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

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.

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.

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.