If I asked you how many bid proposals you submitted in the last year, what would you say?
If I then asked how many you had requested feedback from the buyer on, what would you say?
Receiving feedback on your bids is crucial for continuous improvement and success in procurement. However, most bidders do not seek feedback.
And this isn’t because they don’t want to. It’s simply because they don’t know how to seek and effectively utilize the feedback received.
Let's examine these practical scenarios for seeking bid feedback:
📍Request Detailed Feedback Meetings: Sometimes, procurement officers provide none or minimal feedback on your bid submissions, making it difficult to understand areas for improvement and how to enhance future bids.
Quick Tip: Instead of relying solely on written feedback, request face-to-face or virtual meetings with procurement officers to discuss your bid performance. Go into these meetings ready with specific questions about areas for improvement, to gain deeper insights into evaluation criteria and expectations.
📍Seek Clarifications: Now you have received feedback but alas, it’s quite vague especially regarding technical specifications, making it challenging for you to pinpoint areas for refinement and meet the buyer’s requirements effectively.
Quick Tip: Follow vague feedback received with request for clarity. Ask further questions. Emphasize that your need for clarity is hinged on being well equipped to perform better in future competitive bidding processes. Request examples or case studies to help you understand desired outcomes. Use this information to refine your bid responses, tailor solutions to meet specific needs, and demonstrate your understanding of buyer requirements effectively.
📍Conduct Comparative Analysis: Useful in cases where you get limited feedback on your pricing structures and value propositions, leaving you unsure about the competitiveness of your bids and areas for value enhancement.
Quick Tip: Conduct a comparative analysis of your bid against competitors' bids and industry benchmarks to assess pricing competitiveness and value proposition effectiveness. Use this analysis to identify areas where you can adjust pricing, enhance value-added services, or differentiate your offering to stand out in future bids.
📍Request Evaluation Criteria: Where the feedback received on an unsuccessful bid centered on the presentation and clarity of your bid proposal but without specific details, leaving you uncertain about the effectiveness of your communication and documentation, what do you do?
Quick Tip: Where possible, request evaluation and scoring criteria from procurement officers to understand how bids are assessed and scored. You may not get the scoring criteria but any info you get at this point will help you. Use this information to align your proposal structure, content and formatting with key evaluation criteria, ensuring clarity, coherence and alignment with buyer expectations.
Actively seeking feedback on your bids is essential for continuous improvement and success in procurement.
By proactively engaging with procurement officers, seeking clarification, conducting comparative analysis and aligning with evaluation criteria, you can leverage bid feedback to refine your strategies, enhance value propositions and win more contracts.
Need procurement specific training? Reach out to support@efemini.com and we'll get you sorted.
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