16 Apr Winning Theme and Strategy
Once you have done your research, you know your competition and you have any required partnerships in place, you’ll now need to develop your winning tender.
Work out where the buyer’s focus is, what percentage of the marks are available for the price and the quality this will give you an indication of whether this will be a price or quality driven decision.
No matter the size of the project the buyer will always be looking to maximise their return on the investment they make, so ensuring you offer value for money and added value is key, but it is also important to ensure you are winning sustainable work which not only covers your cost but allows your business to grow, develop and invest in improvements to your offering – which will stand in good stead for surviving long term. Pricing low just to win work may provide short term wins but the long-term impact that has on the business must also be factored ok.
When working out the price consider the following stages in your process:
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- Value – what added value can you bring to the buyer?
- Budget – What are the budget requirements of the buyer?
- Cost – this is what it will cost you to deliver the service including time and materials
- Price – based on all of the above what price do you need to charge to cover your costs, meet the client budget and ensure you can provide added value to the client.
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Once you have worked out your price you need to move on to the Business Case. This is where you outline your offerings to the buyer, what you will be able to improve, and by how much, due to your experiences and innovations.
A clear Business Case will enable the Buyer to accurately assess the value of your offering overall and how it compares to other solutions put forward. Where possible use SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Critical) ways to structure your response to ensure your statements are fully supported against the requirements.
Key to any statements you complete are:
- Remember the Buyer – they need to be your focus throughout
- Quantify the benefit – don’t just state features of the solution
- Be specific – Why you!
- What you are different from the competition – what makes your offer unique and valuable
- Evidence – where have you done this before
Follow these simple steps and you will be on track to provide a winning quality response.
