How to Win Tenders Gill Hunt 22 nd April 2010
How to Win Tenders
Gill Hunt
22nd April 2010
The Big 3
• Understanding the Process
• Choosing Tenders you can Win
• Believing it can be done!
Public Procurement
• Difficulties– Open – so highly competitive– Time-consuming for all parties– Low bid to win rate
• Plus Points– Open – you know about it– Structured – there are rules (sort of)
Private Procurement
• Restricted set of bidders
• May still be bureaucratic
• Less competitive – if you’re in
• Difficult to open doors
Is it worth it?
• Public sector spends a lot of money
• Public procurement includes ex-privatised industries and not-for-profits
• 150 plus consultancy/service related projects per week
• Projects range from £Millions to £5k
Typical Formal Process
• Public advert – EU law must advertise over £150k
• PQQ – pre qualification questionnaire• ITT/RFP/RFQ – Invitation to Tender, Request
for Proposal, Request for Quotation• Final Short List – commercial negotiations
(BAFO – Best and Final Offers)
Formal Issues/Barriers
• Minimum turnover
• PI, Policies, procedures
• Payment for bid documents
• Value for money – Public Benefit
• Must be located in.. Usually for funding reasons
Informal Issues
• Client may have incumbent, preferred bidders
• Client may have unstated preferences e.g. local supplier, big company
• Client will want to reduce bidders to a short list as quickly as possible
Finding out about tenders
• http://ted.europa.eu – free OJEU alerts
• http://www.contracts.mod.uk – only source of MOD non-OJEU tenders
• http://www.supply2.gov.uk – low & high value, UK wide alerts
• http://www.etenders.gov.ie/
Skillfair
• http://www.skillfair.co.uk– Free weekly alert for IBC members– 20% Discount on membership - £115.20– Free access to IBC member projects– Private projects & associate opportunities
S-Cat & Frameworks
• http://www.ogc.gov.uk
• Catalist
• Search TED Contract Awards
Choosing
• Understand your strengths
• And your weaknesses
• Read the documents carefully
• Look for uniqueness/special factors
• Find out more – call them!
• Watch out for warning signs
What if?
• What will you not do if you bid?
• Can you afford to win it?
• Could you bid as a consortium?
• Is it worth bidding to make contact?
You’ll Know it When you See it
Best Bid Ever
• Answer the questions
• Focus on the client – not you
• Try to build a relationship
• Keep structures simple
• DO PRECISELY WHAT THE INSTRUCTIONS SAY
Don’t slip up
• Don’t argue with their approach– But do show them other ideas
• Answer every question– If they want a H&S Policy, have one
• Present your bid well– But don’t just focus on binders
Get it Checked
This is Success
Over To You
Final Yards
• Beware price battles
• You can still lose
• Innate conservatism – we want people who’ve done this before
If You Lose?
• 1 in 5 Win Rate is good
• Ask for feedback
• Review what you did right/wrong
• Try and fix perceived weaknesses
• Persist
Can you win?Inge Hill, management consultant and facilitator
Infinity PR
Stephen Howes - Management and
Systems Consultancy Meg Abdy – New entrant into NHS consulting
Barbara Welford – Fundraising for Staffordshire Hoard
Last Thoughts
The Process is difficult for both sides – work to make it easier
Be in the game
• Register with Skillfair – otherwise you’ll miss out
Believe that you can win