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APMP Foundation Accreditation Workshops and Examinations August 7, 2023 at 10:38 am

Pass the Foundation Examination and Become Accredited

All courses will be run by Peter Lobl or Andy Haigh.  If you wish to know who will be leading any particular event, please contact us.

The Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) is the professional association for people working in any sales environment where formal bidding and tendering takes place.  APMP certification is the global standard for developing and demonstrating proposal management competency.

The APMP accredits its members at three levels of increasing competence; Foundation, Practitioner and Professional.  Once certified, recent salary surveys have shown that these members earn an average of 15% more than their peers.

Even more attractive is that organisations with APMP accredited bid team members get an increase in bid win rate and a lower cost of sales.  In addition, the entire business will benefit from consistency in approach and awareness of global best practice.

To start you down this road, we will guide you through the Foundation level syllabus and the examination itself, maximising your chances of passing first time.  You can take the accreditation examination on the same day as the training, whilst all the training information is fresh in your mind.

Prerequisites:  Note, APMP membership is required to enter the examination within these packages (substantially higher charges are applied by the APMP for non-members)

Foundation Accreditation

Suitable for:  Sales professionals who wish to enhance their ability to succeed at winning formal bids and tenders, including public sector bids.

Duration: One full day – typically 09:00 to 17:00 or 09:30 to 17:30 depending upon the venue.

Price:

  • Silver Package – £545 (ex VAT)
  • Gold Package – £625(ex VAT) – Includes post course support and a free examination retake

Both packages include Sixfold’s “secret weapon” to help answering the examination questions.

Prerequisites: Note, APMP membership is required for all APMP item fee levels within these packages (higher charges are applied by the APMP for non-members).  

Discounts may be available for in-house events and/or multiple bookings.  For more information about this course please contact Andy Haigh

Testimonials to our instructors’ ability to deliver engaging and effective courses

“Not only was it of enormous value to me, it was delivered in a very relaxed manner that made it easy to absorb. I have taken away a number of very important actions to implement that will make a real difference to our business. Truly stimulating”

Nick Pinkney – Manager Bid Support

“I enjoyed a super day led by you last Thursday… I have the ultimate solution for successful bid teams- delegate to you and your company!”

Mary Fielding – Bid Director

“Our bid win rate was about 1:5.  As a direct result of Sixfold’s intervention our win rate has increased to better than 1:2.  This significant improvement has made a real and substantial difference to the MidlandHR bottom line. We no longer strive to get ‘quality bids’ out on time, but to get winning bids out (on time of course).”

Jamie Colville – Bid Team Manager

“Thank you again for holding your session here at Aviva last night. It was a huge success and I learnt lots about Public Sector bidding.”

Jane Matthews – Bids and Tenders Manager Aviva

“I thoroughly enjoyed my day and felt I came away with lots of new ideas for my team and for future bids across the business – thank you!’

William Gray – Managing Director

Thank you again for holding your session here at Aviva last night. It was a huge success and I learnt lots about Public Sector bidding.

Jane Matthews
Bids and Tenders Manager
Aviva

Great course, highly relevant and practical advice.

Jon Savill
Hitachi Consulting

Very practical and relevant.  Has given me lots of ideas and tools to use as part of day job.  Excellent!

Tom Cushing
Steria

I thoroughly enjoyed my day and felt I came away with lots of new ideas for my team and for future bids across the business – thank you!

Jo Massey
Head of Bid Service, BAE Systems

Peter has deep knowledge of public sector bidding in the UK and helped us tremendously on two major public sector bids. His presentations and bid team training about proposal writing and the most important things to focus on in public sector bids were extremely well received. He went on to support us with score focussed proposal planning, storyboarding and executive summary improvement, leading to a positive result in challenging circumstances. He is always available to give advice and is extremely professional ….as well as being a thoroughly nice guy. I recommend him to anybody tendering for PS business, large bids or small

Russell Hipkin
Senior Bid Manager, Alcatel-Lucent

Great course, Presenters are entertaining and engaging, and provide plenty of interactive content to involve the group.

Peter and Andy have a great wealth of experience in the industry and this supports and enriches the course programme. The programmes is very practical, and informative, there are improvements I will make in my day to day role which will improve my tender outcomes.

Rosie Rowe
Tendering Associate, Chargemaster

“I approached Sixfold to achieve Foundation Level APMP certification to learn new insights and best practice in project management. I also felt that certification would add value to my CV, complementing my experience in tendering for public contracts.

Sixfold arrange a neat and comprehensive package, consisting of an insightful workshop with practical tips, followed by the examination itself, all on the same day. It was beneficial to me that the course was held in Manchester, rather than London, providing added flexibility.

Peter and Andy put everyone at ease, leading a very enjoyable day. They provided thorough, helpful literature, and spoke eloquently throughout the workshop about APMP’s guidance for successful project management. I particularly liked the pace at which they went through sometimes complex material, ensuring everyone had opportunities to ask questions.

I was very pleased to have passed the Foundation examination, finding the workshop beforehand very helpful.

I would highly recommend contacting Sixfold to arrange your APMP training with Peter and Andy.”

Mark Dixon

Tendering Manager, Voyage Care

I would like to say that I thought Tuesday was very well run, the content was well delivered and pitched at the right level.

One thing that I thought was very powerful was where you demonstrated how you broke down a question into its various parts. I think it will really hit home with some of the familiar challenges we have in our business, addressing them in a powerful way.

Thank you once again.

Matt Lemon
Head of Proposals

Thank you for the session you provided to the Ricoh Bid Team yesterday, I personally really enjoyed it and took a lot away from it.  It has made me think about simplifying things, taking a step back and looking at things from a different perspective.

Richard Mason
Bid Manager

Ricoh

Thank you for the course yesterday, we all found it hugely beneficial and are already applying changes to the way we work.

Leon Bright

Senor Bid Manager

BESPOKEBIDS

I just wanted to say thank you for yesterday.  I’ve sat on a number of courses and workshops throughout my lifetime and I have to say that this was the most interesting and engaging.  I feel like I learnt a lot of really useful information that I can take back to my workplace and implement to improve our bid processes.

Kathryn Brown

TTE Technical Training­­­-+

It was a great day all round and Peter, you were just a great instructor and I have taken so much away from the day, so much that I can hit my Directors with J! They are all delighted and thrilled that I passed the exam and are very much looking forward to me sitting them down and going through the facts and figures of what we should be doing and why.

Thank you very much for a great day, so informative and I am very much looking forward to putting it into practice.

Gill Tidmarsh

Bid Manager

PHS Compliance

I just want to thank you for the excellent course that you delivered in Manchester. Your style and approach in training was fantastic and you made it a pleasure to learn and understand the APMP course content. I would highly recommend you to anyone who need bid training and would be extremely keen to work with you again at some point in the future.

Matthew Pearce

Bid Manager

Life Environmental Services

Silver Foundation Workshop and Examination June 7, 2022 at 10:17 pm

£545 PER CANDIDATE (EXC VAT)

A full day training event to prepare for and then take the APMP Foundation examination. It will be led by a highly experienced proposal professional. We will introduce you to all the best practice principles that you will need both to get you through the exam and to enhance your career as a bid / proposal professional.
Includes:

Exam fee – The cost of sitting the APMP Foundation level exam is included in the price. You may choose to sit the exam at the end of the training day or to take it on-line in your own time.

Study Guide – We will send you an electronic copy of the APMP Study Guide (worth over £80) in advance of the day. This is a prerequisite for anyone taking the examination and an essential tool for preparing a bid.

Glossary – You will also receive an electronic copy of the APMP glossary, itself worth over £25, another prerequisite for taking the examination.

Quick Reference Exam aid – This document, which is exclusive to candidates studying with Sixfold, is a quick reference guide which can earn you vital marks during the exam.

Lunch and refreshments (for classroom-based events).

Options (you can order these at any time at an additional cost. These are all included at no charge
in the Gold Package).

  1. Exam retake – If in the unlikely event you should fail the exam, you can elect to join another Sixfold Foundation Training event or just resit the examination (£75 admin, £250 exam fee).
  2. Six months ‘on-the-job’ telephone support – For a period of six months after the event, candidates can call on Sixfold bid professionals to give assistance over the phone with any aspect of their job. This could be advice on how best to prepare a bid kick-off to thoughts on how to deal with difficult procurement situations or whether to consider challenging a win/loss decision (£255 fixed rate).
  3. Sixfold Author’s Guide – An electronic copy of the invaluable guide that you can tailor to meet your own bid standards, this guide sets the approach that all contributors should take to creating their bid text and supporting the Bid Manager- (£75 cost).
  4. Flexible course date – We understand how changeable a bid manager’s diary is, so we allow delegates to make last minute changes. You can change your course date up to the Friday before the event (£75 admin fee).

Gold Foundation Workshop and Examination

£1,170 £625 Per Candidate (Exc VAT)

The Gold package includes the entire Silver package, plus all four options, at no additional cost.

Assisted APMP Membership

£185 (Exc VAT)

One invoice for course, exam and APMP membership. We do the admin and supply you the APMP membership number. This greatly simplifies red tape if your company has complex approval systems.

General

Notes:

  1. All prices are exclusive of VAT which we will add to all invoices at the current rate.
  2. We will hold Public courses either online or at a city centre location – We will hold London courses in Zone 1 and Manchester courses within a few minutes’ walk of Piccadilly Gardens.
  3. Fees are for APMP members. Non-members will attract additional APMP fees, which we will pass on at cost.
  4. Examination candidates must bring proof of identity with them to the examination location.
  5. Candidates for the Foundation examination must have at least 1 year of experience in a bid and proposals environment and hold a current APMP membership.
  6. We can give partial or full refunds depending upon the remaining time before the event. We cannot give refunds once we have booked any examinations or venues for you.

APMP Practitioner Accreditation Workshops and (optional) Examinations June 7, 2022 at 10:42 am

Pass the Practitioner Examination and Become Accredited

All courses will be run by Peter Lobl or Andy Haigh.  If you wish to know who will be leading any particular event, please contact us.

The Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) is the professional association for people working in any sales environment where formal bidding and tendering takes place.  APMP certification is the global standard for developing and demonstrating proposal management competency.

The APMP accredits its members at three levels of increasing competence; Foundation, Practitioner and Professional.  Once certified, recent salary surveys have shown that Practitioner accredited members earn an average of 35% more than their peers.

Even more attractive is that organisations with accredited professionals get an increase in bid win rate and a lower cost of sales.  In addition, the entire business will benefit from consistency in approach and awareness of global best practice.

If you want to get the Practitioner accreditation, you will have a current APMP membership and a pass at APMP Foundation level.  To start you down the Practitioner process, we will guide you through the key parts of the Foundation level syllabus.  If you passed and gained your Foundation accreditation a while ago, you will need this as a refresher and to update you on the latest methodology changes.  The Foundation knowledge is a key underpinning of the Practitioner examination.  Then we will look at the details of the Practitioner examination and try some sample questions together.  We will cover material beyond the Foundation syllabus and the best approach to the 4-levels and non-intuitive types of examination responses required.

Finally, we will sit the examination as a group.  You can take the accreditation examination on the same day as the training, whilst all the training information is fresh in your mind.  Alternatively, we can make arrangements for you to attempt the examination in your own time at home.

Prerequisites:  Note, APMP membership is required to enter the examination within these packages.

Foundation Accreditation

Suitable for:  Accredited APMP Foundation members who wish to enhance their ability to succeed at winning formal bids and tenders, including public sector bids.

Duration: One or two full days – typically 09:00 to 17:00 or 09:30 to 17:30 depending upon the venue.

Prices:

  • SILVER Practitioner TWO-Day Workshop and EXAMINATION £1,170 per Candidate – includes examination fee
    Includes the Refresher workshop followed by the One-Day workshop and examination
  • SILVER Practitioner REFRESHER Workshop – £455 per Candidate (no examination)
  • SILVER Practitioner One-Day Workshop AND EXAMINATION – £915 per Candidate – includes examination fee
  • GOLD Practitioner UPGRADE – £185 per Candidate
    Opt to repeat any workshop you wish and to re-sit the exam (APM Group re-examination fee £564) should you fail to pass on the first attempt

Click here for more details of the package contents

Discounts may be available for in-house events and/or multiple bookings.  For more information about this course please contact Andy Haigh

Testimonials to our instructors’ ability to deliver engaging and effective courses

“Not only was it of enormous value to me, it was delivered in a very relaxed manner that made it easy to absorb. I have taken away a number of very important actions to implement that will make a real difference to our business. Truly stimulating”

Nick Pinkney – Manager Bid Support

“I enjoyed a super day led by you last Thursday… I have the ultimate solution for successful bid teams- delegate to you and your company!”

Mary Fielding – Bid Director

“Our bid win rate was about 1:5.  As a direct result of Sixfold’s intervention our win rate has increased to better than 1:2.  This significant improvement has made a real and substantial difference to the MidlandHR bottom line. We no longer strive to get ‘quality bids’ out on time, but to get winning bids out (on time of course).”

Jamie Colville – Bid Team Manager

“Thank you again for holding your session here at Aviva last night. It was a huge success and I learnt lots about Public Sector bidding.”

Jane Matthews – Bids and Tenders Manager Aviva

“I thoroughly enjoyed my day and felt I came away with lots of new ideas for my team and for future bids across the business – thank you!’

William Gray – Managing Director

Thank you again for holding your session here at Aviva last night. It was a huge success and I learnt lots about Public Sector bidding.

Jane Matthews
Bids and Tenders Manager
Aviva

Great course, highly relevant and practical advice. 

Jon Savill
Hitachi Consulting

Very practical and relevant.  Has given me lots of ideas and tools to use as part of day job.  Excellent!

Tom Cushing
Steria

I thoroughly enjoyed my day and felt I came away with lots of new ideas for my team and for future bids across the business – thank you!

Jo Massey
Head of Bid Service, BAE Systems

Peter has deep knowledge of public sector bidding in the UK and helped us tremendously on two major public sector bids. His presentations and bid team training about proposal writing and the most important things to focus on in public sector bids were extremely well received. He went on to support us with score focussed proposal planning, storyboarding and executive summary improvement, leading to a positive result in challenging circumstances. He is always available to give advice and is extremely professional ….as well as being a thoroughly nice guy. I recommend him to anybody tendering for PS business, large bids or small

Russell Hipkin
Senior Bid Manager, Alcatel-Lucent

Great course, Presenters are entertaining and engaging, and provide plenty of interactive content to involve the group.

Peter and Andy have a great wealth of experience in the industry and this supports and enriches the course programme. The programmes is very practical, and informative, there are improvements I will make in my day to day role which will improve my tender outcomes.

Rosie Rowe
Tendering Associate, Chargemaster

“I approached Sixfold to achieve Foundation Level APMP certification to learn new insights and best practice in project management. I also felt that certification would add value to my CV, complementing my experience in tendering for public contracts. 

Sixfold arrange a neat and comprehensive package, consisting of an insightful workshop with practical tips, followed by the examination itself, all on the same day. It was beneficial to me that the course was held in Manchester, rather than London, providing added flexibility.

Peter and Andy put everyone at ease, leading a very enjoyable day. They provided thorough, helpful literature, and spoke eloquently throughout the workshop about APMP’s guidance for successful project management. I particularly liked the pace at which they went through sometimes complex material, ensuring everyone had opportunities to ask questions.

I was very pleased to have passed the Foundation examination, finding the workshop beforehand very helpful. 

I would highly recommend contacting Sixfold to arrange your APMP training with Peter and Andy.”

Mark Dixon

Tendering Manager, Voyage Care

I would like to say that I thought Tuesday was very well run, the content was well delivered and pitched at the right level.

One thing that I thought was very powerful was where you demonstrated how you broke down a question into its various parts. I think it will really hit home with some of the familiar challenges we have in our business, addressing them in a powerful way.

Thank you once again.

Matt Lemon
Head of Proposals

Thank you for the session you provided to the Ricoh Bid Team yesterday, I personally really enjoyed it and took a lot away from it.  It has made me think about simplifying things, taking a step back and looking at things from a different perspective.

Richard Mason
Bid Manager

Ricoh

Thank you for the course yesterday, we all found it hugely beneficial and are already applying changes to the way we work.

Leon Bright

Senor Bid Manager

BESPOKEBIDS

I just wanted to say thank you for yesterday.  I’ve sat on a number of courses and workshops throughout my lifetime and I have to say that this was the most interesting and engaging.  I feel like I learnt a lot of really useful information that I can take back to my workplace and implement to improve our bid processes. 

Kathryn Brown

TTE Technical Training­­­-+

It was a great day all round and Peter, you were just a great instructor and I have taken so much away from the day, so much that I can hit my Directors with J! They are all delighted and thrilled that I passed the exam and are very much looking forward to me sitting them down and going through the facts and figures of what we should be doing and why.

Thank you very much for a great day, so informative and I am very much looking forward to putting it into practice.

Gill Tidmarsh

Bid Manager

PHS Compliance

I just want to thank you for the excellent course that you delivered in Manchester. Your style and approach in training was fantastic and you made it a pleasure to learn and understand the APMP course content. I would highly recommend you to anyone who need bid training and would be extremely keen to work with you again at some point in the future.

Matthew Pearce

Bid Manager

Life Environmental Services

Testimonials to our instructors’ ability to deliver engaging and effective courses

“Not only was it of enormous value to me, it was delivered in a very relaxed manner that made it easy to absorb. I have taken away a number of very important actions to implement that will make a real difference to our business. Truly stimulating”

Nick Pinkney – Manager Bid Support

“I enjoyed a super day led by you last Thursday… I have the ultimate solution for successful bid teams- delegate to you and your company!”

Mary Fielding – Bid Director

“Our bid win rate was about 1:5.  As a direct result of Sixfold’s intervention our win rate has increased to better than 1:2.  This significant improvement has made a real and substantial difference to the MidlandHR bottom line. We no longer strive to get ‘quality bids’ out on time, but to get winning bids out (on time of course).”

Jamie Colville – Bid Team Manager

“Thank you again for holding your session here at Aviva last night. It was a huge success and I learnt lots about Public Sector bidding.”

Jane Matthews – Bids and Tenders Manager Aviva

“I thoroughly enjoyed my day and felt I came away with lots of new ideas for my team and for future bids across the business – thank you!’

Jo Massey – Head of Bid Service, BAE Systems

“Many thanks for an enlightening seminar”

William Gray – Managing Director

The Sixfold Political Analysis Tool November 18, 2015 at 11:52 am

The entire Public Sector bidding process is underpinned by politics.  It is not supposed to make a difference but it does!  This tool allows you to collate political information from many sources, give your entire team a method and vocabulary to communicate the information and analyse it so you can harness the politics to be on your side.

Public Sector Bid Authoring Guidelines November 18, 2015 at 11:48 am

When the Bid Manager is ready to go, how do you stop the team from starting work but all going in different directions?  This document is a template which covers all the key areas which must be managed to get a quality bid response together and to give the authoring team guidance on how they should construct their expert submission elements.

Public Sector Opportunity Analysis November 18, 2015 at 11:33 am

If you have come across an opportunity you are considering investing resources into to bid and win it, us this tool first!  The tool take you through 25 key questions and then shows you where are are against you chances of winning.

Request for Information November 18, 2015 at 9:39 am

This is a template letter for request of information under the Freedom of Information act.

Winning Public Sector Contracts November 16, 2015 at 2:18 pm

This guide seeks to explain the complex processes by which the government buys, in the UK and Europe, and some of the thinking that lies behind them.
Public sector buying differs substantially from commercial buying, but once you understand the principles that the public sector procurement system is based upon, selling to it isn’t more difficult, just different.  This guide shows you where the formal procurement rules can be bent (but not broken) and where the process can be harnessed to gain competitive advantage.

Download Two Free Chapters

 

Continue reading Winning Public Sector Contracts

Creating the Winning Bid Team November 16, 2015 at 1:56 pm

Public Sector Bidding and Tendering is different! In our experience the biggest reason that bid teams fail to win public sector contracts they are ideally suited for, is that the bid team does not respond to the nuances of the bidding process as well as it might.

Typically, the bid team comprises your very best technical and sales professionals, who understand everything about what you can offer and who are really excited about all the benefits that they can bring to your client. What their enthusiasm will cause them to miss, is that it is much more important to prepare their bid submission for the maximum score than it is to write a technically impressive response.

We believe it is crucial to include a session within any Public Sector bid kick-off meeting to remind the bid team and contributors of this approach. After all, if they do not get this bit right, you will not win the contract.

The topics which we believe must be covered as a minimum include:

– The fundamental principles of EU procurement – knowing how these impact upon the client and how to flex these rules to get an advantage

– Scoring and Weighting – understanding how to leverage the evaluation process to get maximum scores

– Question deconstruction – using this essential approach to avoid losing scoring opportunities

– FOIA – Using the Freedom of Information Act as a competitive weapon

– Answer structure – preventing the evaluator from awarding anything less than the maximum discretionary scores

For this to work you must involve the entire bid team including all contributors and reviewers. For those experienced with public sector bidding it will be an invaluable reminder of what they need to focus upon. For those with limited experience of public sector bidding, it will give them a baseline awareness that will make a material difference to their ability to contribute winning bid content.

Enhancing Your Bidding Process November 16, 2015 at 1:54 pm

Many businesses sales processes are geared to the private sector. Most of these processes are insufficient to handle the mandatory requirements and procedures required for putting together a competitive public sector bid.

At Sixfold we have developed a comprehensive Consultancy service that enables our clients to develop or ‘fine tune’ their Public Sector bidding process. Many large organisations have worked with us to create or improve their bid process and you can tap into the experience and skills uniquely available within Sixfold to gain competitive advantage.

Over the years we have helped our clients put in place systems and procedures to handle the written and unwritten rules affecting those who sell to governments and Public Sector bodies. We can help you develop your bid strategy and to understand which contracts you are most likely to win. We can help you pre–qualify for restricted opportunities, to get on the long and short lists. We can introduce you to cost effective methods for the production and generation of effective and consistent proposal content. We can help you deal with roadblocks that are deliberately put into the Invitation to Tender to reduce the number of competitors.

Our clients range from the largest UK Public Sector organisations, to multinational IT companies, through to small and medium sized firms in a variety of business sectors.

Experienced Public Sector sales people gain new ideas and insight from working with us. They benefit from being reminded of the fundamental principles behind the public sector procurement process. Sales people who are beginning a Public Sector sales career will gain knowledge and learn to apply processes that are essential to their success.
Andy Haigh

Workshops & Courses November 16, 2015 at 1:51 pm

Sixfold has developed an enviable reputation over several years of helping strategic clients win their bids. We have distilled this experience into a wide range of training workshops and courses, all designed to help our clients gain a competitive edge and become more successful in their public sector bidding activities.

All our courses are tailored to the clients’ specific needs and led by professionals with significant experience in Public Sector bidding. All our clients get free consultancy to help them get the best return from their investment in training. Moreover, participants take away practical tools, methods and ideas that they can put to use immediately.

A range of some of our training is given below. Some are open courses run through our business partner KABLE (part of the Guardian News & Media), others are examples of some of bespoke training we have provided in the past.

Essential Sales Presentation Skills Workshop November 16, 2015 at 1:18 pm

The need to present is a simple fact of business life. Whether it is an external presentation to sell your company and its products to the outside world, or an internal presentation to sell a product or idea to your colleagues and managers, at sometime we all have to get on our feet and speak.

 

About this workshop

This workshop has been designed for sales professionals, especially new-starters, who have received little training in making presentations and whose business role requires them to make successful presentations that have impact. It can also be used as a refresher for more experienced presenters who would like to revise, develop and personalise the essential techniques for making professional presentations that win business.

The Fundamental Presentation Skills workshop combines a mixture of theory and experiential practice enabling participants to start immediately applying their skills. The workshop is supported by a comprehensive manual providing advice on all the subjects covered.

Objectives

By the end of the workshop participants will:

– Understand how to make the appropriate impact to engage the audience and to create an outstanding impression;

– Learn to apply established techniques to develop a professional presentation that is structured and focussed and which maintains the interest of the audience and meets business objectives;

– Explore the use of presentation aids (power-point/handouts/physical props etc.) and presentation techniques such as story telling and humour, and learn how to use them to support effectively the meaning of their presentation;

– Consider different ways to control nerves and deal with awkward situations/questions.

– Recognise the importance of physical preparation (room layout, checking handouts/equipment etc.) and personal preparation (dress etc.)

Due to the intensive nature of the workshop the number of participants are limited to six to allow them time to practise the skills being developed.

Ongoing Coaching Support

Ongoing coaching support will be available by email and telephone on an individual basis. The support is there to help participants deal with any specific presentation issues they may have in relation to their work.

For more information about this course please contact Paul Ogden (LINK)

Quality In Pursuit of Excellence November 16, 2015 at 1:17 pm

A true quality organisation consistently delivers sustainable performance improvement. Demonstrating quality is crucial to any successful bid and key to generating motivated employees and delighted customers. A quality organisation gains a competitive edge whether competing for new customers or developing existing ones. This workshop builds an understanding of how to integrate quality into the organisation and how to evidence it in a bid. It explores the costs and benefits of operating a quality regime;

– Learn how to launch or enhance a quality ethos.

– Build performance metrics and data that better inform the client’s decision makers and build evidence that enhances your win chance.

– Develop and sustain a customer centric view throughout the organisation.

– Learn how to be recognized through formal accreditation and growing reputation.

– Understand how to leverage quality as a competitive advantage in both bid and marketing scenarios.

Typical Duration: One Day

Suitable for: Project leaders and business managers

For more information about this course please contact Andy Haigh (LINK)

Selling High Value (Outsourcing) Services November 16, 2015 at 1:16 pm

An increasing number of organisations are choosing to place major ‘non-strategic’ elements of their business with specialist service providers (outsourcing).

Some services organisations must adapt from engaging on many small opportunities to bidding fewer, much larger value contracts.

This course shows attendees how to engage more effectively at the C-Level and implement strategies that give them significant advantage over their competitors in these strategic opportunities. This course is an advanced training course that shows you how to leverage your superior delivery expertise to demonstrate outstanding value creation for your client. It addresses the key challenges faced by teams selling intangibles and focuses on the needs of the C-Level buyer and how best you can position to win at this level.

– Learn how to best influence the client’s decision making processes.

– Understand the key business values of different C-Level executives, and how to frame your offering to create most value.

– Develop strategies to position ‘intangible’ services offerings as tangible business value.

– Highlight the key factors that can make the difference between winning and losing, and how to deal with them.

– Learn how best to add value throughout the sales cycle by asking the right questions at the right time.

Typical Duration: Two Days

Suitable for: Business Managers, Sales and Account Managers, and all client-facing individuals responsible for selling complex services opportunities (typically £10m +).

For more details about this workshop please contact Peter Lobl (LINK)

Opportunity and Account Planning Excellence November 16, 2015 at 1:15 pm

With the growing complexity of business today, many organisations are finding it difficult to fully exploit all client interactions to maximise revenues from their existing customers. This workshop guides a team through the process of creating a plan that will mobilise resources to make the most of all your new client opportunities.

Often delivery focused personnel are reluctant to develop relationships outside their current contacts and clients have an incomplete view of what you could do for them. Although sales people will be crucially aware of the need to attack these issues, many of your people who are focused on delivery will not consider it a vital part of their remit to seek new opportunities.

In addition sales people often lack the skills to effectively martial all resources by drawing up effective plans. This is a facilitated workshop, based upon your own business opportunities, that will change the way your sales and bid teams work. Teams will leave with a documented Account and Opportunity Strategy, plus a detailed action plan.

– Increase revenue growth through the identification and successful closing of new opportunities within current accounts

– More effectively use resources through better qualification and improved opportunity management

– Improve client retention through better relationships and value creation

-Make use of all client facing staff to boost your sales resource

This workshop will be led by a seasoned sales professional who has “been there and done it!”.  It will include the latest thinking from the CSO’s sales insights surveys and the new APMP Body of Knowledge, illustrated by recent large procurement competitions.

Typical Duration: One Day

Suitable for: Sales Managers, Account managers and their teams who wish to exceed current performance by creating more value for their clients.

For more details about this course please contact Andy Haigh

Effective Negotiation Skills for Sales November 16, 2015 at 1:12 pm

With the growing complexity of business today, many organisations are finding it difficult to fully exploit all client interactions to maximise revenues from their existing customers. This workshop guides a team through the process of creating a plan that will mobilise resources to make the most of all client opportunities.

Often delivery focused personnel are reluctant to develop relationships outside their current contacts and clients have an incomplete view of what you could do for them. Although sales people will be crucially aware of the need to attack these issues, many of your people who are focused on delivery will not consider it a vital part of their remit to seek new opportunities.

In addition sales people often lack the skills to effectively martial all resources by drawing up effective plans. This is a workshop based event that will change the way your client teams work. Teams will leave with a documented Account Strategy and a detailed action plan.

– Increase revenue growth through the identification and successful closing of new opportunities within current accounts

– More effectively use resources through better qualification and improved opportunity management

– Improve client retention through better relationships and value creation

– Make use of all client facing staff to boost your sales resource

Typical Duration: One Day

Suitable for: Sales Managers, Account managers and their teams who wish to exceed current performance by creating more value for their clients.

For more details about this course please contact Andy Haigh (LINK)

Consultative Selling November 16, 2015 at 1:10 pm

Using the right questioning techniques you can demonstrate to any member of your customer’s team that you understand and support their agenda, and how your offering will best help them achieve their goals and address their challenges. This workshop will develop the business focus required to best influence your customer;

– Develop abilities to use effective probing, insightful understanding of implications and co-operative discussion of possible solutions.

– Learn how to demonstrate strong customer focus and create customer value.

– Demonstrate customer benefits and achieve customer buy-in through persuasive questioning.

– Practice these new skills to give increased value to your clients and their organisations.

Typical Duration: Two Days

Suitable for: Senior Managers and any client facing staff who need to influence their client.

For more information about this course contact Peter Lobl (LINK)

Sales Management Excellence November 16, 2015 at 1:10 pm

Your sales management has a vital role to play in achieving this year’s sales targets. You rely on them to coach and motivate your sales people to perform. You rely on them to reinforce training and appropriate behaviours in the field. Most of all you rely on them to lead if you are to retain your best people. Too often Sales Managers feel they lack the right tools and skills to perform this key task as effectively as they would like. This programme offers a very effective and highly original approach to sales skill development.

– Make sure that ALL sales meetings are highly productive.

– Increase your sales team’s ability to sell and achieve more.

– Run sales meetings that are highly relevant and effective for both experienced and inexperienced sales people alike.

– Improve the effectiveness of your training courses by providing reinforcement in the field.

– Provide the vital performance lift that will make the difference between success and failure.

Typical Duration: One Day

Suitable for: Sales Managers, Team Leaders and Business Managers leading teams of people with revenue generating responsibilities who wish to help their people exceed current performance.

For more details about this course please contact Andy Haigh

Company Wide Sales Skills November 16, 2015 at 1:09 pm

The sales activity of a business should not just be limited to those people with the word ‘sales’ attached to their role or title. Yet all client facing staff have a sales role to play which is very rarely recognised or acknowledged. This course encourages client facing staff to keep a look out for additional revenue opportunities and gives them the skills to qualify and develop them to a sensible degree.

Why waste the sales talent that abounds elsewhere in the organisation? Whilst many of them may shudder at the thought of being a ‘sales person’, they have the respect of your clients. Why not show them how they can add value to their clients whilst increasing that level of respect and then bring more business into your company. Everybody wins!

This workshop takes established technical consultants and other client facing staff and improves their value to their clients whilst at the same time getting them to identify additional business opportunities. In one IT company, a 4 course programme based on this training paid for itself within a fortnight!

Suitable for: Any client facing professionals who have no or little current sales skills

Typical Duration: Two to three days.

For more information about this programme please contact Andy Haigh (LINK)

Developing a Winning Sales Methodology November 16, 2015 at 1:04 pm

Using a mixture of consultancy and training Sixfold will work with your sales management to identify a sales methodology for your team that will Increase salesperson and sales team efficiency, streamline resources and win more business.

– Increase salesperson and sales team efficiency.

– Improve internal management support for new opportunities.

– Win more bids.

With the new sales methodology in place Sixfold then designs and delivers a workshop that will train the sales team, the sales management and the sales support staff on the use of the method. Once established, Sixfold will review the use of the method in your business and show the improvement that has resulted from its use. You will see immediate results in the volume and quality of your sales. Within a short period you will benefit from:

– Consistent and homogeneous sales communications within and without your business.

– Better management visibility of sales activity.

– Better quality proposals.

– Improved win rates.

– Improved sales forecasting.

For more details about this programme and how it could work for you please contact Peter Lobl (LINK)

Free 2 hour briefing for the bid team on some key points of finessing the new legalisation for competitive gain* November 11, 2015 at 11:24 am

 

 

New procurement directives, which came into force on 26 February 2015, made some fundamental changes to the rules governing the conduct of public sector bids in England.  To maximise your chance of winning, you need to know:

– What the changes are

– How they will affect the bids you are involved in

– How to turn these new rules to your advantage (or to neutralise them if they may put you at a disadvantage)

With plenty of examples and valuable insight into the potential influences and effects of the rule changes, our team will walk you through the critical details with a ‘no-nonsense’ approach.  There will be a light-hearted TEAM QUIZ at the end, just to make sure you’ve all been listening, so it’s fingers on buzzers – with winner and booby prizes!  Anyone working in the public sector bid arena needs to be on top of these new rules.

Our Offer

If you can assemble a few interested people and would like us to run this 1½ hour session for your them, we would be happy to do so for no charge*.  If you do not already have an understanding of how to finesse the new rules, this short session could make a massive difference to your win chances.  Our interest in doing this is to help you win and to introduce Sixfold’s specialist expertise in this area.

To find out more about the kick-off session and to assess its suitability for your bid, please contact peter.lobl@sixfoldinternational.co.uk or call me on 07801 822056.

The Team

Screenshot 2015-11-11 11.25.45Screenshot 2015-11-11 11.25.38

Both   Andrew Haigh and Peter Lobl of Sixfold International Ltd have extensive experience in all aspects of public sector bidding.  An APMP Professional for several years, Andy has developed a range of unique tools to improve selling into the public sector.  He is author of the book “Winning Public Sector Contracts” published by the Guardian.

Peter works with blue chip companies and public sector organisations to improve bidding effectiveness and specialises in ways to finesse the procurement rules and processes in ways that enable bidding teams to create a competitive advantage.

*Offer subject to bid size, location of session and reimbursement of Sixfold’s direct expenses.

Free 1½ hour score maximisation session for the bid team, to be incorporated into the bid Kick-Off meeting* November 11, 2015 at 11:21 am

Public Sector Bidding and Tendering is different!  In our experience the biggest reason that bid teams fail to win public sector contracts, is that the bid team does not respond to the nuances of the unique bidding process as well as it might.

Typically, the bid team comprises your very best technical and sales professionals, who understand everything about what you can offer and who are really excited about all the benefits that they can bring to your client.

What their enthusiasm will cause them to miss, is that it is much more important to prepare their bid submission to gain the maximum score than it is to write a technically impressive and detailed response.

We believe it is crucial to reinforce this message and demonstrate the optimum approach, with all those in your team who might be involved in any way with a Public Sector bid.  After all, if the team does not get this bit right, you will not win the contract!

The topics which we believe should covered, as a minimum, include:

– The fundamental principles of EU procurement – knowing how these impact upon the client and how to flex these rules to get an advantage

– Scoring and Weighting – understanding how to leverage the evaluation process to get your submissions the maximum scores

– Question deconstruction – using this essential approach to avoid losing scoring opportunities

– FOIA – Using the Freedom of Information Act as a competitive weapon

– Answer structure – preventing the evaluators from awarding anything less than their maximum discretionary scores

For this to work you should involve all bid leaders, contributors and reviewers, plus anyone else who may become involved from other departments such as Marketing, HR and legal.  For those already experienced with public sector bidding and for senior management, the session will be an invaluable reminder of what they need to focus upon.  For those with limited experience of public sector bidding, it will give them a baseline awareness that will make a material difference to their ability to contribute to winning the bid.

Offer

If you have a major bid kick-off meeting coming up and would like us to deliver this 2 hour session to those involved, we will be happy to do so at no charge*.  Even if you do not have a specific bid in mind, this short session could make a massive difference to your chances of success with your Public Sector contracting.  Our interest in doing this is to help you win and to introduce you to Sixfold’s specialist expertise in this area.

To find out more about the kick-off session and to assess its suitability for your bid, please contact me at peter.lobl@sixfoldinternational.co.uk or call me on 07801 822056.

Free briefing session for sales team on the differences between commercial and Public Sector tendering approaches* November 11, 2015 at 11:18 am

Public Sector Bidding and Tendering is different! In our experience there is one common reason that bid teams lose contracts they should have won.  It is that the bid team does not understand the opportunities that this difference creates.

There are numerous ways that the formal, transparent process can be finessed, but many of these are not obvious to any but the most seasoned Public Sector experienced bid professionals.

Within Sixfold we know how important it is to get the different contributors to the bid to understand and then respond correctly to these fundamental differences between the approach to a “Commercial” bid and one destined to be submitted to the Public Sector.  We know how much time and rework can be saved by getting this cultural shift right at the outset.  We know how to get this message across to your entire team of authors, managers, reviewers and final approvers.  But it needs to be done before the bid is underway and to everyone within your organisation who may have influence over the contents of the bid.

Offer

If you have a strategic Public Sector bid on the horizon and you want to prepare in the best way you can, or if you are new to Public Sector bidding and want to bring your team’s thinking to at least equal that of your more established competitors, we will be happy to present your team with a 2 hour interactive briefing session at no charge.*  Even if you do not have a specific bid in mind, this short session could make a massive difference to your chances of success with your Public Sector contracting in the future.  Our interest in doing this is to help you win and to introduce you to Sixfold’s specialist expertise in this area.

To find out more about the briefing session and to assess its suitability for your bid, please contact me at peter.lobl@sixfoldinternational.co.uk or call me on 07801 822056.

*Offer subject to location of session and reimbursement of Sixfold’s direct expenses.

Winning Public Sector Contracts November 10, 2015 at 11:06 am

Winning Public Sector Contracts

This guide seeks to explain the complex processes by which the government buys, in the UK and Europe, and some of the thinking that lies behind them.

Public sector buying differs substantially from commercial buying, but once you understand the principles that the public sector procurement system is based upon, selling to it isn’t more difficult, just different.

This guide shows you where the formal procurement rules can be bent (but not broken) and where the process can be harnessed to gain competitive advantage.

Download Two Free Chapters

Contents

Introduction

– What this guide does and how it works

– Cabinet Office and the Office of Government Commerce

The buying environment

– The Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)

– Fundamental Principles of public sector buying

– How the procurement and evaluation processes work

The political scene

– Introduction to political analysis

– Identifying the targets and influence

– Approaching influential people and making it happen

Market intelligence

– Discovering and harnessing market intelligence

Qualifying the opportunity

– Sixfold position analysis tool and how to use it

Responding to the Selection Questionnaire

– Purpose of the SQ and the standard SQ contents

– Strategies for dealing with and getting past the SQ stage

Responding to the ITT

– Key to responding

– Competitive environment

Presentation stage

– What’s actually happening at this stage?

– Timing, outline agenda, preparing to convince the evaluators

– Presentation traps

Win when you lose

– Strategies if you think you might lose

– If you are the winner

Conclusions

– Lessons learned

– Top traps to avoid and top tips for winning

Buy on Amazon

Politics of Bidding in Public Sector and Influencing the Influencers November 10, 2015 at 10:46 am

Harnessing the politics and relationships to make a difference.

The Public Sector procurement processes go to extraordinary lengths to prevent relationships and direct contact with the decision makers influencing the outcome of a procurement competition. The outcome is that the process can get in the way of our ability to communicate those things which would allow the competition to get the best result.

The procurement processes, by their nature, set up the Public Sector procurement team as the experts when, of course, they cannot have as much knowledge and experience as those organisations who make their living with this expertise. So is it any wonder when the ITT requirements are tilted towards solutions which are sub optimum?

The Sixfold team has 20 years of tackling these problems and presents a workshop which will lead you through some simple strategies to improve your ability to get the decisions made on the best information. It will look at all the routes to communicate with the decision making team, how to get the messages through despite the procurement restrictions and what someone in the Public Sector can do to “legitimately” skew the results.

This workshop will explore the most common political and communication problems in the bidding environment and you will use your own real examples to develop a pragmatic approach dealing with them.

Who Should Attend?

– Those responsible for managing the client relationship

– Senior staff who have direct control over the bidding process

– Senior executive project sponsors

– Internal experts who have responsibility for compiling the Selection Questionnaire response.

You should attend the masterclass if you are willing to participate fully, already have some experience in this area and wish to sharpen your skills in order to enhance your future performance.

Objective

To prepare you to use the politics to assist your win chances.

One half day facilitated workshop, 09:30 to 1:30 with breaks.

Approach

The key content aims will be to:

– Find out how the evaluators and decision makers can be encouraged to alter the outcome

– Make the session as interactive as possible

– Draw upon the experience of all the delegates

Content

Learning Points

– The ways in which the competition outcome can be influenced

– A simple tool to map the political power structure and how to use it

– Clever things you can do to improve your win chances

Key messages

– Use the political structure to improve win chances

– Understand the ways in which the public sector decision can be manipulated

– Embrace and use the processes

– Watch out for bias and then deal with it effectively

– Do not assume that the decision makers will understand the implications of your proposal

– Challenge the process if it is being used unfairly

For dates when this course is to be run please contact Andy Haigh (LINK)

Mastering Public Sector Sales November 10, 2015 at 10:46 am

The one-day course briefly covers the processes for engaging the Public Sector in contract competitions. It then goes on to deal with how you can work the processes and the bidding environment to get a competitive advantage, even if you are new to this type of bidding. The tools and techniques covered will surprise and delight the experienced bid and sales team, whilst explaining why those “certain to win” go on to lose. Then it will show you how not to get caught in the same traps.

The day will finish with a review of the traps and the tips on winning, assembled over many bids (won and lost) by some of the most experienced and successful bid teams in the UK.

Why should I attend?

What are the benefits of attending – how will it benefit me personally (increased knowledge/confidence etc) and how will it benefit my company (making them more competitive etc)

You should attend if you want to go beyond an understanding of the Public Sector procurement processes. If you want to know how to exploit the bidding environment (and stop your team from becoming exploited by others), then this is the event for you. At the end of the day you will have an entirely new perspective on the bidding process and the confidence to challenge the process when it is being misused. Ultimately it will increase you bid win rate and reduce your sales costs.

What will I learn?

What topics will be covered/ what questions will be answered if I attend

From the event you will learn:

– How the process is supposed to work, the choices the Public Sector has to make and where they go wrong.

– How to deal with issues in compliancy with the requirements

– How to exploit Market Intelligence to get an advantage

– How the decision making process works and how to use this knowledge to get better scores

– How to get copies of your competitor’s proposals and prevent them getting yours.

– How to deal with bribes and incentives

– How to get your competitors to waste their proposal generation time.

– How to avoid delivery issues.

– How to get the best from framework contracts.

– What to do if you think someone else is going to win.

Who should attend – job titles/ departments/ ‘anyone involved in…’

This event covers ground applicable to both experienced bid professionals who have worked on many Public Sector bids and sales professionals who may have little knowledge of the Public Sector. It is specifically targeted at:

– Commercial Directors and Managers.

– Bid Qualification team members.

– Sales Directors.

– Bid Directors.

– Sales Directors.

– Bid Managers.

– Bid Authors.

Technical bid team members who may be on a presentation team.

Anyone who is involved in deciding the strategy and content of the bid documents, including partner managers and procurement staff.

Individual Success through Contributing to Business Improvement November 10, 2015 at 10:45 am

The manner in which a bid team is managed can make the crucial difference between winning and losing. This workshop provides bid leaders and their management with the skills and tools to lead bid teams to produce excellent proposals;

– Efficiently allocate resources for a successful bid

– Understand how to support Bid teams effectively

– Structure reviews to ensure bid quality and a motivated team

– Learn how to best add value through targeted management intervention

Typical Duration: One Day

Suitable for: Senior Managers and Business sponsors responsible for guiding substantial and complex bids

For more information about this course please contact Andy Haigh (LINK)

Master Class in Advanced Communication and Presentation Skills November 10, 2015 at 10:44 am

Many companies see the public sector market as one fraught with difficulties. The procurement processes can seem complex, cumbersome and difficult to understand. The sales cycle sometimes seems to be much longer than most business can tolerate. The language is different and the business risk of getting involved seems very high. No wonder many sales teams keep pressing on with the increasingly difficult traditional markets rather than changing focus to this lucrative business area.

For some companies getting into the public sector is a survival strategy. In the Sixfold two day PSS course, sales people can not only find out how to operate within this sector, but also how to exploit the peculiarities of the Public procurement processes to win against more established competitors.

This is a great course for sales people who are new to the UK Public Sector to understand how the procurement processes work and how to exploit those processes to win. Running for 18 months and recently updated with the new EU procurement regulations, this could unshackle the sales performance of your company.

Suitable for: Experienced sales professionals who wish to enhance their ability to succeed at winning public sector bids.

Typical Duration: Two days.

For more information about this course please contact Andy Haigh (LINK)

Developing an Executive Summary November 10, 2015 at 10:43 am

Course Objectives

The executive summary sets the tone for the entire bid. Often it is the only section that is read by some key influencers. It will certainly be seen by all evaluators. Yet often it is written in a rush at the end of the bid process rather than used to set the key messages for all contributors. This workshop shows those involved in bid writing how to craft a winning Executive Summary;

– Develop skills in constructing an effective Executive Summary

– Structure the key messages which must be incorporated to connect with the client

– Learn powerful techniques to produce a hard hitting and effective Executive Summary

– Understand how to use a good Executive Summary to ensure all contributors reflect the key messages and thereby improve the power of the entire proposal.

Typical Duration: One Day

Suitable for: Bid Leaders

For more information about this course contact Andy Haigh (LINK)

Leading Bid Teams to Success November 10, 2015 at 10:42 am

The manner in which a bid team is managed can make the crucial difference between winning and losing. This workshop provides bid leaders and their management with the skills and tools to lead bid teams to produce excellent proposals;

– The manner in which a bid team is managed can make the crucial difference between winning and losing. This workshop provides bid leaders and their management with the skills and tools to lead bid teams to produce excellent proposals;

– Efficiently allocate resources for a successful bid

– Understand how to support Bid teams effectively

– Structure reviews to ensure bid quality and a motivated team

– Learn how to best add value through targeted management intervention

Typical Duration: One Day

Suitable for: Senior Managers and Business sponsors responsible for guiding substantial and complex bids

For more information about this course please contact Andy Haigh (LINK)

Setting the Bid Strategy November 10, 2015 at 10:41 am

Course Objectives

Choosing the right strategy requires teams to consider their position with the customer and the likely strategies of the competition together with a host of other factors. Determining the winning strategy is an art that does not come easily to everyone and often requires experience to get it right. This workshop aims to give bid teams the fundamentals to bridge the experience gap so that they can confidently utilise strategies to increase their win chance;

– Understand different bid strategies, their strengths and weaknesses and the importance of choosing the correct one

– Consider the strategies a competitor could utilise and understand its likely impact upon your customer

– Find out where you can get the information about competitive bidder’s strategies

– Pick the strategy that will be most likely to succeed against the competitors MANAGING COMPLEX BIDS

Typical Duration: One Day

Suitable for: Senior managers and Bid Leaders responsible for setting bid strategies

For more information about this course please contact Andy Haigh (LINK)

Responding to the Selection Questionnaire November 10, 2015 at 10:40 am

How do you ensure you get to the next round? We’ll show you how to raise your success rate

The response to the Selection Questionnaire (SQ) is very often a knee jerk response to the questionnaire arriving on the desk. However, if the opportunity is not eventually bid for and won, any effort expended against the SQ is wasted. On the other hand, if the SQ is not completed, you cannot bid for the contract – even though you are the best organisation on the planet to supply what is wanted!

So how do you, with your limited resources get, the balance right? And what needs to be done to maximise the chances of getting through to the bidding stage?

The “Responding to the Selection Questionnaire” masterclass will explore the most common SQ problems and we will use your own real examples to develop a pragmatic approach dealing with them. Together we will cover the eight key strategies which lead to success. By the end of the session you will understand how to leverage the evaluation system to your best advantage and what to do when you cannot fully answer all the questions.

Who Should Attend?

– Those responsible for managing the client relationship

– Senior staff who have direct control over the bidding process

– Senior sales staff

– Senior executive project sponsors

– Internal experts who have responsibility for compiling the SQ response

You should attend the masterclass if you are willing to participate fully, already have some experience in this area and wish to sharpen your skills in order to enhance your future performance.

Objective

To prepare you to be effective getting shortlisted for Public Sector work.

One half day facilitated workshop, 08:30 to 12:30 with breaks.

Approach

The key content aims will be to:

– Create the right environment to learn some key tips to make your SQ submissions more effective

– Make the session as interactive as possible

– Draw upon the experience of all the delegates

Content

Learning Points

– The 8 strategies to improve SQ performance

– How best to respond throughout the process

– Clever things you can do to improve your win chances

Key messages

– Making Senior Management part of the team

– Qualifying the opportunity

– Nailing the compliancy issues

– Using the scoring matrix

– Harnessing the Market Intelligence

– Priming your references

– Articulation of the benefits

– Storing all the reusable information

For dates when this course is to be run please contact Andy Haigh

andrew.haigh@sixfoldinternational.co.uk

Presenting the Winning Bid – Masterclass November 10, 2015 at 10:33 am

The presentation stage of a public sector opportunity is almost never given the same proportion of focus as the tender document. This is a significant problem as many an opportunity is lost at this stage because of a lack of preparation, an inability to engage with the ‘audience’ and the lack of confidence of the presenters.

This half day masterclass has been developed for professionals who on a regular basis are required to present and communicate the business to the highest standards.

Why should I attend?

What are the benefits of attending – how will it benefit me personally (increased knowledge/confidence etc) and how will it benefit my company (making them more competitive etc).

Using a master-class format with a high level of individual coaching you will find out how to develop and apply the advanced communication skills that will enable you to develop outstanding bid presentations. You will learn how to present yourself and your business as a whole, with greater impact and presence. At the same time, you will hone their existing vocal and non-verbal communication skills into an incisive business tool. In short, attending this course will significantly increase your chances of winning a bid by presenting it in the best possible light.

What will I learn?

What topics will be covered/ what questions will be answered if I attend.

On this event we will:

– Refresh the ‘best practice’ techniques that will allow you to develop memorable presentations that win.

– Identify the advanced skills and techniques that you need to communicate and present in an effective and professional manner

– Explore how to use your vocal and non-verbal communication with maximum impact and presence.

– Demonstrate the importance of using role and intention to support your communication and develop authenticity

– Critically assess and enhance your personal communication style with a high degree of individual coaching and feedback

Who should attend – job titles/ departments/ ‘anyone involved in…’

This event covers ground applicable to experienced bid professionals who have a desire to improve their impact when making bid presentations. This will include:

– Commercial Directors and Managers

– Sales Directors

– Bid Directors

– Bid Managers

– Sales professionals

Technical bid team members who may be on a presentation team.

Because of the focused attention given to each person the number of participants on each masterclass is limited to 6. Participants are requested to bring ten minutes of a presentation with them to work on during the master-class.

For more information about when this course will be run please contact Andy Haigh on 01227 860 375 or via our contact form

How to Win Crucial Public Sector Contracts November 10, 2015 at 10:25 am

How do you ensure you get to the contract? We’ll show you how to raise your success rate. Kable’s expertise in navigating the public sector makes us the ideal partner to show you how to raise your success rate and get to the contract.

Complex rules dictate the public sector buying process to ensure that taxpayer’s money is spent wisely, yet some public sector suppliers perform much better than others do. The fact that government procurements sometimes end in disaster, proves that the system is vulnerable to influence and persuasion. Offering the best value does not always lead to a contract. Because of the intricate procurement procedures imposed on government users and their suppliers, even the best sales teams are not always equipped to succeed in the competitive public sector environment.

So how do you use resources wisely and get the balance right? And what needs to be done to maximise your chance of getting through to the contract?

How to Win Crucial Public Sector Contracts is an advanced training course that deals with the written and unwritten rules affecting those who sell to national and local government. It addresses challenges faced by public sector sales executives and shows how the process can be exploited to help give you a significant competitive advantage.

Who Should Attend?

You will get substantial value from this event if you are one of the following:

– Those responsible for managing the client relationship

– Senior staff who have direct control over the bidding process

– Senior sales staff

– Internal experts who have responsibility for compiling the Selection Questionnaire response

– Senior executive project sponsors

– Bid managers

Benefits of Attending

In this event you will discover the touch points that you can exploit for competitive advantage.

– Cover off on the 2016 procurement rule changes including SQ “passports”, timescale changes, no more Part B services, Tekal changes & negotiated competitive dialogue.

– Experienced public sector bid and sales people will gain new ideas and insights from this course. Reminders about things they know that may have fallen into disuse and hearing about the experiences of others on the course will expand the value of their participation

– Sales people who are transitioning from the commercial sector, or who are beginning a public sector sales career, will gain knowledge and methods that will be essential to their success.

– Organisations who are new to the public sector, will learn about the knowledge, habits and practices that their teams must use to compete against established competitors.

Course Contents

– Gaining control by understanding the process – Achieving an edge by understanding the public sector client agenda and processes. Looking at the freedoms and constraints that affect their decisions. Understanding the procurement options from the viewpoint of the Contracts Officer. Knowing the underlying principles upon which all Public Sector procurements are based. Positioning your solution for maximum impact and identifying those parts of the process you can use to gain competitive advantage.

– Compliance – The role of qualification during the process. Understanding how to overcome potential non-compliancies. Dealing with radical solutions and innovative proposals. Understanding the approach to abnormal bids.

– Leveraging the evaluation process in your favour – Using executive summaries to best advantage. Knowing how to exploit the decision making processes to improve your ability to respond correctly. Getting more time. Using politics to enhance your chances of winning. The truth about bribery.

– Finding out what the competition is bidding – Creative use of the Freedom of Information act to gain competitive advantage. Identifying where the client has identified the winner they want and how to overcome their bias. Differentiating your proposition.

– Using politics to enhance your chances of winning – Knowing what is really wanted in the response. Making sure that the evaluators have no option but to award highest marks. Identify every point in the process that you can use to influence the agenda. Create a basis upon which you may challenge a decision which does not go in your favour. Finessing the question response process.

– Increasing your win chances by finessing the question response process – Recovering from finding out you are not winning. Getting a debrief. How to challenge effectively and how to overcome the winner decision. Understanding the fundamental principles upon which all challenges must be based upon to be successful. Using the Alcatel period and the Remedies Directive to best effect.

Course Details

Date: Tuesday 1st April 2014

Time: 9am – 5pm (8:45am – Registration and coffee)

Attendance: Limited to 22 delegates; this is an intensive workshop with one-on-one personal support from the workshop leaders. First come, first served.

Venue: No.1, America Square, 17 Crosswall, London EC3N 2LB

Contact Kable’s client services team to tell us how many attendees you would like to place.

We will confirm your attendance by return and then contact you to process your registration at a later date. We reserve the right to cancel or reschedule the course if necessary.

APMP UK Workshop: Exploiting the Public Sector rules for Competitive Gain November 10, 2015 at 10:18 am

Virgin’s success at overturning the government decision to award the West Coast mainline franchise to FirstGroup demonstrated something Sixfold has long been preaching: the best bidders in the public sector use the government’s own rules to give themselves competitive advantage.

 

In our experience, most companies don’t understand how to exploit these rules. Instead they regard them at best as a cumbersome necessity or at worst as a reason not to go for government business at all.
Bid teams need to understand how to use these rules to give themselves every possible advantage when planning a bid strategy.
This session shows some of the ways the most successful bidders prepare themselves and their team to exploit the nuances of a public sector bid.
This is a rare opportunity to gain winning knowledge and even if you are not currently engaged in public sector business, it is essential insight for anyone following a career as a bid professional.


About our speakers

Peter Lobl – After a successful 22 year career of high value sales working for Unisys and IBM, Peter has spent the last 10 years helping major organisations improve their sales performance. He has worked on both sides of the Public Sector procurement process which has helped develop the insights and methods that help his clients exploit the process for competitive advantage.
Peter has worked with commercial organisations including Unisys, Glaxo Smithkline, T-Systems and Royal Mail. His Public Sector clients include the Ministry of Justice and Kent County Council. For Sixfold, Peter has developed a variety of ‘Mastering Public Sector Bidding’ events, delivered under the Kable brand. As well as developing and delivering events focused on successful bidding, Peter has rolled out the course ‘Selling Complex Services’ across Europe, a workshop that showed senior sales people how to secure high value BPO outsourcing contracts (£25m +). The focus of the course was on the preparation and presentation of key bid messages for issues that resonated at C-Level. As well as being an APMP practitioner, Peter is an expert reviewer for the EU, and a director of a number of small local businesses.

Andy Haigh is expert in the processes of bidding and tendering, specialising in competitive formal bids into EU Public Sector organisations. He has developed tools and techniques for every aspect of the procurement process whilst working with both private and public sector clients. He is an authority on EU procurement legislation and brings all these capabilities together to initiate and then drive major complex bids through to a successful completion.
He has bid management experience from working in both the private and public sectors, including responsibility at Director level in several large multinational companies. His recent clients include Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson, Balfour Beatty, The Guardian News and Media, Kent County Council and Steria.

As an APMP “Professional”, Andy’s book, “Winning Public Sector Contracts” has been published by the Guardian as part of its Guardian Professional book series.
Attendance at this event will earn five Continuing Education Units (CEUs) towards the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirement of the APMP Accreditation Programme. Bring your paper ticket for signature if you need proof of attendance.

Venue: We are very grateful for the hospitality extended to APMP UK by Aviva in York.

No car parking is available at the office but you can use the public car park: Esplanade car park, West Esplanade, York, YO1 6F. This is a two minute walk from the Aviva office along the riverside.

Train: If travelling by train (station also shown on the above map) the walk to the office is less than five minutes.

You are welcome to invite guests.

Schedule

18:00 – 18:30 – Welcome, refreshments and networking
18:30 – 20:00 – Workshop and questions
20:00 – 20:30 – Networking

Exploiting The Public Sector Rules For Commercial Gain November 10, 2015 at 7:57 am

To many; the Public Sector procurement processes appear very daunting. However, some companies get in­ credible results by knowing how to leverage the processes to best advantage, even though they may not have the best products or solution. Now, once again the rules are changing and those organisations that can respond most effectively will win the prizes. If you really are best in class, you cannot afford to be knocked out by inferior suppliers who play the game better.

 

So how do you, with your limited resources, get the balance between bidding costs and win rate right? And what needs to be done to maximise your chance of get­ ting through to contract award? We’ll show you how to raise your success rate.
Exploiting the Public Sector Rules for Commercial Gain is a unique and comprehensive training course that deals with the written and unwritten rules affecting those who sell to national and local government. It addresses the challenges faced by Public Sector sales teams and shows how the formal processes can be exploited to help you to forge a significant competitive advantage. The course has been successfully delivered in conjunction with Aviva, and Kable to over 200 organisations including; Unisys, Midland HR, Liberata, BT, Hitachi Consulting, Arvato, and Steria amongst others.

 

Benefits of attending :-
This event is aimed at people at a management or controlling level within their organisation who are anticipating the need to win crucial contracts and require to better understand how the process of winning these tenders works now and in the future. You absolutely must attend if you wish to sharpen your knowledge and skills in order to enhance your organisation’s future bid performance in the light of the upcoming legislative changes.

– At this event you will discover the hidden touch points that you can exploit for competitive advantage.

– Experienced Public Sector bid and sales people will gain many new ideas and insights from this course.

– Anyone transitioning from the commercial sector, or who is beginning a Public Sector orientated role should regard this as essential training that will slash their learning curve.

– Organisations who are entirely new to Public Sector procurement, will learn about the knowledge, habits and practices that their teams must use to compete effectively against established competitors.

 

Who should attend :-
– Senior bid managers
– Senior staff who have direct control over the Public Sector sales and bidding processes
– All sales staff with Public Sector focus Internal experts who have significant input into the response
– Those responsible for managing the Public Sector client relationship
– Senior executive project sponsors

 

MODULE 1. Introduction
Setting up the day for maximum value

 

MODULE 2. Gain control by understanding how the process is conducted
Achieving an edge by understanding the Public Sector client agenda and processes. Looking at the freedoms and constraints that affect their decisions. Understanding the procurement options from the viewpoint of the Contracts Officer. Getting a lead by knowing the underlying principles upon which all Public Sector procurements are based. Being able to evaluate the impact of the forthcoming new procurement legislation. Positioning your solution for maximum impact and identifying those parts of the process you can use to gain competitive advantage.

 

MODULE 3. Building the foundations for success
Knowing the differences in qualifying Public Sector opportunities compared to commercial ones. Applying tools to qualification. Understanding how to overcome potential noncompliance. Dealing with radical solution s and innovative proposals. Understanding the approach to abnormal bids. Understanding how to navigate any potential stumbling blocks.

 

MODULE 4. How to leverage the evaluation process in your favour
Knowing how to exploit the decision making processes to improve the impact of your response. Using executive summaries to position the competition. Optimising the engagement of the brand new procurement procedures and finessing e­-auctions. Getting more time to respond. Using politics in the right way to enhance your chances of winning. The truth about bribery.

 

MODULE 5. Finding out what your competitors are bidding
Creative use of the Freedom of Information Act to gain competitive advantage. Identifying where the client has identified the winner they want and how to overcome their bias. Differentiating your proposition when the process stifles differentiation. Understanding Teckal and Hamburg.

 

MODULE 6. Taking full advantage of the process to maximise you win chance
Knowing what is really wanted in the response. Making sure that the evaluators have no option but to award highest marks. Identify every point in the process that you can use to influence the agenda. Create a basis upon which you may challenge a decision which does not go in your favour. Finessing the question response process.

 

MODULE 7. Win when you lose
How to challenge effectively and how you can overcome the winner decision. Getting a de-brief. Understanding the fundamental principles upon which all challenges must be based to be successful. Using the Alcatel period and the Remedies Directive to best effect.

 

MODULE 8. Conclusion
Top tips. Revisit main messages and call to action.

 

Andy Haigh
Andy Haigh has been involved in sales, sales training, sales management and sales coaching since 1986. Initially he had success in a range of sales and business development roles where he built complete departments for S-Corn and Lorien Consulting specialising in Public Sector business. He received a variety of sales experience and training in Studio master, Rank Xerox and Unisys progressing to Director Level and coaching or training large sales teams. At Unisys he led the improvement of bid win rate from 12% to 42%.
Since then Andy has run his own consultancy business specialising in Public Sector sales improvement. Current clients are MidlandHR, lnnogames (Germany), Unisys and Kent County Council. As an APMP “Professional” he has developed a variety of unique tools and techniques from his many years of Public Sector sales and sales management experience to help the sales process. The Guardian has published Andy’s book “Winning Public Sector Sales” in its Professional title series.

 

Peter Lobl
Peter has over 30 years sales and bid management experience. He is an APMP practitioner and is currently working with companies including Unisys, Alcatel Lucent, HP and other blue chip companies helping improve their bidding into the Public Sector. In addition he has recently worked with Kent County Council and the Home Office to help them develop their procurement practices.
Peter will bring this knowledge and experience of both sides of the procurement ‘divide’ to help delegates gain further insight into the process.

 

Affiliated Associations
This course is presented in association with the APMP, the body that defines and supports best practice in the areas of bids, proposals and business acquisition (Editor’s note: The APMP is a fantastic source of ‘best practice’ tools and guidance).

 

What’s included in the price
– A comprehensive set of notes as a permanent record of the day and the content.
– A copy of the book “Winning Public Sector Contracts” (RRP £50).
– Refreshments throughout the day. A three course lunch.
– A free 30 min follow-up telephone consultation where you can discuss issues arising from the course which affect your own business.

 

Course Schedule
– 8.30 – 9.00 am – Registration(Tea / coffee/ pastries)
– 10.45 – 11.00 am – Tea / Coffee break
– 12.45 – 1.45 pm – Lunch
– 3.15 – 4.00 pm – Tea / Coffee break
– 5.00 pm – Close

 

Delegate Costs
Places are strictly limited to 25 delegates so early booking is highly recommended to secure your place

How to get there
Central Hall Westminster is located on Storey’s Gate, across the road from Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament and can be easily accessed in a number of different ways.

Underground
– Westminster station- Jubilee, Circle and District lines.
– St James’ Park stat ion- Circle and District lines.
– Victoria stat ion- Victoria, Circle and District lines.

British Rail
Central Hall is within easy walking distance of Victoria, Charing Cross and Waterloo mainline stations.

Buses
– Buses: 11, 24,148 and 211 pass the door.
– Buses: 3, 12, 53, 53X, 87, 88,109,159 and 453 stop nearby.

Car Parking
Public car parks operate in Abingdon Street, Horseferry Road, Rochester Row and Semley Place. There is also parking adjacent to the building on Tothill Street and Matthew Parker Street.

Nailing the Selection Questionnaire – Masterclass November 7, 2015 at 8:39 am

The Selection Questionnaire (SQ) often gets given to the “office junior” to complete and then you fail to get through. Or, you spend days adding to and tuning the response, and still do not get through! Even worse, you are the incumbent and fail at the SQ stage of the renewal competition.

We know that the response to the Selection Questionnaire can be a “knee jerk” response to the questionnaire arriving on the desk. However, if the opportunity is not eventually bid for and won, any effort expended against the SQ is wasted. On the other hand, if the SQ is not completed, you cannot bid for the contract – even though you may be the best organisation on the planet to supply what is wanted! With new procurement legislation extending the scope of opportunities to use the SQ and the nature of the SQ changing with impending standardised EU templates, it gets ever more complex.

So how do you, with your limited resources get, the balance right? After all, you are now entering a process which seeks any reason to “legitimately” reject your submission. If your response can be ruled out for some simple issue at the start, this is a legitimate way for the Public Sector evaluator to avoid spending any more time scrutinising the remainder of your document. So this event is your opportunity to learn from specialists who will show you how to prepare your response in the way that is most likely take you through to the next stage.

The “Responding to the Selection Questionnaire” masterclass will explore the most common SQ problems, will examine the impact of the new rules and will introduce best practice from the market. We can use your own real examples to develop a pragmatic approach dealing with the problems and can share the wide ranging experiences with the rest of the group.

This event is designed for those people who really need to make a difference to your Public Sector sales results. It is set up to provide “golden nugget” information to Sales Directors, Sales Team members and senior sales support staff. If you are involved in managing or contributing to your company’s SQ responses, this event will be an investment which will give a return many times over.

A recent delegate at this event said “I was getting long-listed for a lot of my SQs but after using the approach Andy and Peter described, it is really unusual for us to not be selected. All this and my day-to-day workload has actually reduced! A big thank you to you both.”

A Potential Hazard: The New Competitive Procedure with Negotiation November 6, 2015 at 1:40 pm

If you think that the procedure chosen by your client will not affect your win chance, think again! It is vital you understand the possible impact.

The Competitive Dialogue has been around for some time and we have seen many instances of its use (and misuse) to date.  We are now getting some practical understanding of the Competitive Procedure with Negotiation and this note outlines how this experience is giving us more insight and warns of the impact this could have on your win chance.

The Background

Firstly, both the Competitive Procedure with Negotiation and Competitive Dialogue have many similar characteristics.  The grounds for their use by a contracting authority are the same.  The contract to be let must be innovative, it must not be capable of sufficiently precise specification at the time of going to the market or it must have risks attached that cannot be priced at the outset.  Each procedure then follows a phased negotiation and dialogue route and is designed to provide competitive pressure on the contenders throughout.

The Differences

The substantive differences between the procedures lie in the fact that the Competitive Procedure with Negotiation is a hybrid procedure, unlike the Competitive Dialogue, and the level of negotiation allowed at final tender stages for the procedures.

Hybrid Procedure

The hybrid nature of the Competitive Procedure with Negotiation can be seen in that a contracting authority can elect to accept a Competitive Procedure with Negotiation bid on the basis of the initial tenders, in the same way it would had done if it had followed a restricted procedure.  It is not forced to go to a negotiation stage.  Of course, this gives the canny supplier the opportunity to provide a complete and convincing response at the initial tender stage, with a reasoned argument for the contracting authority to avoid further spend on pointless continued competition.

Negotiations

However, at the final tender stages, there are also differences in the permitted levels of negotiation:

– Competitive Procedure with Negotiation

– Contracting authorities can negotiate with tenderers the initial and all revised tenders submitted by them in the competition, except for the final tender.

– The minimum requirements and the award criteria cannot be the subject to any negotiation.

Transparency Hits You! November 6, 2015 at 1:31 pm

Like it or not, the new Public Contracts Regulations 2015 are going to make a big difference to how you bid for Public Sector contracts.  Sixfold is all about how to finesse the Public Sector procurement to create a competitive edge. We have often focused on how the fundamental principles – equal treatment, proportionality and transparency – can be used as a tool to your advantage.

These principles, if anything, are strengthened by the new regulations.  This is particularly true of transparency which the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has detailed in one of its Procurement Policy Notes. It creates new opportunities and risks that will be of interest to all bid professionals.

Central Government departments have been told that after 1st September 2015 they must implement additional transparency measures.  Other Government departments have been recommended to follow suit.

Firstly, the procurement team is required to discuss and agree the information that will be made public when the contract is awarded, targeting information that has previously been withheld.  This will extend to (and beyond):

– Your contract price and any incentives.

– The contract performance metrics and how you will manage them.

– The plans for the management of any underperformance and what will be its financial impact.

– The governance arrangements, including governance through your supply chains.

– Your resource plans

– Your service improvement plans

Of course, you might be adamant that you will not agree to the release of this information.  However, ultimately it is the contracting authority who will make the final decision, irrespective of any supplier’s wishes or protestations.

Then, all this information will be uploaded to a publically available section of the department’s website and as the contract progresses, updated so it remains current.

For suppliers who are new to a contract area, this will give them a highly valuable swathe of information from which they can prepare their competitive responses.  For incumbents, this represents another challenge to their ability to retain their contract at the renewal point.  For the Government, this will, undoubtedly have the long term effect of lowering market prices and so don’t expect this requirement to lessen as time goes on!

If you want to know more about how all this may affect your next Public Sector bid and how you can take advantage of these changes, we would be delighted to discuss it with you.  Please give us a call on 01227 860375 and we will be very happy to help.

Make your ‘Kick Off’ meeting really effective November 6, 2015 at 12:11 pm

Rescuing A Major Bid October 2, 2015 at 12:54 pm

Sixfold has been called in to help a large company resolve a strange issue with the evaluation of its multi-million pound tender.  The company had been told that it had come second and, in accordance with the procurement requirements, it was sent the scores both it and the winning bidder had been allocated.

However, on examination it was uncovered that the Public Sector evaluation team had added an additional step into the calculation of the quality score.  It had normalised the scores in the same manner that the financial score was normalised.  The problem was that this quality normalisation process was not included in the Instructions to Tenderers.  The financial normalisation process was there, but the quality normalisation was not!  Moreover, the normalisation process altered the ranking of Sixfold’s client from first place to second.  Once the “normalisation” was removed, our client had won!

Sixfold advised the client on the strategy for the debriefing meeting which it had applied for as part of the Alcatel process and then attended the debrief with the client’s team.  The Public Sector team was stunned when its misappropriation of the process was highlighted, but refused to accept that its process was faulty.  Sixfold drafted the formal challenge to the decision processes and the final decision.  We await with interest the outcome, which we will post here once we know it.

Beating Your Competition Through Differentiation October 2, 2015 at 12:10 pm

The Public Sector bidding processes appear to force you to bid exactly the same proposal as everyone else. This process is set up to allow the evaluators to be able to compare one bid against another as easily as they can. The processes seem to stifle any ability to differentiate your offering and slaps down any attempt at innovation! However, we all know that we must stand out from the other bidders if we are to win the bid.

So what can you offer to beat your competition? It appears that you only have two choices: Offer the same thing as your competitors and hope luck is on your side, or take the risk of offering something different and which might not be evaluated.

If you do offer the same thing as the other competitors, your only option is to underprice them. This is the presumption behind the Public Sector approach to procurement which seeks to minimise cost to the public purse. Moreover, if you are required to bid the exact same as the specification demands, you cannot bring your expertise and innovation which differentiates you in the marketplace to give the client a better result than it can appreciate is available outside of its own thinking.

Change the Specification

So the first rule is to get the specification changed! How do you do this? The best way is to talk to the client before the procurement specification is finished. Educate them about the possible and encourage them to specify it.

The next way is to challenge the specification. If you are clever, you can do this through the formal questions process. However, a better way may be to arrange a meeting with the client under the conditions of an NDA. If you get such a meeting you will need to demonstrate significant advantages, sufficient to get the client to cancel its procurement and restart it with a new specification.

Alternatively, you can submit a variant bid. Often the rules state you can only do this is you also submit a compliant bid as well. Nevertheless, if the reasons behind the variant bid are compelling, this will usually be sufficient to get the attention of the client’s senior staff.

Do It Differently

If the route to change the specification cannot be made to work, then you need to get your thinking cap on and approach the response in a different way. Consider offering the client the same as the specification dictates, but propose:

  1. A proposal which meets their procurement process requirements better than anyone else (and, thus, scores more)
  2. A solution which is developed or delivered in a different way
  3. An approach which delivers better results
  4. A solution with more reliability
  5. A proposal with more future options
  6. A solution with more growth potential
  7. A solution with more flexibility
  8. A solution delivered faster than specified
  9. A solution which is better integrated into the client’s environment
  10. A proposal with better after sales support
  11. A contract with a better warranty or guarantee
  12. A management organisation with more accountability or transparency
  13. A proposal with better risk mitigation and risk transfer to the client
  14. A delivery with more sizes or better quantities
  15. Penalties for under performance
  16. Cash flow which better meets the Public Sector funding cycle

Resonate With the Assessors

Finally, for each element of the proposal response think about who will be marking it and make sure the descriptions and examples you provide have the maximum impact upon them. To do this you must consider:

Who (individually and collectively) participates in and benefits from the project (including the citizens and voters!)

  1. What you do or deliver best
  2. Where you work, produce, deliver, or support your offering
  3. When you work, produce, deliver, or support your offering
  4. How you work, produce, deliver, or support your offering
  5. Why you approach it the way you do and what the benefits will be for the customer

Use your market intelligence and address each of these points as if you were the client. See what a
difference it makes.

If you cannot change it, then identify it, make it clearer or just describe the results more
comprehensively for the customer and how they will benefit from it. That alone can set you apart
and make you a more attractive contractor.

Conclusion

When you offer exactly the same thing as everyone else, you only compete on price. When you offer something different, you compete on value. When you offer the same thing, only you do it in a different way, you gain the ability to offer them something better, without increasing your price.

If the specification is so specific that you cannot have a better offering, then you can still be a better supplier. The customer is always looking for differences, so make them clear. Give the client a clear choice, even if it is for the same deliverable.

Ultimately, you can and will always be different. You have to make that difference clear to the customer and, most importantly, show the benefits of these differences in the proposal in their terms.

Competitive Gold! How to get a copy of your competitor’s last government bid October 2, 2015 at 11:55 am

How important is winning your next Public Sector Contract to you?  Pretty important?  You bet your life it is!  So how would it help you to have copies of the recent bids your competitors have produced, on your desk, whilst you get stuck into the latest proposal?

It’s got to greatly assist you.  It almost feels like cheating – but it’s perfectly legitimate!  So why is it that so many organisations don’t get hold of their competitors’ recent documents when there is a really easy way to do it.

You get this information just by asking for it, from the department or organisation who received the information in the first place.  They have to send it to you (subject to a few restrictions) within 21 days.

This is all enshrined in the Freedom of Information act which presupposes that any information received by a Public body is, by its nature in the Public domain and any citizen is entitled to have it.  It further presumes that once the citizen (or commercial organisation) gets the information, they will exploit it for commercial purposes.

Of course, there are a few exceptions.  Personal information, information which if disclosed would adversely affect the ability of the country to defend itself or for the parties involved to negotiate in an on-going contractual or legal situation, may be withheld.  But the limitations are very few and the presumption is that the information may and will be released unless it can be shown that the act specifically disallows it.  Hardly any information normally contained within a tender submission is exempt.

So the route is that you ask for the information specifically, e.g. “all of the competing tender responses in the competition for the XYZ contract” and wait for the documents to arrive in the post (or by email).  If they don’t come, after 21 days you can go to the Information Commissioner’s Office Website, fill in a simple form and shortly after that they will make it happen for you.

The corollary for this is, of course, that you competitors have access to your tender responses too.  Indeed, they are probably reading them as you read this!  If you want to know how to stop them, watch out for our next post on this site or start a thread.

Of course, Sixfold has some experience of this.  Andy Haigh’s new book, “Winning Public Sector Contracts” published by The Guardian Professional, covers many of the approaches.  Why not give him a call on 01227 860375 if you want to have a private chat.

Going the Extra Mile October 2, 2015 at 11:50 am

As a Bid Director I have been interested for a long time in what it is that motivates bid team members to work extended hours (sometimes 24 hours and longer without a break). Despite being under high pressure they perform willingly, enthusiastically and, usually, for no financial reward above their normal salary. This does not occur in every case. However, as any Bid Manager knows, it happens surprisingly often. It can be accompanied by a grumbling about the poor performance of others who have created the “situation” – but it is usually not as a result of poor performance on their part. However, it seems that the individual feels that they have a personal responsibility to put the situation right and get the bid completed, no matter what level of effort is needed from them.

Representatives of partner and sub-contractor companies, seconded in to the bid team, show this characteristic as well. They will “go the extra mile” to make sure their element of the bid response is as good as they can get it. Their contribution will often contrast with the minimalist response of some staff of the bidding company who are required to provide bid text (because of their specialist role, e.g. HR, Legal or Quality Management) but who are not part of the core bid team.

Take these extraordinary people away from the bid and they can revert to type. They will frequently give an adequate performance but not shine. So what is it in this environment that motivates them to give exceptional levels of contribution? And what can we learn from this which might be harnessed to increase productivity across other environments?

I don’t have all the answers. Nevertheless, I have uncovered some pointers which seem to underlie the boost in engagement levels a bid situation creates:

Finite Problem

A bid has a very clear deliverable, both in content and in quality. One without the other will cause the bid to be lost and the entire team effort wasted. So, members of the bid team usually have a clear understanding of the top level objectives they must respond to from the outset.

This clarity of contribution required and the knowledge that the individual’s bid content really matters seems to generate a high level of individual engagement. If we can provide such clear direction and precision in the value of their contribution in the bid, it ought to create the same motivation if used elsewhere?

Defined Timescales

A bid has a real (and usually short timescale) deadline. Miss the deadline and you have thrown away all the bid work that has been done. Everyone understands that there is little chance of an extension of the response time so makes plans accordingly.

Of course, we are all used to working to deadlines and we know that setting deadlines can improve productivity. However, all too often we also know if the timescales are not met, we will get away with it. We can use an excuse that something else was more important and we know that it will be accepted by our peers and superiors. Knowing that missing the deadline will be a disaster for everyone can provide the impetus we need, particularly as the bid deadline approaches.

I believe that deadlines should only be set if they are truly deadlines. If we set deadlines arbitrarily of without giving the justification for them, the motivation deadlines can create is diminished. So perhaps more contribution will be achieved by stating and explaining deadlines, and then not allowing them to be missed?

Measurement

Only one bid from the competing companies will result in a contract. Every element of each bid will be contrasted against the other bids and the best overall submission will be selected. The bid team are not being measured internally within the business; they are being measured against the best “out there”.

For some people, being the best is important and winning the bid proves they are the best. I believe that if we can give people the opportunity and the support to prove that they “are the best” elsewhere, we will improve their motivation and commitment. I think that for some people, this ability to prove themselves is what drives them to become involved in more bids so that they can repeat the demonstration. If we can tap into this motivation, enhanced contribution must surely follow?

Part of the Team

In the final hours before a bid is handed over to the courier or is uploaded on to some secure web site the pace can become frantic and everyone “mucks in” to do whatever is needed to get the submission completed. When it is all over, there is a real sense of “team” and tired elation. This bonding can continue as enhanced relationships long after the work is finished.

Teams formed at short notice to tackle difficult problems can bring out the best in some (but not all) people. I think if we want more from our employees we should weigh the advantages of task orientated teams over function orientation more carefully.

Of course many people cannot be placed in the environment a bid team creates and nor would they want to be. However, I have seen exceptional performance from otherwise average individuals so many times when they have been place in a bid team there has got to be something special going on. I wonder if anyone else has similar experiences?

I don’t have to worry – We are the “incumbent”! October 2, 2015 at 11:34 am

You are the incumbent supplier in a Public Sector contract and it has come around for a rebid.  You and your team have been doing a fantastic job for years.  You know you have the client’s staff on your side because they tell you that your team is doing a good job and you have rescued the client’s business from several, indeed many, disasters of their making in recent months.  Relationships are good across both sides of the contract and when issues do arise they are sorted out quickly, with a great deal of mutual support and understanding, no matter where the issues originated from.  Altogether, with such a good track record, winning the rebid will be a cinch.

Or will it?

A very high proportion of incumbent suppliers will lose in this situation, even when the Public Sector client wants the incumbent to win.  Having analysed a few of these situations, I believe the reasons for such high failure rates are based in a few repeated areas of weakness.

Firstly, a good technically competent bid from the incumbent cannot win on its own!

This is because the competition is in it to win it.  The competitors will have predicted the main strengths of the incumbent (that of a proven track record and no new supplier transition costs) and they will have clear strategies to deal with and overcome these claimed advantages – otherwise they would not be bidding!  So the competitors must already have a good technical solution which they will claim has such overwhelming advantages for the client that the transition problems of it moving to a new supplier will be completely vanquished.

Next, the incumbent will be hesitant to propose a truly innovative solution or slash costs.

Why?  To do so would telegraph to the client that you had been “ripping them off” and that you had not shown ability to be as innovative as you would like the client to believe, in the past.  Otherwise it would not have taken a rebid to show these things up, would it?  So it is likely that the incumbent’s solution will just be tinkering with what it has now and real innovation (with all its associated risks) will not be permitted by its account management.
The competitors will not be hampered in this way and they will all be working from the perspective that unless innovation is fully demonstrated, they cannot win.  Radical thinking from within their bid teams will be positively encouraged.
Finally, the incumbent is frequently blind to its own arrogance and its management a bit complacent.  They think, “With such a tremendous track record to date with this client, what more do we have to prove?  The client knows how good we are!” They forget that anything not actually detailed in the response cannot be taken into account.  Even less so if they haven’t specifically identified it to be scored.  Plus, the entire team is blissfully unaware of the competitive intelligence advantage the competitors already have.

The competitors will have been analysing your track record with this client in great detail, through the information freely available through the Freedom of Information Act.  You have put this in the public domain through the minutes of your routine progress meetings with the client.  Every issue and failure has been highlighted.  For your competitors this information is gold nuggets.  Then they will show, on paper in the proposal, how these things would either have been completely avoided if it had been operating the contract, or how it would have resolved the issues with a much better outcome.  They can make all these claims on paper using hindsight, but the incumbent cannot change history, good or bad.
Sometimes I have even seen the incumbent get to the point that it does not bother with any competitive intelligence at all, relying upon the client’s all pervasive appreciation of its qualities to win.  It gambles upon its unique relationship to overcome all.
However, strengths and “uniques” are comparative.  This means you can only play these in your bid if you know what the competitors can offer against each one AND what the value to the client of each is.  It is no good in relying upon some secret insider knowledge either.  Once the evaluators see the difference between what they have asked and “reality” they will reissue the requirement in these areas or accommodate it in their analysis.  This will remove the advantage to the incumbent.  If you are the incumbent with insider knowledge, expect this to happen.

Remember that it is the client’s procurement team’s job to make sure that the invitation to tender documentation meets the fundamental principles of transparency and equality.  You might have helped them to put together the specification.  However, it is their job to sanitise the requirement so it does not suit any one supplier, particularly the incumbent.  Then they have to make sure that the evaluation rules are applied correctly and any bias (for or against you) is removed.  If they don’t, then the award decision may be subject to challenge and the procurement stopped, at least for the time it takes to resolve the issue.  Only a losing supplier wants this to happen; no one else does and the procurement team will do everything in their power to stop any potential for challenge before the competition is begun.

So, if you are the incumbent, what can you do?  Well, unless you have a truly competitive proposal, nothing!

If you want to retain the client, you must approach the tendering competition expecting every other competitor to claim and then seek to prove that it can do the job better than you have done and be cheaper.  So begin work on this basis.
Brainstorm all the proof points you have of your relevant capabilities in two sessions.  One for evidence of how well you have served the client and how well you know them and their needs.  A separate session for proof points of corporate capability relevant to the new requirements.  Ensure that these are populated in your response against questions in which these proof points can affect the scoring.

Look for real innovation and don’t be afraid to use it.  Slash your costs as far as you can (but always balance this against the impact on your quality score).  Use your knowledge of the client and what it really wants and come up with a game changer that the competitors will not foresee and which will truly impress the client.  Treat the competition as if your most feared competitor had been the incumbent and had performed well.  Then show the client that you really are the better choice.

Andy Haigh September 29, 2015 at 9:57 am

andrew.haigh@sixfoldinternational.co.uk

Peter Lobl September 29, 2015 at 9:56 am

peter.lobl@sixfoldinternational.co.uk

David Evans September 29, 2015 at 9:55 am

david.evans@sixfoldinternational.co.uk

Nick Heape, Business Development Manager September 28, 2015 at 4:51 pm

Thank you very much for this and your leadership the other day. These notes are absolute gold in terms of future strategy

 

Adrian Clark, Liberata September 28, 2015 at 4:07 pm

Very good.  Useful to take time out and reflect on this important aspect of bidding.