5 Reasons Why Sales People Should Never Write Tenders

 Any sales person worth his or her salt will have a healthy pipeline of opportunities at various stages of maturity. To convert the larger opportunities into contracts a formal tender submission is often required. This process is generally stressful and a lot of work, and is often the responsibility of the sales person because of their relationship with, and knowledge of, the customer.

So why do I say that sales people shouldn't be the ones to prepare the bid, if they are the ones closest to the client? Here's why.

 1.  Sales people don't necessarily understand the procurement process

Procurement is a complex profession unto itself. Buying decisions and processes are not necessarily "logical", since they are usually in the hands of a part of the organisation that is charged with getting the "best deal".  It is often an unfathomable process and a detailed understanding of the procurement profession is a huge advantage when preparing complex tender responses.

2.  Sales people don't have the time

When working as a Contract/Procurement Specialist I regularly saw tenders that were obviously written in a hurry, and completed minutes before the closing time. Sales people have a job to do, sourcing leads and converting them to opportunities. If a large number of opportunities need tenders written, then the sales person will become spread too thin, and do neither task justice.

3.  Sales people aren't writers

And neither are technical specialists. It is essential, in order to get your value proposition read and easily understood, that it is crafted by a specialist writer. It is rare to find someone who writes well who is not already writing for a living. The single most important aspect of submitting a bid is that it is readable.

4.  Preparing a bid submission is a specialist job

Just like you wouldn't hammer in a nail with a shoe, you shouldn't ask someone with one expertise to do the job of another. Getting sales people who are good at generating sales to also write their tender submissions is a waste of specialist resources.

5.  Sales people play a key strategic role throughout the bid

With any high-value, strategic bid, a team is usually involved. The sales person needs to adopt the role of bid strategist and owner, spending his/her time setting the strategy, informing the solution design, and monitoring the document as it comes together. If the sales person is also writing the document, he/she runs the risk of becoming too close to it, losing the ability to review it objectively.

During the bid period the sales person needs to focus on managing customer communications, and continue selling without becoming sidetracked by administrative tasks best left to specialists.

A lot of companies struggle with this dilemma and believe the only answer is to have an in-house bid-team. The problem with this solution is one of capacity: the bid team is either overwhelmed with multiple bids or sitting idle. The solution is to outsource to a specialist bidding company.

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