Enhance Your Win Ratio: Strategies for Winning Quality Points in Bidding

1. Improving the win Ratio Winning the Quality Points Brian Jukes Business Fix Ltd www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

2. Winning the Quality Points • More successful bidding processes – more work less effort • Tools to reduce the cost of bidding and raise your success ratio to 1:3 • Involved with procurement since 1980 and an industry marketing expert • Helped clients win over £2bn of contracts in last 5 years As a direct result of the support offered, we have increased our market share from c.35% to an estimated 60% at the start of this year. ”Gordon Lindsay, Projects Director, Scott Wilson Railways www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

3. 6 key elements • Effective business / marketing strategy • A clear “market position” for your business • Understand your success factors • Realistic bid / no-bid decisions • Understand your client’s problems and needs • Make your documents relevant to each client & their project www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

4. Bid / no-bid Decisions Man who chases 2 pigs catches neither of them! Chinese proverb www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

5. Small to Medium 40 Hours (£100/hr) £4000 Win Rate 1:6 Internal cost to win a project £24,000 Medium to Large 136 Hours (£81/hr) £11,000 Win Rate 1:5 Internal cost to win a project £55,000 Survey of Bidding Costs(Reading University) www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

6. Results of 30 submissions – March 09 • 3 failed to provide the requested financial information • 4 did not detail available resources • 4 had an annual turnover significantly less than the estimated value of a 3 month contract • 19 failed to demonstrate experience in at least one key area • 3 failed to demonstrate any experience relative to the contract www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

7. Time spent bidding Extract from “True cost of competitive bidding” – W Hughes Univ. of Reading www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

8. What do you need to make Bid / No-bid Decisions • Pre-bid discussions • Understanding client’s business • Assess the project fit to your business • Overall strategy • Type of work you want • People you want to work with • Match to success factors • Which jobs go best www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

9. Decision making • Cost of bid • Opportunity cost • Formal meeting • Look at fit to the business • Team available to prepare and manage bid • Look at relationships – do you have any? • Do you understand the client’s decision making process? • If in doubt – go with your instinct www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

10. What then? • If no – contact client and offer suitable explanation • If Yes • Manage the process for success • Identify the client’s real needs • Create value for the client • It is a project, manage it that way www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

11. Understand your client’s problems and needs www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

12. Who Does This? • Start with the company history • Use your name at the start of paragraphs • Add all available material just in case it is relevant • Include company statements without showing why they are relevant • Offering a commodity service – same as the next guy www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

13. Why did you not win? • Winner was too cheap • They moved the goalposts • They were always going to choose them • We didn’t want this job anyway • They remember the Courthouse job • The client didn’t know what they wanted • Muggin’s turn www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

14. Why did we not win • We were the same as the others • Our bid missed the mark • We didn’t establish credibility • We didn’t really know what they wanted • We didn’t understand the client • We failed to manage the process • We didn’t offer anything different www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

15. Understanding Client’s problems and needs • Develop a relationship • What is the client’s problem or need • Use ‘so what’ 5 times • Express it in their terms • Why is it a problem • What outcomes do they want • Which outcome has highest priority • Identify client’s personal risks www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

16. Make your proposal relevant to each client and each situation Persuasive Paradigm How we can deliver Customer need Recommend an Ideal Solution Why us 1 2 3 4 Tom Sant Sant Corporation www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

17. Seven Key Questions • What is the client’s problem? • Why is it a problem? • What objectives for a successful solution? • Order of importance for objectives? • How can we solve the client’s problem? • Outcomes for each solution? • Which one is best? www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk

18. Improving the win Ratio Winning the Quality Points Brian Jukes Business Fix www.businessfix.co.uk brian@businessfix.co.uk