How to be more successful at competitive bidding

    /24-7PressRelease/ - WATER NEWTON, UK, January 31, 2007 - Most companies adopt losing approaches to competitive bidding, and struggle to win new business despite large expenditures on training, consultancy and software support. Every company participating in an investigation by Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas could become more effective at winning business by putting additional critical success factors in place. Only a handful of them bid in a winning way.

According to Prof. Coulson-Thomas, "In the competitive bidding arena a wide gulf exists between winners and losers. They exhibit very different attitudes and approaches." His investigations reveal why some companies are so much more successful than others. Studies undertaken cover sectors such as construction, engineering, manufacturing, IT and telecoms, and seven professions ranging from lawyers and accountants to engineering and management consultants.

Speaking to senior executives in London the Professor explained "Winners are confident and proactive when approaching those they would like to do business with. They identify prospects that would make good business partners, and ruthlessly prioritise available opportunities. Turning down some invitations to bid allows more effort to be devoted to those retained."

Prof. Coulson-Thomas believes most companies could increase win rates by adopting more of the critical success factors set out in a Winning New Business resource pack his team has produced. He explains "Most of the changes required are attitudinal and behavioural and can be quickly made. Winning or losing is a matter of choice."

Coulson-Thomas finds that winners "enter their prospects' worlds and focus their responses and structure their proposals around prospect needs, priorities and selection criteria. They understand the value and benefits sought by prospects, their business environment, cost of ownership issues and the factors they consider when buying."

The winners are also better at differentiating, building personal relationships and establishing the superiority of their offerings. According to Coulson-Thomas "they excel at every stage from being invited to bid, through offering support or ancillary services, to negotiating a contract. They understand their prospects' purchasing decision making processes and the roles played by different individuals within them."

Coulson-Thomas points out that "winners start with clear objectives. They think through the outcomes and relationship they would like to achieve, and allocate sufficient resources early on to build up an unassailable lead. They remain sensitive to changing buyer concerns throughout the purchasing process, and work hard to establish empathy, build trust and match the culture of prospects. They regularly review their processes and practices, and learn from both successes and failures."

Coulson-Thomas concludes: "Even the winners could do much better. The 'super bidders' - the 4% who win more than three out of four of the competitive races they enter - are only very effective at less than half of the 18 critical success factors identified in the Winning New Business resource pack. Quite simply, there is enormous opportunity for most businesses to significantly improve their 'hit rate'.

'Winning New Business' a four-part best practice resource pack by Colin Coulson-Thomas, Carol Kennedy, and Matthew O'Connor is published by Policy Publications in association with the Centre for Competitiveness. The pack consists of four items:

• Winning New Business: the Critical Success Factors. A 172pp A4 format report based on the real life experience of over 300 companies. It explores the key factors which lead to success in winning new business.

• Bidding for Business: the Skills Agenda. A 70pp A4 report based on research among 62 companies. It explores the top 20 skills that are important in winning new business.

• The Contract Bid Manager's Toolkit. A set of 30 loose-leaf and inter-linked tools - frameworks, tables, charts, worksheets, checklists - designed to help managers in the practicalities of bidding for business.

• Win More Business. A CD-Rom which contains the above three items together with case studies and other resources designed to help companies win more business.

Details of the 'Winning New Business' resource pack, winning business reports covering individual sectors and seven professions, and related workshops can be obtained from http://www.winningnewbusiness.biz/

Companies can also now assess their own approaches to bidding. The research team can generate bespoke benchmarking reports for companies that would like to compare their practices with their peers and high performing winners. Details of these and other services can be obtained from http://www.ntwkfirm.com/policy-publications/benchmarking.htm

Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas, an experienced chairman of award winning companies, co-author of 'Winning New Business' and leader of the Winning New Business Research and Best Practice Programme, has reviewed the processes and practices for winning business of over 100 companies and helped over 100 boards to improve board and/or corporate performance. He has spoken at over 200 national and international conferences and corporate events in over 30 countries and can be contacted by Tel: + 44 (0)1733 361149 or via www.adaptation.ltd.uk

About Adaptation
Adaptation is a specialist consultancy which helps clients to improve their performance in key areas such as winning business by putting additional critical success factors in place and adopting further winning ways. For further information contact +44(0)1733361149

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