It’s clear to us that the email request for a proposal from a key client is the start of the sales cycle, the time that we throw our scarce resources in to winning the sales opportunity. Or, is it?
For most B2B organisations it is. The sales team leads the proposal response because they know what the customer wants and hold all the key information that will unlock the secrets to the opportunity and get us to the table. This is fact, isn’t it?
But maybe there is more to winning than responding to the request for proposal (or RFT).
Professional services firms start the sales pursuit when the opportunity begins to emerge: when their customer talks about issues impacting business performance they are having and seek your ideas. The astute client manager will hear these signals and engage with their team to explore what their solution might be. But the product or service is just one part of the winning solution. A sales pursuit also requires understanding the complexity of the client organisation’s political landscape, your sources of differentiation and so on.
The sales pursuit
In professional services firms high value opportunities are evaluated by a sales pursuit leader before the firm makes a decision to invest or not to invest in an opportunity. The key criteria being the probability of success. The discipline of pursuit methodology is rigorous. It’s hard-nosed and dispassionate: it’s about the probability of success – rather than ‘we must bid’ and the return on investment.
‘Will we win’ or ‘what do we change to increase the probability of our success?’ is the key decision for the sales pursuit leader.
The bid architect
The sales pursuit leader is an expert with proven field experience in crafting and winning opportunities. The pursuit leader will leverage the client manager as the champion of the customer.
In some instances, because of the resource constraints or the complexity, an independent professional bid architect can be hired to analyse, develop a customer engaging story, bid manage the work streams such as technical product compliance, professional services, and commercial then execute a winning branded response to the tender or proposal.
The bid architect, or bid marketing expert, will develop and bring your story upfront in your response to the tender or proposal: rather than it being buried or so murky that the customer will find it hard to understand your offer. The emphasis of the story is on the reader or listener and what benefits they will get from your solution as compared to being just all about numbers and how great your product or service is.
Sales pursuit methodology has helped large professional services firms build market share and retain key customers over many years. The discipline is built on understanding the probability of your success and what part of your proposition can or needs to be adjusted to maximise your probability of success.
Applying the methodology before receiving the formal request for proposal or tender gets better results.
© 2016 Consulter