Maximum Score

Hope is not a strategy! You want to win a Public Sector contract and you know you are the best in the business. Then, out of pure luck, one of your team arrives with an opportunity to bid for a Local Authority opportunity.  The Local Authority’s office is just down the road. The requirement is all about your sweet spots. Plus, you have a great reference in a Local Authority in the next county, where you are already delivering a greatly appreciated service.

So, all you have to do is write the reply demonstrating what a good product and service you have and hope your brilliance carries the day. Or is it?

Even more beguiling is when you have been delivering these products and services, and the contract comes up for routine retendering. Here the procurement team already knows how good you are so you don’t have to prove that all over again. Or do you?

At Sixfold we often come across this, often after a competitor has taken the prize and we are asked to explain how it happened. How could our client, the “obvious” best in the market for the products and services, possibly have lost? Were there some shenanigans in the evaluation process or has something in the requirement that was missed. It often turns out that they put in a good response in terms of an explanation of the plan and the technology. Even the pricing was competitive. However, this was just not enough.

So how does the next best provider triumph in Public Sector contracting? It does so because it works the Public Sector procurement process. Public Sector tendering is highly rules based. Consequently, if you know the rules well and know how to finesse them, you can win even if your solution may be weaker and your price is higher.

Typically, the Public Sector evaluator is given a set of marking criteria and a numerical score that he or she can award for each response against the completeness of the answer. To get a maximum score, the answer must hit every nuance of the criteria. As an example, here is a recent Local Authority scoring guidance for a maximum points award:

Outstanding: The response covers all elements of the criterion and associated specified framework requirements and standards; and with a high level of relevant and detailed information, backed up with clear evidence; and demonstrates a robust and coherent understanding of the council’s requirements; and with no issues, weaknesses or omissions.

To get top marks it needs a good technical description of what will be provided – we are all good at doing this and covering all the elements. However, how often is the evidence and demonstration of understanding so well prepared? Yet, if this is not tackled with the same enthusiasm as the technical issues, it will be difficult to score more than “average”.

Moreover, it is not possible to hope that a good reputation or a marketplace position will carry the day. The evaluator may not take this into account unless it is written down as part of a required answer. If he or she tries to rely upon anything else but your written response, they will open up the whole procurement to challenge. No procurement officer would do that. Indeed, it is more important to get the process right than to get the best product or service.

In Public Sector procurement, our experience is that hope does not triumph over experience. And it is our experience that only half a winning response is about the technology and the solution. Our rule of thumb; half the words for the solution and half for the assurance the evaluator needs to give full marks. Just because you are “best” this will never guarantee success.

And the most important advice of all is that even if you know all this, it won’t happen unless you embed this understanding into all your bid processes. So, if you are prone to thinking “Yeah, I know all this” (which is often my reaction when I read articles like this), think again. What you should be thinking is “Yeah, I know all this – but does everyone else in my bid team know it, and will they act upon it?” If the answer to these questions is “Yes”, you must be winning most of your bids. If not, then it’s time to stop hoping.