As I enter the second month in my new role as a Bid Development Executive with AM Bid Services, I have taken the time to reflect on the value I’ve placed on building relationships.
The first experience I had in bidding involved working on a tender for an English Premier League football club. As an introduction to the world of bidding, that one was hard to beat!
From then on, everything has been a great learning experience as I get to grips with my new bidding career.
During my first month, I have been fortunate enough to:
- Meet with a range of customers for bid kick-off and bid strategy meetings alongside our company founder, Andrew Morrison
- Consult with customers to discuss website development and potential for improvement
- Write a Pre-Qualification-Questionnaire for a mechanical & engineering business wishing to increase its involvement with the public sector
- Attend Supplier Development Programme events and webinars on successful tender processes and bid writing
- Network with a range of potential customers e.g. at Chamber of Commerce events
So far I have learned that in bid writing strategy is paramount. I mean the processes involved from our first contact with every customer. I am learning the value in understanding not only the perspective of our customers, but even more importantly, that of the end client, as early and as thoroughly as possible – before starting work on writing a bid.
For instance, we can be working with: an SME looking to increase its win rate through public sector tendering; a blue chip company on a large and complex live bid; or a multi-national organisation where we are helping develop a long-term bid strategy. Every customer has a different combination of considerations to weigh up, whether this be its background, current win rate, growth projections, ambitions, competition, the sector, and even just the bidding landscape.
Understanding each consideration is critical, and I can’t pretend to be able to approach them all in as comprehensive a manner as our company founder and bidding associates do.
But what I can say already, and say with confidence, is that building business relationships has made the learning process far more accessible and easier than I anticipated.
From a learning perspective, business development and networking opportunities stretch further than the potential for growth – they offer the chance to listen, to gain invaluable advice and to build a mutually beneficial network. The added value for me is that I gain a better understanding of another’s business perspective, and this in turn helps me to understand the customer’s perspective – their needs and considerations.
As such, this bidding newbie is in a much better place to build strong relationships and to maximise the potential for success for our customers!
