Enabling a winning environment for bidding

Leading by example…

In terms of enabling a successful bidding environment, the first thing recommended is to ensure your senior people lead by example. So, like any form of change, they need to act as role models. Bidding can be seen as an administrative function, which sometimes isn’t taken seriously by senior people which can lead to a lower win rate. The most successful organisations we find tend to have leaders in their organisation at board level who understand how to engage with clients, building value propositions for clients and understand how to articulate that through bidding. Focus on building capability at the highest levels with them acting as role models and making investment decisions.

Knowing your ‘why’…

Simon Sinek came up with the concept of the golden circle; he tells the story of organisations understanding what they do, many understand how they do it, but most don’t understand why they do it. Highly successful organisations understand their WHY, rather than just measuring their business performance in terms of money, as money is just a profit and profit is just an outcome. From the board level down, have a real purpose for your business that isn’t just making money.

Clear roles and responsibilities…

Clear roles and responsibilities are key from marketing through to capturing bidding pieces of work. Examples of different roles you could develop include; bid manager, document publisher, service delivery leader, designated signatory and more. Make sure everyone’s roles are clear and there’s no overlap.

What makes a good bid team?

• Successful bids have senior sponsor behind them – meaning the bid attracts the best resources to work on it and be placed into supplying the service or product. It’s good for the business for senior people to be attending meetings and encouraging activity around it.
• Clear roles and responsibilities
• Enthusiastic members who want to be there and are excited about the opportunity, ready to go the extra mile to win
• Have a team spirit and encourage contributions from all – irrespective of seniority
• Share information and help each other out – team work spirit
• Demonstrate positive behaviours and coaching and support each other
• Have a balance of ‘tendering savvy’ and technical ability – you’ll tend to find most people don’t like working on bids. It’s a pressured environment to understand clients and have good balance between technical people who understand the client’s needs and what’s important to them, and how to write and respond to this.

Winners innovate…

Make sure you continually drive your business forward. Ask yourself how you can do more? Strive to continue to improve your service to better your competitors. Are there any technologies, tools or approaches you can take from elsewhere in the business or from partners that will deliver enhanced value? Can you deliver added value and exceed client’s requirements? What within your solutions will differentiate you?