21 May 2013
Opening up projects or requirements to tender is actually part of what's termed the 'procurement process' in the business world. A company will identify what work needs to be done on a project or service, and then propose a tender and advertise this publicly in order for third-parties to apply.
Before a business or government entity publicizes a tender, they may well request information, a quotation, or a proposal from your company. These factors will arise during the procurement process - accompanied by more than a few acronyms. Here are the main acronyms used in the process, which you might come across:
RFI - Request for information
This is an open enquiry that looks for data across the market a tender is due to be put forward in.
RFQ - Request for quotation
A business that's about to make a tender public may approach your company and ask for a costing or quote for the project.
RFT - Request for tender
An RFT is usually welcomed by each and every company, as they have the chance to pitch their goods or services in a tender bid.
RFP - Request for proposal
After an RFI has been made, a request for a proposal (RFP) may also be made. This will request specific solutions to any kind of sourcing issue the tendering company may have.
Knowing - and understanding - this jargon, however, isn't all that will ensure your bid for a business tender is successful.
Training your bidders
One of the most important aspects of bidding for a business tender is choosing who to represent your company at a formal pitch. While many companies will request a written pitch, they are also likely to ask for a physical pitch, involving a presentation.
Of course, senior members of staff are the obvious choice for undertaking this kind of important role. However, is the devil in the presentation detail?
"Pitching for a specific project or selling your company is a whole art," Panos Manolopoulos, vice president of Europe, ME&A at Stanton Chase, said. "There are people that don't need sophisticated presentations in front of them; they don't have certain scenarios or structured thoughts, and they can be the best salespeople for their company."
Manolopoulos continued that there are different kinds of sales - the hard sale and the soft sale. "There are sales you can do at the high end of the company and then the lower end - meaning the more you move to the lower end of the company, the more you see structured approaches, presentations with slides, organized analogies, and very mechanical approaches," he said. If there are a number of people pitching on behalf of the company, they may start by presenting the history of the company, describing the capabilities of the company, the CVs of staff and their experience with other companies. "These are all very well connected to the pitch," Manolopoulos said, "and are all connected to selling the company. But it's not enough."
The people that will sell the company during a business tender pitch will be those who are well-equipped to place the company within the context of the project, he continued, or to place the people within the specific relationships they want to achieve.
So is a pitch for a tender all about how good your PowerPoint and Excel skills are? No it's not, according to the VP: "I have seen a lot of examples in my life of people that place their company very well, without following let's say a formal approach," he said.
"Of course that also has to do with their status and their level... whether they're a president or a board member of a big organization, you don't necessarily need to carry a laptop or an iPad open with you with an excel sheet of the companies that you have worked with. You can just - with a few words - give a very sophisticated context to your company," he continued. "That's again an art, it takes years."
Procurement Terminology
Opening up projects or requirements to tender is actually part of what's termed the 'procurement process' in the business world. A company will identify what work needs to be done on a project or service, and then propose a tender and advertise this publicly in order for third-parties to apply.
Before a business or government entity publicizes a tender, they may well request information, a quotation, or a proposal from your company. These factors will arise during the procurement process - accompanied by more than a few acronyms. Here are the main acronyms used in the process, which you might come across:
RFI - Request for information
This is an open enquiry that looks for data across the market a tender is due to be put forward in.
RFQ - Request for quotation
A business that's about to make a tender public may approach your company and ask for a costing or quote for the project.
RFT - Request for tender
An RFT is usually welcomed by each and every company, as they have the chance to pitch their goods or services in a tender bid.
RFP - Request for proposal
After an RFI has been made, a request for a proposal (RFP) may also be made. This will request specific solutions to any kind of sourcing issue the tendering company may have.
Knowing - and understanding - this jargon, however, isn't all that will ensure your bid for a business tender is successful.
Training your bidders
One of the most important aspects of bidding for a business tender is choosing who to represent your company at a formal pitch. While many companies will request a written pitch, they are also likely to ask for a physical pitch, involving a presentation.
Of course, senior members of staff are the obvious choice for undertaking this kind of important role. However, is the devil in the presentation detail?
"Pitching for a specific project or selling your company is a whole art," Panos Manolopoulos, vice president of Europe, ME&A at Stanton Chase, said. "There are people that don't need sophisticated presentations in front of them; they don't have certain scenarios or structured thoughts, and they can be the best salespeople for their company."
Manolopoulos continued that there are different kinds of sales - the hard sale and the soft sale. "There are sales you can do at the high end of the company and then the lower end - meaning the more you move to the lower end of the company, the more you see structured approaches, presentations with slides, organized analogies, and very mechanical approaches," he said. If there are a number of people pitching on behalf of the company, they may start by presenting the history of the company, describing the capabilities of the company, the CVs of staff and their experience with other companies. "These are all very well connected to the pitch," Manolopoulos said, "and are all connected to selling the company. But it's not enough."
The people that will sell the company during a business tender pitch will be those who are well-equipped to place the company within the context of the project, he continued, or to place the people within the specific relationships they want to achieve.
So is a pitch for a tender all about how good your PowerPoint and Excel skills are? No it's not, according to the VP: "I have seen a lot of examples in my life of people that place their company very well, without following let's say a formal approach," he said.
"Of course that also has to do with their status and their level... whether they're a president or a board member of a big organization, you don't necessarily need to carry a laptop or an iPad open with you with an excel sheet of the companies that you have worked with. You can just - with a few words - give a very sophisticated context to your company," he continued. "That's again an art, it takes years."
Procurement Terminology
- Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) - the process of calculating the costs of a project
- Cost-utility analysis (CUA) - financial analysis used to steer procurement decisions
- Direct procurement - e.g. raw materials needed to manufacture end-product
- Indirect procurement - e.g. professional services, HR services, utilities, etc.
- Supplier communication - this is where are RFI, RFQ, RFT, and RFP come into play.
