Seventh Heaven

As a freelance bid writer, I don’t often feel that I am doing anything extraordinary, however this question got me thinking. I provide a great service which ensures my clients return to me time and again, but am I really doing anything over and above what’s expected?

Last year I was contracted early in anticipation of bid documents coming out in September. Yep, you heard me right – they wanted to ensure I was with them when the document landed. As often happens with my clients, I have to say “No” quite a lot as I am only one person, and they didn’t want to run the risk of me working for anyone else when they needed me. This bid was business critical – it was crucial for them to be able to become part of a framework community on the Highways England network, to have a seat at that table and be part of ongoing discussions. They recognised they couldn’t do it alone.

So how was I to spend this extra time? I decided to complete a gap analysis of current bidding practices within the company, consequently making suggestions of how they could be more efficient and focus on winning the right work for their future business plans. I really had the chance to create a ‘Bid Utopia’ – an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect. I had the chance to articulate what it means to be extraordinary in the bidding world, albeit at a basic level for this small civil engineering company. So I set about writing a Bid Management System….

I always tell my daughter that nothing is impossible – if you want something, go out and grab it with both hands. To be extraordinary, one has to break down barriers and grab all that life throws at you with both hands. However, I do understand, as with life, there are barriers to being extraordinary within the bidding world (or so we are conditioned to think): Too much to do, too little time, lack of understanding from others, lack of confidence in ourselves, not enough money, little direction, no chance for change and so on.

Specific weaknesses in my client’s bidding practices could be summed up as lack of experience, procedure and direction. As a new and rapidly expanding team, there had been no time until that point to take stock of the strengths and weaknesses in knowledge and experience. Staff knew how they wanted to do things, but it resulted in everyone doing something their own way, some of which was sheer brilliance, but with no organisation it wasn’t extraordinary, it was counterproductive. The whole team ended up being reactive rather than proactive, which I have seen time and time again in companies of this size.

I decided to write a management system with no barriers – no time constraints, no budget restraints. This was an opportunity to present a comprehensive understanding of what it takes to win a bid in an ideal world. This was exciting stuff!

Bid Utopia could be summed up as a place where the bid pipeline is clear (no scattergun approach!), the process is robust, staff are well-trained and empowered to make positive changes, and every critical bid is won.

Utopia is also known as ‘seventh heaven’ so here are seven steps to my Bid Utopia:

1 .Implement a robust end-to-end bid management process
2 .Plan your bid pipeline – focus time and resources on business-critical contracts
3 .Train your bid team and the wider company to ensure understanding of what it takes to win
4 .Allow for a realistic budget for an exceptional team on every bid
5 .Set aside time for regular review and learning to ensure continual improvement
6 .Inspire and motivate your team to be extraordinary
7 .Constantly question processes and suggest improvements – then make them happen.

The good news received at the end of this little story? My client were awarded a spot on the framework and continue to win work, using my management system and building on what I taught them. And to top it off, I have another client interested in my system. To me, that really is extraordinary!