Three Reasons ‘Templating’ Is A Bad Practice When Developing Bid Strategy

Adopting an “anti-template” policy is just as important in the development of bid strategy, as it is in the production of the end submission. 

Bid strategist and coach Jordan Kelly outlines three primary reasons to avoid what she calls “templated thinking” when formulating strategy:

1)  Genericism vs Uniqueness:  A Process that Doesn’t Match the Required Mindset

Once the nature of a procurement or project is understood, a bid team should endeavour to identify and place focus on the characteristics of that procurement or project that are unique to that specific project. The use of pre-formulated, generic outlines is potentially counterproductive, says Kelly.

2)  Strategy Development Should be Led By A Strategic Thinker

Running a group through a pre-determined list of questions does not allow conversations to evolve naturally, she says. Instead, thinking and discussion should be channelled along in a lateral – albeit controlled – fashion, developing all threads of input. This is something a template can’t achieve.

3)  A Template-Directed Discussion Will Hit An Early Wall

A template stops the discussion at a generically pre-determined point – possibly (well) short of the best possible strategic decision.