‘Can you find us tenders?’

‘Can you find us tenders?’?

A new client asks me that question every week – and my answer is essentially ‘no’.?

There are several reasons why, and they get to the heart of what successful bidding looks like.?

Companies that find you tenders will tempt you to bid for opportunities you’re unlikely to win?

Be wary of a company that implies that it’s better to bid for lots of opportunities. Not only are they looking for extra work for themselves, but they’re giving you tonnes of extra work too.?

Even when you’re outsourcing the writing, bidding processes can take up a lot of time and effort. They churn up resource, and place extra pressures on your business. So, it’s better to put all your effort into one bid that you’re likely to win, than a dozen that you’re likely to lose.?

‘Cold bidding’ is not going to result in much success?

Nobody likes a cold caller – and that includes evaluators.?

We’ve supported hundreds of clients to achieve their public sector bidding ambitions, and our experiences confirm that bidders have a much higher chance of winning when they have an existing relationship with the buyer. To tell the truth, not every bid opportunity is created equal, and the power of building relationships goes a long way.?

There are a couple of reasons why bidding ‘cold’ results in fewer wins. First, your understanding of the buyer’s requirements ends with the procurement documents – and you’ll miss valuable opportunities such as market engagement events. By regularly finding your own contracts, you’ll get a sense of each buyer’s hot buttons, the things they like to see from a bid, their preferred price/quality split, etc. This will help you to tailor your offering to buyers’ unique preferences, maximising your chances of success.?

Second, if you’re always bidding ‘cold’, it’s harder to see the nuances between different bids, so you’re less able to prioritise when several similar bids come out at the same time. Maybe there’s a buyer out there who’s particularly interested in your service and would do anything to work with you. Perhaps a certain procurement team has a specific unwritten requirement that your company just can’t provide. Either way, when you’re finding your own contracts and attending market engagement events, you can get your own feel for what different buyers want. So, when faced with a flurry of bids, you can focus resource on the ones you’re likely to win.?

We could find dozens of bids for you, but you’d miss out on that vital process of forming relationships with buyers – and it’s unlikely to generate value for your business.?

You get more immediate feedback from talking with buyers?

To bid well, you need to have an accurate picture of how the buyer sees you. The best bid teams know their strengths, their weaknesses, and their position in the market. That means they won’t bid for contracts they’re unlikely to win.?

The more you find your own relevant contracts, the more you’ll have meaningful conversations with buyers in your industry.?

The more you have those conversations, the more you’ll understand how you’re perceived.?

And the more you know how you’re perceived, the better you’ll bid.?

You can find these opportunities for free?

There’s no shadowy world where all the best contracts are hiding. Every day, dozens of public sector contracts are posted on the Find a Tender and Contracts Finder websites – which are absolutely free! You can even set up alerts for the most relevant contracts to your business.?

We think there’s little value in paying someone to use free sites on your behalf.?

Learning to monitor the market is an important internal business development function?

If you hire a company to find tenders for you, you’re not developing your bidding function and you’re not developing your business development function.?

Get into the habit of spending just 10 minutes each morning to research the contracts that are coming out, and you’ll start to build up a picture of the opportunities that are out there for you. By talking to your potential buyers, you’ll gradually learn what they want from a bidder. By researching contracts yourself, you’ll develop the skills and relationships that you need to proactively generate opportunities – and that’s what good business development looks like.?

You could throw your net wide and see what comes in. Or: you could hone your sales function, business development skills, account management, and brand identity, use those to create strong relationships with relevant buyers in your industry – and let the opportunities flood in.?

Conclusion?

When you’re entering the world of public sector bidding, it’s easy to feel like a kid in a sweetshop: every contract looks tempting. It might be in the shopkeeper’s interest to sell you some of everything – but if you go for everything that looks tempting, you’ll soon get sick.?

When you take the initiative and find your own tenders, you’ll refine your business development skills, start cultivating long-lasting relationships with buyers, improve your chances of success over time, and save money to invest in top-quality bid writers. Essentially: when you find your own tenders, you become a better bidder.?

So, I might send tenders to a long-term client from time to time – but only when I’m certain it’s a relevant contract that they’re well placed to win, and with no obligation at all for them to follow up. And when clients ask, ‘can you find us tenders?’, my answer is: we could, but we won’t.?

At Kittle Group, we want you to win contracts, not just bid for them. Once you’ve found the perfect bid for you, get in touch.?