Top 6 Tips for Winning Bids
You need to create striking and differentiating bids - particularly when there's stiff competition for every deal out there. This challenge increases in proportion with the size and complexity of the deal you're trying to win. Here are our top 6 tips for winning:
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1. Get the essence of your bid on one page
Describe your pitch in 30 seconds. Then take your audience through each element in detail without losing the context of the whole. Impossible you think? But a rich picture lets you do just that.
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2. Show you understand the client's needs
What does the client want to achieve? Don't scrimp on demonstrating that you understand their key challenges. Put your solutions in the context of their challenges and make it easy for them to explore everything with you as you talk.
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3. Stand out from the crowd
Your competitors have probably produced a detailed bid document, carefully answering every question line by line. Procurement leaders use these to eliminate obvious losers before inviting contenders into face-to-face sessions. So what can you do to create a real stir on presentation day? By telling your story with a rich picture you can convert everyone who attends into an advocate who wants to share your story afterwards.
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4. Make it easy to understand
No-one has time to read walls of text. A written description of your bid is linear and people need to read through sequentially to understand your whole story. They'll tend to argue about small differences in meaning along the way. A rich picture is more powerful - it puts everything in context straight away and you can flex your story to suit the audience, and show how the elements link together as you tell it.
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5. Make it engaging
Use storytelling and emotion. We describe our lives through stories and we love them - it's a human trait. In business we think we’re all rational, but emotion plays a major part in decision-making and buying. Don’t fall back on lists of features - they have no emotion.
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6. Conversation not presentation
It’s not a lecture. And you’ve been given a specification but it might not be the best solution. If you encourage discussion you can get the client talking and find out what they really need. Once they tell you new things, it’s a sign you’re developing a stronger relationship and gaining the inside track.
Two recent bids we supported won contracts worth £250,000 and £2million. The ROI speaks for itself.
‘See what you mean’ specialises in creating engaging visual solutions for complex messages.
A powerful rich picture will provide the ideal landscape for your conversations.
Give us a call on +44 29 20 480 400, or email