Government tendering business is a double-edged sword. Companies want it to gain traction and accelerate their growth trajectory but once rewarded they are always on the go to secure more bids. Primarily, government tenders come with a lot of financial as well as technical baggage which must be carried along. Therefore, it is imperative that companies secure more bids in order to maintain cash flow and allow optimum utilization of its resources. For instance, government bids might require firms to have certain certifications depending on their industry. In order to bid for a particular tender, companies must oblige by having certain basic certifications. The advantage is that these certifications can be reused in different tendering opportunities thus calling for optimal use of resources.
Understanding the Procurement Landscape:
While applying to tenders, first time companies must understand that tendering is a long and waiting game that needs to be played with strategy and patience. While governments are constantly on the lookout for new vendors, it must be noted that old vendors have always developed a good relationship with them. Therefore, they need to be pragmatic in their journey of securing a tender as it requires years of research, development and sound knowledge of the procuring entities’ needs and demands. Staying well informed about the ongoing procurements worldwide is a great way to stay ahead of the competition. If companies are informed about all the procurement happening in the global market, they gain a good exposure to all types of requirements from authorities. Sometimes, this can allow them to sense future requirements and even alter their offering as per the standard set of requirements set out. Taking help from an outsourced service provider for aggregating tender information can go a long way in monitoring global bids. Service providers such as Tender Impulse helps in monitoring in a structured manner ensuring you know everything happening in public procurement global bids
Building a Strategy:
One of the things companies must focus on is building an effective go-to strategy for government tenders. The strategy for tenders must be based on the target market, the regional influence that the company can have in that market and the number of existing competitors operating in the market. For instance, a cyber security provider from Europe may be prone to bids in the African region rather than in its own region due to the presence of too many suppliers in the European region. Therefore, building a strategy requires good know-how of the market and the procurement happening in the market. For flagship products such as artificial intelligence or e-learning suite, companies can choose to penetrate one single market where it has succeeded before to have more chances of winning.
Understanding Technical Specifications:
Every experienced and successful tenderer will tell you that the key to winning bids is to abide by the technical specifications pertaining to a tender. Sometimes, procurement happens in a multitude of products. For example, a bid for supply, installation, commissioning and maintenance of a CCTV system would require not only the supply but also its maintenance contract along with it to be successful. Therefore, bidders need to be aware that unless they fulfil all technical criterion, they must not proceed to participate in the bid. Another important aspect of the technical specification is that they must be understood in its native language. Foreign language often creates translation issues and hence one must fully understand the scope of the document from its original language in order to gauge the exact scope of the tender. The use of a language translator can help in addressing the translation related issues
Making a Commercial Offer:
The business part of the bid or the commercial offer is the cost at which the authorities plan to buy the product/service. In some cases, tendering authorities decide on a pre-approved budget for the procurement and companies need to abide by these budgets. Committing to the bid under the stipulated budget is not always a good idea especially if the cost and service levels expected cannot match with the budgets given. It is to be noted that this is a budget that is set by authorities and can be flexible especially in cases where authorities are procuring a product for the first time. In repeat buying activity, authorities are generally aware of the cost that they would have to spend so it might not be a good idea to overestimate the price above the stipulated budgets set by the authorities. Irrespective of the budget, companies must make compelling offer and justify their costs with the product or service features. In cases where there is an after sales required, it must be categorically highlighted to ensure that the authorities take an informed decision.
Building Long term relationship
In spite of doing the above processes right, there are chances that your bid might not get selected and you end up without business. However, it must be noted that tendering is a long waiting game and it is always a good idea to keep up with the authorities on and off. Following up via regular emails, chats, or an informal call to the authority can only develop good relations with the concerned business. Although in an electronic world, business is still done between individuals who are humans so developing a good rapport with the authorities is always a good idea. Developing strong relationship with authorities does not guarantee future business but ensures scope of communication in case of a change in requirement or a new requirement. Finally, developing partners in local countries too can help in gaining a local understanding and being more responsive to local opportunities. Deploying sales agents and local agents are a low risk way of building long term relationship with authorities. If local agents or sales agents get positive responses from authorities, it might be a good idea to set up a small office in that territory/region. Overall, it is always advantageous to be in contact with the authorities for constantly being on their minds and showing them your desire to do business with them.
Although the above article might not be comprehensive in securing tenders, it is certainly a good headway for companies wanting to start tendering.
