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.
