A sales opportunity exists where a customer needs to purchase products or services that can form a solution to a business challenge. Business challenges span every customer objective from building new infrastructure and technology platforms to procuring materials, components and support services for regular business operations.

The Pre-Bid phase in the Bid.Win.Deliver Framework captures this fluid process in three simple steps. Sales teams identify sales opportunities using their preferred sales methodology or approach and enter the key details in the sales management system adopted by their organization. Defining a solution statement clarifies the solution to be developed and proposed to the customer. Formally qualifying sales opportunities assesses their commercial potential and keeps bid teams working on the sales opportunities with the greatest prospects of commercial success.

Bid responses must be compelling and competitive so that the customer engages with the supplier and ultimately awards them a contract for the delivery of their proposed solution. For suppliers, bid responses must reduce commercial risk and delivery risk and have a clear plan for achieving the forecast profit.

A bid response includes more than the bid documents to be submitted to the customer. A business case will demonstrate how the proposed pricing and expected implementation costs will return an acceptable profit that meets or exceeds the supplier’s hurdle margin requirement. A contract delivery plan will give the business case a detailed view of the costs and risks for implementing the proposed solution.

The bid documents, contract delivery plan and business case are collectively termed as the bid deliverables. Bid.Win.Deliver structures the Bid phase in simple and logical steps for developing these bid deliverables. This includes the reviews and approvals mandated by the supplier’s own standards and policies.

The Bid.Win.Deliver Framework guides suppliers through this critical time with simple and clear steps. The framework shows any professional how to lead their organization through this development process and how to manage the complex task dependencies involved in developing a comprehensive bid response.

Submitting a completed bid response is only one milestone towards winning new and profitable business. Suppliers who adopt the Bid.Win.Deliver Framework can expect to be short-listed because their bid responses will be competitive and compelling. Qualification of sales opportunities during the Pre-Bid Phase means that bid teams have more time to develop bid responses where there is a better chance of success.

The Bid.Win.Deliver Framework highlights three key events in the Win phase when the sales team are trying to close the deal. Anticipating and preparing for a high-impact presentation means the sales team will make a strong impression with the customer’s bid assessment panel.

Negotiating a contract usually requires amending key details of the proposed solution and its pricing. The Bid.Win.Deliver Framework requires bid teams to remain engaged and support the sales team. The framework also requires that the business case is updated and reviewed to confirm that the forecast profit still meets or exceeds the supplier’s hurdle margin requirement and that commercial and delivery risk are minimised.

Finally, whether or not a bid response is successful, suppliers assess how they developed the bid response and consider feedback from the customer. The bid team must consider these points and prepare a Lessons Learned document for future bid responses.

Working on a bid team is a temporary assignment and bid team members move on to other work after the bid response is won and the contract signed. Successful suppliers maintain continuity after a successful bid response by holding a handover session to their delivery team. Although implementation and delivery is different for every solution, suppliers always need to report and understand their delivery performance and commercial outcomes.

The Bid.Win.Deliver Framework spans the compete lifecycle from Pre-Bid to Deliver so that suppliers build on their success and embed their experience for future bids, tenders and proposals.