Scene 1 (The Dream): It's 9:00am Monday morning and your favourite tender portal has dropped what appears to be the "dream" tender in your lap. You start to cycle through the usual thoughts "Surely they wrote this with us in mind" and you even positively note that "...and we have 60days to respond". Even the tech team lauded and celebrated knowing it was your companies "sweet spot", and made all the right indications that you were onto a winner by letting you know "just tell me whatever you need from me and I'll clear some time to help".
Scene 2 (Reality Bites): It's now 2days out from the response being due (where did 58 days go?). You've put together a "pretty good" shell response, but reality is closing in that you're running out of time to put some "meat on the bones". The previous generous offers of "just tell me whatever you need", have been replaced with "I'll get it to it when I can". It's not that they were ever in genuine, but the reality of being a professional services company is that while they're not billing, they're not profitable. You know it, they know it but it really "sucks" at this stage, and all of a sudden your sure thing is not looking so sure.
Scene 3 (The rush job): With a combination of calling in favours, bribery ("I'll provide pizza") and general good will, you managed to get everyone to pull an all-nighter and just in time for the 3:00pm submission deadline, you hit "Submit" on the response. You know it's not the best, but "at least you got there". This was again painful, but next time this won't happen you tell yourself.
Whether your solution is the best or not, you have suffered through a chaotic process and even on the chance that you make it through to the shortlist, you'll (if you have learnt anything about reality from the above) need to go through the same palaver again in putting together a credible next round presentation in what can be an even tougher response #tenderresponsehell. To make it worse the daunting reality remains that as a small/medium company responding to tenders is that even if you have the best solution, the tender response teams and budgets of larger providers make this a less than level playing field when it comes to either the initial response and or the shortlisting round.
How do I know this ? Quite simply, I've been there, not just at the small, but at the medium and the large "end of town". The scenario I've portrayed is common across all sized organisations. I am happy to report that I have been a part of more than one win across all three org sizes. The common theme in all wins in all sizes certainly does involve a good solution, but more importantly in looking back, each win also had strategic planning in place that at least reduced the drama of the "soapie" I have provided above and thus allowed time and headspace to focus on the actual response.
I can document a set of common observations from my experience:
Good people never have time, but they do have a good attitude: While wanting to contribute to the success of their company by assisting in tender responses, good people are best used billing out and growing the company. The key is effective utilisation.
You will regret leaving it to the last minute: We all learnt this somewhere in our teens, and while it takes time; age and experience tells us that slow and steady wins
Account Executives: can't answer tender responses, and I provide this slap in the face with a similar point that "technical staff can't answer tender responses either. Success comes in having the skills of both contribute their strengths.
So now the good news as to why the big companies don't always win. Although they have their bid teams and you might think they have all the answers, they generally are comprised of sales folk who also struggle to get tech resource and then manage their output.
So, now I've belittled "the big, the small", "the sales, the techs", what is the answer ? I believe it all comes down to one word Structure.
A bid manager is someone who can:
Review the tender
Provide a quick In/Out assessment for review including a reliable estimate as to the resources that will be required to provide a credible response
Research your chances ? Who else is going to respond, what are their chances ?
Put a plan in place as to when specific sections will be delivered ad by whom
Execute an monitor
You would be forgiven for thinking that the above reads like "project speak" and indeed you would be correct, but by putting project structure around the process will deliver the results of a well planned an executed project. The ultimate success in terms of win or lose are another metric, however by putting in place structure, you'll allow more focus on the result as opposed to dealing with ongoing mismanagement and the associated frustration.
All of the above may seem pretty straight forward and you may think I'm stating the obvious but picture I'm trying to provide is that even the process above takes time - time that you could be spending on your current client base. A bid manager need not been a hefty overhead, but it does need to be a constant force in the process following up and reducing the likelihood of an 11th hour rush.
So having made the decision to commit.....do so, but consider the realities and look to put in place a skilled resource to:
Manage the process
Follow the right people for an as minimal as required amount of time to get the answers you need
To assess and reassess how much time you are spending
To co-ordinate tech and sales to get the right mix of facts and sell
To reduce the impact on BAU and actual money making in the business.
As an IT professional who has not only responded and won a number of tender responses, I bring my experience and my structure project approach to the response process. So the next time you get your "dream tender response with a whole 60days to respond" think about a different approach to your next tender response. Consideration of a bid manager will to not only increase your chance of success but will also reduce the stress and impact on your business as an unwanted side effect.
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