Case interview about bids

Hi there,

This actually doesn't require bids/tenders knowledge! This is a sale/revenue improvement case!

I'd need a lot more infor here in terms of clarifying questions (i.e. how much competition, what's the market landscape, what are we actually selling...product+implementation, to who are we selling, etc.). That said, I'd probably boil down my analysis to:

Product Issue

Is our product inferior, compared to our competitor's products, in the areas our customers care about?

Brand/Marketing/Perception Issue

Do people view us as inferior? Are we not doing enough to raise awareness etc.?

Sales Team Issue

Are we not getting to potential customers properly?

Price Issue

Have we priced too high, out of range of what people are willing to pay?

^lots of depth/complexity to add to the above but this should cover the major causes/buckets

Here are some other ideas:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/increase-number-of-users-for-a-productservice-8773

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/versatile-revenue-improvement-ideas-9433

Well, you'll need to brainstorm through what are the success factors for a bid. That gives you your framework. Tenders typicaly have a technical offer (specifications of the product, delivery times, etc.) and a commercial offer (price and terms). From there you can break it down:

• Technical offers
  • Technical specifications of our product
  • Ability to deliver (time & place)
  • After sale services (installation, warranty, etc.)
• Commercial offer
  • Price
  • Financing

If you use these five buckets as your framework and assess the relevance in the tender process and the ability of the client to deliver on each of them, you should get to the answer of why they are not winning enough.

Ian is totally right..this is how to sell well problem.

Think about winning bids in three parts:

1. Can we actually win the bid?

• Does the buyer have funding?
• Do we know them?  Do we understand their business, their customers?
• Does the buyer agree our product/service has a compelling, differentiated value proposition?
• Why us?  Are we the single provider, the leading provider, or the challenger?

2. Our Price- at par, below or above competition

3. Can we deliver to high quality

• Do we have the right people, skills and technologies in place to deliver on time & budget
• Do we have any innovative solutions- AI/ML and others

I would analyse carefully in details the conditions of bids/tenders for understanding which requirements you need to be met. All formal conditions should be satisfied.

Feel free to rach out!

Cheers, 

GB