With customer bid feedback often fairly high level, I’m regularly asked what key things I’ve learnt make a difference in bids as part of the tailored advice I give individual clients. No-matter which market I am working in or which way my clients are competing on bids, there are some key elements that I come back to time and time again – that are often the things which make - or break bid success. These are the things I wish I’d known at the beginning – without all the trial and error. So, I’d like to share these here:
1. Pick your bid
Ever feel like a kid in a sweetshop?
Bids are tempting. With value up for the taking, a new bid from a big customer that lands on your desk might just be the thing you’re looking for to make a big difference to your business’s revenue. You might not know anything about the customer, the opportunity or the competition, but turning it down feels like a wasted opportunity.
The chance of success often makes businesses decide to take a punt, rather than completely miss out on the opportunity. Often, I see companies bidding for work they don’t really want, aren’t a good fit for, because they “want to show willing” or don’t want to be the ones to turn down the opportunity vs. other people in the market, or risk offending a customer.
However, this type of decision making rarely pays off consistently. Running from one short-term opportunity to another will often mean that you end up investing time and resource in a gamble – and run the risk of wasting time chasing an opportunity when you could be investing in your capability and your ability to successfully convert other healthier prospects. Dependent on how competitive your market already is (and most are – hence why customers are using bids to award work) you need to choose your potential prospects wisely, be targeted and be realistic about what work you want to deliver and what you are more likely to be in a position to win.
Your customers will tell the difference – if they have had no relationship with you previously, there is no sign of any tailored bid response, or the response is poor quality – you are potentially doing your business more damage than you would if you made a measured business decision not to bid. Making this decision means you can reserve your energies for other stronger opportunities, focus on making business or bid improvements – and impress this particular customer with a top quality bid the next time around.
Armed with a clear view of who you want to work for, you can build a view of what’s coming up, build relationships and assess your capability – so that you can make the right decisions and invest your time and resource in converting viable bids into happy, paying customers.
2. Plan your bid
Only fools rush in....
Once you choose to submit a bid, and you have a view of what you need to deliver, then you must plan. Even the smallest bid requires some level of planning to execute well. This affects all aspects – fitting in bids around other workloads, getting the right input from subject matter experts, coordinating your pricing and your written proposals, gathering information, and finalising the bid you submit.
The more advance warning you have over a bid, the more effective your planning will be – but no matter how short your turnaround time – taking at least 10% of your time out to create a plan will set you up for success. It’s often tempting to dive in especially when the clock is ticking – but this leads to mistakes, confusion and poor quality.
3. Answer the questions this customer asks
....between what you think and what your customer thinks...
Writing bids can be challenging – you might not be a natural writer, you might be against the clock, and you are often immersed in your business and what you currently deliver.
Often, it is easy to fall into a trap of misinterpreting a question based on an answer you want to give, previous bid responses and what you think the question is asking. The key is to take a step back.
Give yourself some time to plan your answers outside of writing them.
Do some customer research and look at the world through the eyes of the people and organisation that has issued the bid. Pick apart the question. Look for the key words and the hints that are in the question that indicate what they might be looking for. Break this down and use this to create answer maps to tackle the question from all angles. Then look behind the question. Why is this customer asking this question? What is important to them? What are they worried about? What do they want to hear?
It is important to ask yourself these questions and sketch out an answer, before you begin writing. Start with the question. It will save time and increase your scores.
4. Evidence
Your customers need to see where you've been and where it got your other customers.
“I am amazing. I am the best Bid Manager in the whole world, the UK’s number one, excellent in all ways and I will deliver the best service for you.”
Sold! Easy! Empty promises will not persuade your customer to give you the work either. They will always want to know:
A. What you will deliver for them.
B. What benefits this gives them.
C. How you will deliver it.
D. Evidence that you have done it before for others, to the levels the customer needs.
It is highly likely that with the exception of unique capabilities and added value, you and your competitors will be offering to deliver the same services – i.e. the services the customer has asked to be fulfilled. Your potential customer will be comparing your evidence vs. everyone else’s to weigh up who can do the best job.
There are bound to be some gaps in your evidence and your capability – work out how to address or mitigate these in your bid.
Make the most of your strengths and where your evidence base is strong – show this in your bid.
5. Choose your words wisely
A. Every company has terminology. Don’t use yours - use the words and phrases your customer uses.
Like scrabble - every word you choose has to maximise your score
B. Don’t be clever with language. At the end of the day, another person in another office, is going to pick up your bid, read it and score it (possibly late in the day, after having read several other bids). You need to make it easy for them to give you points, to read and understand what you are saying. This is human to human. If you wouldn’t choose these words or sentences in a normal conversation, then don’t write it in a bid. Reading out loud is a great way to check this.
C. It is a skill to maximise your score in a response with a 500-word limit. There are some ways you can tackle this through removal of redundant words, duplicate sentences, additional verbs and adjectives. Being disciplined with your words will ensure every single one is contributing to a point rather than non-scoring background information.
Hope that helps and good luck!
If you want to fast-track your bids to success, get in touch!
Louise