Ask the Sales Pro: To Bid, or Not to Bid

Dear Sales Pro,
I have an aggressive sales goal this year and a great opportunity to bid on an engagement that has landed on my desk. The proposal effort is going to be intense, but the commission and revenue to my organization would be significant. We have other proposals for smaller opportunities that might be forfeited to allow us the time and resource to chase “the big one”. Management is concerned since we haven’t met face-to-face with the prospect. I would hate to see this one get away, what would you do? 

Fishing in Franconia

Dear Fishing:
Your management’s concern above is a dead-ringer. By the time the bid specifications are published, you are so far behind the power curve that you have a very slim chance of being short-listed and a slim-to-none chance of winning. In sales-speak we call this “column fodder”, in other words, the client has a check list, has already made the decision but needs other quotes to compare to the proposal he or she already knows they are going with. Your proposal and pricing, if they are competitive, will be used to negotiate with the company they want to do business with.

By working your territory in a targeted way, you will preempt these situations. Know about the bid before it hits the street, and better yet, heading off the bid altogether and win the deal is the ideal coup. The other strategy is to help the client with the bid specification, if they are required to go through the bidding process, and make sure the specs list certain features that are your competitive advantage. This way, you are sure to shine above the rest.

Finally, responding to bids equals time and money. If you are sent a bid with 10 days or less to respond and it’s a major opportunity, you can sometimes tell the customer that this isn’t enough time to respond in a quality way and see if they would be willing to meet after the bidding process to establish a relationship for future business. They will respect you and you’ll be able to tell very quickly how serious they are about wanting to do business with you!

Good luck and great selling!

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