We’re damned proud of the impact our sister company, Sales Engine, has had on the bid success of companies large (nay, huge) and small.

Over the last few years they’ve honed and toned their approach and recently launched their very successful “Bid Perspectives Model“.  We thought it churlish not to invite them along as part of our Guest Blog week to share a little more about this recipe for bid success.

We hope you agree…

The world of bids is a complicated and often head-ache inducing one. There are many moving parts, stakeholders to consider, and plenty of well thought-out messages needed to ensure that a bid stands out from the rest.

Done right, it’s a beautiful amalgamation of selling, design, copy-writing, presentation and lots and lots of strategy.  Done badly and it becomes a time consuming, costly and diverting mess.

To address this and bring some order to the potentially chaotic world of bids, we’ve created the Perspectives Model.  As with all very clever things, it’s remarkably simple on the outside but gets a little more complex once you get into it.  To keep things palatable, we’ve broken down the entire bid process into three key perspectives:

Bid Strategy

The quality of the initial strategy and your first approach to the bid will ultimately inform the presentation structure and will also determine your overall chances of success.  Building a strong foundation, and being crystal clear about why you’re bidding and how you can win is at the core of success when it comes to both pitch presentations and bids

To achieve this, we challenge the standard corporate approach that tends to bog down most bid teams.  We’ll bring in “tame” procurement experts that work alongside our experienced sales professionals to act as critical friends/devils advocates and generally shake things up.  From this point, the strategy can start to form or, occasionally, end up being judged a “no bid”.

Bid Creation

The creation phase is about getting a perspective on how to ensure the strategy plays out into the physical document.  On top of ensuring that the message comes through loud and clear as well as dotting all the I’s and crossing all the T’s in terms of completing the bid questions, we need to also focus on maintaining the consistency of tone and design.

Headaches which once existed for a single salesman can now be delegated to a specific Sales Engine guru for that task.

Bid Coaching

The presentations our customers need normally come at the end of weeks of sales effort. If things have gone well, they are often asked to present their proposition.  Previously calm and rational professionals can turn to jelly overnight when faced with the prospect of presenting in front of an audience of procurement experts.  As such, we have a process of support and training to not only calm the nerves and clarify the communication but also help the presenters to control and guide the audience in the direction identified way back at the Bid Strategy phase.

The Perspectives Model was born out of years of working across of range of sectors.  We’ve learned a fair few things along the way and have created an eBook that highlights the Top 7 lessons that all bid teams need to know.  Drop us a line for a copy.