Winning Bids and Tenders with Richard Williams

12/14/21 • 49 min

1 Listener

How do you make your business proposals stand out and stick in your clients minds? This week on Work Winning Ways Gary brings you a module from the Questas Academy hosted by Richard Williams all about winning your bid. Listen in to this recording of the live seminar and don't forget to sign up for the Questas Academy in the link below.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The first thing you need to do on day one of your bid is to read the question. Are you actually able to bid on this project? Does the timescale work for you? Are you sure you're the right fit? Because if you're not the right fit then you're just wasting time.
The second most important thing is to set a winning bid strategy. Think, how do we deliver the best bid in the time we have, and how do I best position myself to win the bid.
Structure that proposal document appropriately for that bid. Make it look great and bea easy to read.
Use everything you can through writing that brief to make it clear to the client that you are the obvious choice.
Be very clear about the objectives, who is handling it, and when it needs to be done by.
Get people involved early on, don't leave it until half way through the bid to get input from the people who will be involved.
The RFP tells you what the client wants, you have to answer those questions. There are always other things that matter to the client. Understanding what really matters to them can help win a bid.
Have an executive summary on page one of your proposal.
Start with you talking about the problem they have, this shows that you understand it. Then tell them the things that you will do to solve their problem and exactly how you will go about it.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Just like on an exam, read and re-read the question'

‘Treat your bid like you would a project'

‘More words is not necessarily better'

EPISODE RESOURCES
Questas Academy

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk
Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The first thing you need to do on day one of your bid is to read the question. Are you actually able to bid on this project? Does the timescale work for you? Are you sure you're the right fit? Because if you're not the right fit then you're just wasting time.
The second most important thing is to set a winning bid strategy. Think, how do we deliver the best bid in the time we have, and how do I best position myself to win the bid.
Structure that proposal document appropriately for that bid. Make it look great and bea easy to read.
Use everything you can through writing that brief to make it clear to the client that you are the obvious choice.
Be very clear about the objectives, who is handling it, and when it needs to be done by.
Get people involved early on, don't leave it until half way through the bid to get input from the people who will be involved.
The RFP tells you what the client wants, you have to answer those questions. There are always other things that matter to the client. Understanding what really matters to them can help win a bid.
Have an executive summary on page one of your proposal.
Start with you talking about the problem they have, this shows that you understand it. Then tell them the things that you will do to solve their problem and exactly how you will go about it.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Just like on an exam, read and re-read the question'

‘Treat your bid like you would a project'

‘More words is not necessarily better'

EPISODE RESOURCES
Questas Academy

ABOUT THE HOST

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk
Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Cross Selling in the World of Professional Services

In the world of professional services and engineering consultancy services, cross selling is the Holy Grail. Organisations think it's easy, but in this episode of Work Winning Ways, you'll find out why it's very difficult. Join Gary Williams as he discusses why cross selling is important, how it's done, and what are the obstacles to overcome.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

In so many jobs you need to be able to encourage, motivate, and persuade clients to work with you and influence others to do so. Word of mouth is one of the best tools at your disposal.
80% of your clients buy 20% of the products you sell.
It's 6 times cheaper to sell to existing clients then try to find new ones.
Don't push a hard sell for products and services your client or prospective client doesn't need. It will essentially just annoy them at the end of the day.
Start with ‘why'. Why does your client want your service in the first place. It has to help them with an objective or goal, if there is no strong ‘why' then the client is unlikely to buy multiple products from you.
You have to show added value to convince the client to put more eggs in your basket. Why should they choose you over other service providers?
Being a trusted advisor means that you have the competence, but this is just one aspect. The other aspects are knowing how your client likes to work, you also need knowledge of their world, and finally having a genuine interest in them, their objectives and challenges.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Bad cross selling is the kind that makes our clients cross'

‘How is about being proactive and curious'

‘You need to build a bank of good deeds for it to be reciprocated'

EPISODE RESOURCES

Questas Academy

Start With Why

ABOUT THE HOST

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas

https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Nudge Theory With Ziba Goddard

Ziba Goddard is a behavioural scientist and Chief Consulting Officer at Cowry Consulting and joins Gary Williams on this episode of Work Winning Ways. Ziba specialises in human behaviour and how we make decisions. If you've ever heard of Nudge Theory and wonder why we make the decisions we make particularly in the context of buying, this is for you!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

People are wired to make snap judgements and rarely are making decisions based on having all of the information available. Thinking is often less rational than people would assume.
Nudge Theory is the idea of using encouragement or suggestions to change people's behaviour while still giving them freedom to make their own decisions. For example governments have used this recently to encourage people to socially distance during the pandemic.
We have two systems of thinking, the cerebellum based thinking, which is subconscious and primal. Then there's the prefrontal cortex that allows us as humans to deduct and reason and use language. Think of them as the Homer Simpson brain and the Dr Spock brain.
90% of our decisions come from our Homer Simpson brain.
There is a toolkit of around 200 shortcuts that scientists use to connect directly to our primal thinking.
Ziba has done some work with construction companies to increase health and safety. After 4 days on site observing, Ziba's team painted the canteen area a shade of pink that essentially has a calming effect and reduced the amount of people taking risks. She also changed the card system used for keeping track of safety to one of reward rather than punishment. This reduced unsafe behaviours by 85% at this site.
reframing sales to a personal relationship makes it easier for sellers. It's not about using clients to achieve goals, it's about forming a bond and doing a favour for one another.
We have an inherent bias towards those people we think are specialists, for example we trust doctors with stethoscopes around their necks more than doctors without one.

BEST MOMENTS

‘People aren't rational and don't have perfect knowledge'

‘We don't want people on building sites thinking quickly'

‘The key to sales is relationships'

‘When people are credible enough and show a weakness, we like them more'

EPISODE RESOURCES

Questas Academy
More about Ziba Goddard

ABOUT THE GUEST

Following an undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology and a Masters in Clinical Psychology, Ziba was drawn to business and spent time working in organisational effectiveness at Bank of New York Mellon.

Ziba is Chief Consulting Officer at Cowry and leads the client 'Pilots and Programmes' within the business. Ziba spends the majority of her time identifying the cognitive friction in the current customer journeys to help inform the creative process within Cowry at the key Design stage.

ABOUT THE HOST

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk
Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.