the
development and demonstration
of this understanding is the
pre-bid phase research and
preparation which is, in turn, key to
winning critical contracts in a
competitive environment – and
the key to winning them without
resorting to bowing down before
unrealistic pricing pressures.
Just the Starting Point
for the Savvy Bidder
However, that is exactly and only that i.e. just the
starting point for the genuinely smart bidder.
A recent conversation with a close colleague of mine,
Martin Leitch of FM Scope (who serves on tender
evaluation panels for the facilities management
industry) emphasised this. Leitch noted that,
increasingly in an FM bidding race, the
bidder most likely to be awarded a key,
long-term contract is the one whose
proposed solution directly supports both
the client’s broader corporate objectives
and the component goals comprising these.
Within this observation, then, is contained
prime advice for a bidder wanting to table a
genuinely “value added” approach . . . to
move to a level of differentiation that is
most meaningful to a prospective client
and its tender evaluators.
Following this advice will not only inspire
the prospective client’s and its tender
evaluation panel’s confidence, it will awaken
the evaluators to the dangers inherent in
selecting a bidder without the ability to
understand, interpret and support these
key corporate strategic objectives.
To be specific, the advice is to first
demonstrate a genuine and detailed
understanding of the client organisation’s
broader objectives. To be clear, that is both at the
overarching corporate level and at the level of the client’s
key business / operating divisions.
Further on from that, and to again quote Leitch, the savvy bidder must
understand the critical interplay between the client’s various business
units and their individual strategies: It’s only from that point of
“compounded” understanding that
a bidder can formulate a solution
to underpin the attainment of
those goals and support those
component strategies.
Meanwhile, by my observation,
even the best of the competition
will likely have limited its focus to
the objectives and issues that
relate directly to that service
How to Move to A New Level of Bidding Smarts
