An invitation lands on your desk.
It is a tender opportunity for a certain job.
A quick glance at the cover letter shows the deadline for submitting a response is in exactly 10 business days!
No time to waste.
You scream your bid/tender writers into action!
But hold on a sec… is that opportunity right for your business?
What?! Is that a question? Are there some opportunities you should not put in a bid/tender for?
Yes! Not all tender opportunities are right for your business.
Let’s repeat that.. Not all tender opportunities are right for your business.
Really? But why would you disregard something you so desperately need; an opportunity to win a contract; any contract.
Good question. Let’s consider three reasons why you should do just that…
Before preparing a tender document, it is important to assess the opportunity to know if it is indeed right for your business at the particular time.
Firstly, putting together tenders requires a lot of resources… in terms of money and time. The documentation, the references, the partner agreements, the registrations, the bank documents. These are money and time consuming and can put a strain on already-strained business finances. So, if you are going to spend so much, you must make it worth your while. No point throwing resources at an opportunity that does not quite ‘cut it’.
Secondly, you probably do not have a ready-made bid team just twiddling their thumbs waiting for the next bid opportunity to come through so they can get to work.
The bid team will usually include personnel from different departments including Sales, Procurement, Finance, Technical delivery team, etc; and these people have busy schedules with ongoing work. Work they must manage even during the bid development phase. What tends to happen is the personnel drop every other task they are working on to prioritize the tender response and this could adversely affect the business’ existing clients. It’s important not to saddle the bid team with having to respond to every tender opportunity even when it is clear the opportunity is not one the business should go for.
Thirdly, you do not want the team morale beaten down with many unsuccessful tender outcomes. Responding to every opportunity, is like shooting at many birds at the same time. Chances are you hit none! But when you pick a particular bird (opportunity) and focus, you are better able to hit target (win contract) and then focus on the next one and hit target again.
So how do you know which bird (opportunity) to focus on?
Through a logical analysis of the opportunity to determine its win potential before expending resources (time, money and effort).
The online course ‘How to Win Oil & Gas Contracts’ walks you through an established analytical process where you provide answers to a series of critical questions. This is a clear easy-to-follow process, at the end of which you are able to confidently take the decision on whether or not it is an ideal opportunity for your business; and focus all your resources on the opportunities with win potential.
Join the waiting list for the course so you don’t miss the next class.
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