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.
