Promising and providing more

Offer good ideas that no one else may have thought of - ideas that go further than the basic services all bidders are required to deliver and that show the extra benefits you will provide. These can have a decisive impact on the way your bid is received. They may include, for instance, starting the contract with an immediate action programme to deliver high-yield results (Figure 16.1); running workshops and seminars to extend and strengthen the competencies of client personnel; arranging secondments and placements for them; enabling them to share your research facilities; communicating the outputs of the work through newsletters and community media; setting up and maintaining a project Web site. Not all of these ideas will be appropriate for every type of contract, but each is a real example taken from a successful bid. And in most cases the bid was for a fixed-price contract: the contractors were able to absorb the costs of these initiatives through efficiency improvements in other contract services.

ABC service commitment

The company expects the highest standards from its consultants. ABC has a commitment to live up to those standards and deliver the best possible service to the company. It is a commitment which ABC makes unreservedly as part of this tender.

ABC believes that the professionalism and experience of its team, the depth and diversity of its expertise and its practical understanding of the company's working environment add up to a unique resource. The strength of this resource underwrites ABC's service commitment, enabling ABC to sustain and reinforce the quality of its partnership throughout the full period of the contract.

Project resourcing

Where the company requests the supply of specialist expertise and resources in any field within the scope of the services covered by this contract, ABC will provide competent and suitably qualified personnel within one working day of receiving the request.

Team competencies

• Every member of the team will be either on the full-time staff of ABC or a consultant whose working relationship with ABC ensures priority to the requirements of its clients.

• Every individual included in the team will possess proven competence in their field and the ability to communicate their technical knowledge effectively.

• Every member of the team will be computer-literate.

Constructive working relationships

ABC will undertake an induction procedure for team members to ensure they understand the company's requirements for efficient service delivery and its approach to service partnership.

Performance monitoring

As detailed in Section 3 of this tender, ABC will measure the quality and efficiency of its service delivery against performance targets and milestones that aim to match the company's expectations.

ABC will maintain a project monitoring system that will give the company direct access to up-to-date progress and budgeting information, as well as facilitating joint timekeeping and recording.

Figure 16.1: Adding Value by Promising More

Conveying a sense of added value can be critically important when you are bidding for further work from a client. Unless you have been able to build a sustained professional relationship through quality, performance and value for money, clients may feel they have already seen what you can do and conclude they are likely to obtain a fresher and more energetic response from a new contractor - particularly if your last contract ran into problems of resourcing or delivery. To remain competitive, your bid has to take full advantage of the points in your favour: for example, because you know the way the client likes to work and the personnel and procedures involved in the contract, you can ensure a minimum or no learning curve, which may result in less exposure to risk. If there were aspects of the work that ran into problems or were perceived by the client as not entirely successful, they will need to be addressed directly in the bid, without equivocation. The positive factors about the work and the benefits you were able to achieve for the client need to be projected forcefully as distinctive credentials for an extension of the professional relationship - demonstrating that you can do even better. One thing your bid must do is put forward new ideas showing creativity, drive and innovation and offering definite benefits to the client. As well as outflanking the competition, you need to convince the client that there is nothing stale about your approach and that learning from experience is part of your commitment to continuous improvement. Stay in front by offering and delivering more.