Bidding for business in offshore markets? Take market reconnaissance
very seriously if you wish to be taken seriously.
The adage “preparation is the key to
success” is nowhere so relevant as in a
bid to an export customer or client (or
in any form of export market entry
endeavour).
While research and a detailed
understanding of the customer is, of
course, what underpins a win in a tender,
proposal or any form of bid in any market,
cross-cultural differences alone render
it imperative when bidding in an export
environment.
While, for example, you’ll get the
opportunity to ask questions or seek
clarifications to tender documentation,
it’s no substitute for the different, far
deeper level of understanding a bidder
receives when investigating the issue in
question within the local industry and
commercial environment.
In fact, as in any bidding process for
a big-ticket procurement, once the
opportunity is formally announced to the
marketplace, either the front-runners
are already well-established, or the vast
amount of necessary knowledge and
understanding make it a case of “too
little, too late” if you’ve left it until then
to start your research. And you don’t
want to waste your resources on a bidding
process in which you’re just there to make
up the numbers.
The bottom line is: unless you’ve taken
the time to research the customer and
the market, you’re wasting your time
entering into a formal submission
process. And nowhere more so than in
an export market bid.
Your most basic starting point in a
competent investigative process is to
understand:
• The politics and culture of the
organisation to which you’re tabling
your bid. (In this regard, it’s almost
always advantageous to identify a
competent and committed local partner.)
• The customer or client organisation’s
market demographic, where they’re
positioned within their overall commercial
and competitive environment, and the
characteristics of the groups they sell to.
• The influencing forces on buyers.
• (If you’re dealing with retail) What the
retail chain looks like and the most
prevalent types of pull-through
marketing.
• Your likely competition (both local and
overseas) and their relevant strengths
and weaknesses.
Export bids aren’t won
by remote control
On this latter note, if you haven’t done
your homework before a formal market
call is made, you’re up against local
companies that most assuredly will have.
Doing your research is part of making
it as easy for customers to do business
with you as it is for them to do business
with their local product suppliers or
service providers.
And on that note, it’s about being real
rather than being carried along by a
romantic vision. Every now and then there’s
a company that’s in the right place at the
right time with exactly the right offer.
But it’s rare, and you can’t base a serious,
broader export initiative on such flukes.
If you don’t have an up-to-date, firsthand understanding of the landscape,
and thus can’t convey that in your formal
bids, tenders or proposals, bidding into
the export market is a hard way to try to
win business. And, in most instances, the
best (if not the only) way to attain that
understanding is to pound the pavement,
or to work with someone who will do so
on your behalf.
