Before you submit a formal tender (as part of a procurement process) we strongly recommend that you take steps to create a good impression of your organisation in the mind of the buyers and evaluation panel. This can commence through market engagement sessions and meetings prior to tenders being published, or through the procurement process itself (e.g. when attending Q&A sessions, or carefully and politely raising clarifications).
In this month’s blog we share our recommendations for communicating with buyers, to establish a positive rapport and impression of your business.
Before the tender is published…
Are you unsure of how to introduce your business to a buyer? Due to years of experience in tendering, we have a firm understanding of the tender process, including the lead-up activities before the tender/ITT is released.
After witnessing many clients’ successes, we believe that one of the best ways to introduce your business to the buyer is through market engagement events. These events allow you to meet the buyer, granting you the opportunity to make a good impression for your business while gaining a deeper understanding of the buyers’ needs in their future procurement(s). It can be invaluable to gain an understanding of what’s important to the buyer’s organisation as a whole, beyond the specified requirements of their tenders and contracts.
It is important to remember that a site visit or market engagement event can be the first impression the buyer will have of your business. Therefore, we suggest that you aim to be as organised as possible to ensure it runs smoothly and is a positive experience for everyone.
Our tips for attending site visits or events that the buyer is offering/hosting include:
- Making yourself available to site visits at times that suit the buyer.
- Choosing the best member of staff to attend the visit. This can be based upon a combination of factors including their industry knowledge and insight, or their role within your business.
- Wearing branded, professional clothing, enabling your company to be deemed qualified and memorable. It is possible that in providing your products or services, your business/staff will be perceived as representing the buyer’s own organisation. The impact of presentation can therefore be highly relevant.
- Planning your journey and ensuring you know who you will be meeting from the buyer side – this way you will be as prepared as possible.
- Making sure you have a clear understanding of the tender and the questions being raised before attending.
- Listening carefully to points made by other bidders, as this will give insight and help you understand the competition.
We also recommend that you take as many notes and photographs as possible throughout the visit/event and use these to their fullest potential! You can use these as relevant materials to refer back to when planning and writing your tender responses.
If you would like more information on preparing for site visits, we have written a blog: ‘How to prepare for a tender site visit and get the most out of it’.
After the tender is published…
Once the tender has been published, a great opportunity to continue communication with the buyer is through the clarifications process.
Clarifications allow you to resolve any confusion regarding the tender and the information provided within the document set. We highly recommend participating in this process as it can provide additional information you feel you may be missing, therefore making a marked difference to how you respond to the buyer’s questions when writing.
The clarifications window will typically close days or sometimes a week or two before the tender deadline, so we suggest that you are as proactive as possible with reading through all of the tender documents and highlighting any uncertain areas. This way, you will be more than ready before the last date for clarifications and therefore ahead of the game!
When writing your questions, your communications should be polite and positive – if you haven’t been involved in pre-marketing engagement, this could be your first impression on the buyer.
Remember, clarity is key! Ensure that you are writing in a clear and concise manner, allowing you to get the best answers possible. If you have queries directly relating to specific parts of the documents, include document references and page or paragraph numbers, making your questions as clear as possible for the buyer. In return, you will get concise and helpful answers. It helps to remember, that to get the right answer we must ask the right question!
If you require further assistance or have any queries regarding this process, please contact us!
The presentation stage…
There are sometimes opportunities within a tender process where you may be asked to present your bid and offer to the buyers and their evaluation panel. This is a great opportunity to further present your business and make the best impression possible. So, how should you be preparing yourself?
We highly recommend that your pitch is:
- Clear and accessible.
- Compelling and genuinely interesting to the audience. Think about which techniques you can use to achieve this.
- Customer focused, ensuring that you show the buyer that you understand what is important to them.
- Concise and relevant.
- Purposeful – we suggest using your tender win themes and consistent information to deliver purpose behind your offer or solution.
- Ensuring you follow the agenda that they have set for the presentation. Where there is no agenda, ensure you structure your presentation with a start and end point. The starting point perhaps being an introduction to your team and their contribution to the contract and its management, and ending with a Q&A session or discussion with the panel and audience/stakeholders.
Finally, our Tender Victory top tips for presenting are:
- Maintain eye contact throughout.
- Avoid being monotone through using gestures and facial expressions.
- Be prepared – practice makes perfect!
- Be prepared – ensure those delivering your presentation have read the submitted tender.
- Be confident – knowing your script well can really help with this.
- Enjoy yourself! This may seem unlikely if you are someone who struggles with public speaking, but the more you practice and become confident with your pitch the more confident you will become yourself. A positive attitude will make a huge difference!
Our expert tender writers are happy to help with your presentation and bid communications – contact us!