Smarter tendering: how to turn past tenders into future wins
Tendering is a high stakes process with tight deadlines, complex requirements and fierce competition. When you are in the thick of the tendering process, it’s easy to focus solely on getting the bid to the finish line and solving problems as they arise. But the review and reflection your team does post-submission is just as important.
It’s important that following submission, bid teams gather to reflect on how the bid process ran and areas for improvement on future opportunities. By systematically capturing and applying these lessons learned, bid teams can transform past experiences into future tendering efficiencies.
Why deep diving into lessons learned matter
Lessons learned and deep dive debrief sessions allow your bid team to collectively reflect on the tender process following submission. Benefits these debriefs can offer your organisation include:
Objectively identifying areas for improvement outside of the live bid window
Improving your win rates through clear understanding of key improvement areas
Strengthening of client relationships through understanding gaps, and
Reducing the risk of repeated mistakes on future opportunities.
These debriefs are a critical part of the tender management and tender strategy process, helping organisations to improve their approach to future bids.
How to best run a lessons learned debrief process
To get the most value from a lessons learned session, aim to hold the debrief within one month of the submission date. This is a best practice in tender coordination and tender planning, ensuring your team is best placed to respond to the next opportunity.
Here is how you can get the best value out of the process:
Gather feedback independently: Distribute a survey or questionnaire to your bid team to provide individual feedback. For best results, data can be gathered anonymously through a survey or questionnaire to ensure responses are free from bias.
Responses to be collated: Independent responses should be collated by the Bid or Submission Manager for distribution to the wider bid team.
Schedule a debrief session: The bid team should hold a debrief session involving all relevant stakeholders to collaboratively discuss and review feedback. Additional further feedback may be gathered at this stage. If client feedback is available, it can also be discussed to prompt further discussion.
Capture client provided feedback: Post-tender client feedback, irrespective of a win or loss result, should be recorded within the lessons learned template.
Record feedback in centralised repository: The Bid or Submissions Manager should capture and store the data in a centralised repository to be utilised for future opportunities.
Ask your team the right questions
To get the best results out of a lessons learned debrief process, it is important that your questionnaire or survey includes thought provoking questions to improve the likelihood of stakeholders identifying and providing valuable feedback.
Examples of questions your lessons learned review could include:
Client Understanding & Relationship
Did we understand the client’s needs and strategic priorities?
Did we engage early enough with the client and have a relationship with key decision makers?
Did we receive any feedback from the client on our offer?
Win Strategy & Differentiation
Was the win strategy clear and compelling?
Did we differentiate ourselves from our competitors?
Did we consider innovations or continuous improvement measures that could have added further value to the client?
Team & Resource Management
Was the Bid Manager organised and kept the bid team on track?
Did bid team members have clear roles, responsibilities and deadlines?
Were the right Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) allocated to the tender?
Did the team have sufficient capacity around other bids and/or their regular working commitments to respond to the tender sufficiently?
Did we put forward the right key personnel, who have relevant experience to the project?
Commercial & Pricing
Did we provide the best price to the client?
Did we benchmark our pricing assumptions against market conditions?
Did we consider incentive models such as volume discounts, pain/gain share, performance bonuses and cost-plus?
Was the commercial offering appealing to the client or did it include too many contractual departures?
Compliance & Systems
Was our bid compliant?
Did we demonstrate our HSEQ systems and track record?
By prompting responders with thought provoking questions, you can ensure that relevant feedback is received. Lacking clarity in your data gathering process can lead to valuable feedback being missed.
Turn feedback into insights for future bids
Once you have gathered your data, share the collated responses with your bid team and key management stakeholders. Store this information in a centralised repository so it is easy to access for application to future opportunities, especially those involving the same client.
Next steps
Start by creating a standardised lessons learned template for your organisation and schedule debrief reviews within one month of the tender deadline. This simple review process can improve your win rate and position your team for future tender success.