Want It More

There is one last true competitive advantage in the bid world that many fail to utilise. I cannot profess to know the ins and outs of bid writing, or writing of any kind, however, I do know that answering the questions well, getting the commercials right and making sure you tick all the boxes will not cover all the potential bases required to make sure that you are selected.

When the process is finished a decision needs to be made, and like any decision there will always be an emotional element to it. What is their reputation like and do we believe their claims? Will they be easy to work with? Are their values aligned with ours? Do we like them?

I live by the motto that if people like you then they will find excuses to give you the business. When you have answered the final question on the submission don’t hang your boots up just yet. There are a couple of big questions that still need to be answered. Have we injected our personality into this? Will we be likeable? Do we show that we want it more?

This is more than how the bid looks; while this is important it has more to do with how you show your personality.

How we show personality is where the creative thinking comes in. Yes you can say you are innovative, but where in the document have you shown it? Yes, you can say that you have the best talent in the industry, you can say that you go the extra mile, you are flexible and agile, you are transparent, you provide real return on investment, that you can deliver…but where in the bid have you really shown it?

I remember being sat in a kick-off workshop a few years ago and they were talking about all the great things they could deliver – all the next generation products they could provide. They were the incumbent supplier and when I quizzed them about the relationship it was less than perfect. Over the past 10 years of the contract agreement they had fallen short on more than one occasion. They felt they had to talk about innovation and next-gen products because that was what message the competitor would be driving. They had no intention of mentioning the past and hoped the customer wouldn’t bring it up.

It didn’t make sense to me – it felt like they were children playing hide and seek with their eyes shut tight whilst continuing to stand in the middle of the room. They were hoping that nobody would notice.

I suggested that we should be absolutely clear that the relationship had not been perfect, that they had fallen short of expectations and that this was unacceptable. I suggested they shouldn’t hide from these facts, but rather bring them to the forefront. We led with the strap-line “Our commitments will speak louder than our words” and throughout the document we used dividers to highlight the known and less obvious customer issues. We had a picture of the Heads of the Departments responsible for each issue with the action to fix it and a personal commitment.

10 dividers, 10 issues, 10 actions, 10 commitments and a head on the chopping block attached to it. We had an opening message from the CEO saying he was paying close attention to this contract and he himself made a series of commitments and signed off with his signature and his personal mobile number. It was real and honest, showing the customer that they weren’t shying away from past mistakes but making firm commitments to move forward. You didn’t have to search for that commitment either – it was intertwined in the creative design and copy throughout the document.

The competition did what we expected them to do – they rubbished us and made unsubstantiated claims and promises. Suffice to say after a CEO-to-CEO phone call they retained the business. The CEO said how refreshing it was to receive such an honest response.

Hope didn’t come into it. There are many ways to show you want it more and many clever ways to substantiate your claims. This is why taking the principles of advertising, marketing and design into your bid process is, I believe the one last true competitive advantage you can have.

So at your next bid kick off session write “WANT IT MORE” on the whiteboard – this should be your strategy. If you don’t think in this way then you better hope your competitors don’t either.