Tips to build client engagement and relationships (that directly benefit you!)
by Gemma Jones, Principal Tender Specialist (Brisbane)
Building positive and lasting client relationships in tendering can help give you the edge your clients are looking for. Having a deep understanding of project and client drivers, and their hierarchy of importance, is crucial to ensuring you can strategise and make sure your tender responses directly reflect the needs of your client.
Insights to begin building or improving your current client relationships are:
Form a genuine connection with the key stakeholders and decision makers within your client’s organisation
Get to know your client’s key team members, their individual and collective drivers and brush up on project they have delivered in the past, and the nuances of what worked successfully and what could be improved. By understanding their project history, past successes and challenges and appetite for risk, you can put yourself in your client’s shoes when developing your tender solutions and point of difference.
Keep up to date on articles, media and other published information surrounding anticipated projects
Tenders can be ever moving with key dates, requirements and client drivers changing, even during the tender phase. Keeping up to date and sorted fact from fiction in media and other sources can help drive your understanding of project challenges, potential constraints, and stakeholder opinions.
Start your tender process early
Take advantage of time prior to tendering to form an understanding and connection with your client, their key objectives, and other stakeholders or potential project challenges so your strategy can largely be formed prior to tender release. Having an in-depth analysis of your service offering, point of different and unique selling proposition before seeing tender requirement and objectives will fast-track how you tailor your bespoke win strategy and solution. If you need a guide on establishing an effective tender process, start here, or get in touch!
Don’t be afraid to ask questions
More often than not, clients don’t want to request information or clarification during the RFI period of a tender as clarifications and client responses can be public and shown to all tenderers. However, by not fully understanding a component of the tender or background information, you run the risk of developing a solution that could be going down the wrong track or not meeting a key client driver.
Debrief and deconstruct your tender submission to know where to improve
You are only as good as your last tender (as some people say), therefore take the opportunity for continual improvement! Debriefing and deconstructing your previous submissions (whether they won a project or not) provides the space to improve on what worked, and workshop what didn’t. Open forum discussions with your tender team also offer a platform for team growth, collaboration and cohesion leading into your next tender. Read this insight for more tips on getting the most from your tender debriefs.
If you’re not currently incorporating these steps into your bid process and could use a hand to get a winning edge – get in touch! Tender Plus offers comprehensive tender services including tender management and planning, tender writing, coordination, and strategy that are guaranteed to your tender processes and the quality of your tenders.