GDMTB 3 Oct 17

Understanding Procurement: Public
Sector & Government

Lucy Moody – Home Office
Tim Sheppard – Smart Support

Aims of this Presentation

• Explore the tendering market
• Aligning to that market
• Getting ready to tender
• Finding the opportunities
• Understand the tendering process

Deliver some simple strategies

What this means to you

• More opportunities
• Improved processes
• Increased sales
• Higher income
• A sustainable business
• Less stress

A more successful business

What are the Challenges

Question

What are the Challenges

• Understanding the Public Sector
• Aligning with potential clients
• Making your offer different USP’s
• Finding the right opportunities
• Implementing a tender process
• Finding the resources

Do this in a coherent way

The cost of getting it wrong

• Missed opportunities
• Lost sales
• Wasted resources
• Demotivation
• Failure to meet business targets
• Competitors succeed and become stronger

Your business underperforms

Explore the tendering market

• Government is open for business
• Government SME spend £12.1 billion in 2014
• Target to spend 1/3 with SME’s
• Advisory panel set up
• Opportunities available

Know what is out there

Lucy Moody

Align to the market

• Set SMART tendering goals?
• What do you offer?
• How does it compare?
• What’s the right opportunity?
• What’s important to the buyer?
• What makes you different?
• How do you communicate this?

Know what you are all about

So, three crucial questions

Question 1

What do you offer and how do you compare?

Some ideas to help

• Your product/service • Brand
• Specification • Uniqueness
• Quality • Exclusivity
• Price • Difficulty
• Service • Consistency
• Lead times • Source
• Delivery • Origin
• Accreditation • Awards

Question 2

What is the DNA of the right opportunity?

More ideas to help

• Industry • Age
• Market sector • Location
• Location • Employment status
• Revenue • Gender
• Business type • Occupation
• Number of employees • Income
• Typical profit margins • Education
• Challenges • Interests

Question 3

What’s important to these clients?

Even more thoughts to help

• Meeting their need • Uniqueness
• Service • Exclusivity
• Time pressure • Reliability
• Specification • Source
• Quality • Brand
• Price • Origin
• Easiness • Environmental
• Compliance • Health & safety

This all leads to…..

• How you meet your clients needs in a way that
differentiates you from your competitors

Get ready to tender

• Implement best practice
• Case studies
• Document management
• Compliance

So you concentrate on answering the questions

Finding the opportunities

• Register on the tendering Portals
• Set up the right profile
• Monitor using proactive alerts
• Find LA contract registers
• Networking
• Alliance
• Meeting (bold calling)

Get out there and be active

The Tender Process

• Understand the requirement
• EOI evaluate (bid/no bid)
• Plan your bid strategy
• PQ response
• Tender submission
• Contract negotiation and implementation
Manage the tender process

Tendering tips

• Have standard information in place
• Get familiar with the portals
• Assess early
• Be compliant
• Ask for feedback

Know what you are about

Answering the questions!

• Give time to specific responses
• Don’t refer to other areas
• Work to the word/character count
• Answer the whole question
• Have an independent checking process
• Prequalification & tenders are different

And above all answer the questions!

What the buyers say

• PQ is a selection process, tender is the award
• Be compliant, we are looking for any excuse to

exclude
• Why is the question being asked, is there

a particular problem that needs addressing
• Read the scoring criteria to inform your

responses

Simple but good advice

So there you have it

• We have explored the market
• Aligned with the buyers
• Got ready to tender
• Found the opportunities
• Developed the tender process

So you can do the same for your business!

But

• Do you have the expertise?
• Do you have the processes?
• Do you have the resources?
• Do you have the team?
• Can you do this alone?

Get some external help

Any Questions?

Lucy Moody – Home Office
Tim Sheppard – Smart Support