Dan, my team is working on a very large Information Technology opportunity with a key account. The Director of the IT department has asked for our help in creating the bid specification document. I see this as a great opportunity to create lock-out specs to insure that we win this deal. In your book and workshops you strongly advise against this approach. Can you please elaborate?

 

Melinda

San Antonio, TX

 

 

 

 

Melinda:

 

Great question!  Congratulations on earning enough trust with your client that she would grant you the privilege of helping with the bid specs. This could be a very strategic opportunity!

 

Before we address your question, we need to make sure that your client is not a governmental agency. That is important because the bidding process involving a government account is addressed differently. There are strict laws and regulations surrounding a public bidding process, along with a mandate that the lowest bid is selected (with some exceptions).  My recommendations assume that you are working with a non-governmental entity.  

 

OK, on to your question. The best way to answer your question is to remind you of your goal. What is your goal when helping your client draft bid specs? Most average reps will respond, "Obviously I want to set up my competition for failure so I can win the deal." This response is common, and in fact recommended by some sales trainers. 

 

My approach is much different and is based upon a highly consultative, strategic and trust-based approach to the world of helping clients buy (selling).  True sales Superstars would say that their goal is to build trust. Assisting with bed specs will allow for another great chance to build trust.

 

Let's play out about the first scenario...the one recommended by other trainers. What happens after the average rep slants the bid in favor of her company? The bid is distributed to 3 other suppliers. Each of the three suppliers opens the bid and become deeply disappointed that the bid is "fixed." They have no chance of winning. They decide not to bid, and in addition they have their Senior Vice President call the CFO of the company that send the bid.

 

The conversation goes something like this, "Ms. CFO, we recently received a bid from the Director of your IT Department. We would like to spend the time and resources to complete the bid specification request to your satisfaction, but quite frankly we were dismayed. It seems like you have already made up your mind. We have been a good partner of yours for the past twenty years, and now the bids are such that we cannot participate."

 

The CFO is now very unhappy because she knows that in order to keep the playing field level and insure that she gets a "good deal," she needs to have a process with multiple vendors vying for her business. She pushes her chair back and marches down to the office of the Director of the IT department and bellows, "Just exactly what are you doing with the IT project bids? I just received a call from one of our strategic suppliers, saying that we have already made up our mind on this project. That's not how we run things around here! You had no authority to send out that bid document and slant it toward one vendor! You are on special assignment!"

 

The Director of IT now calls the the rep who "assisted" her with the rigged bid specs.  How do you think that conversation goes? 

 

So, the average rep's ill-advised strategy of slanting the bid specs backfired. Not only did she lose trust in the process, she will likely lose the deal! 

 

The Superstar knows how people make major, high-risk, big-dollar decisions. Decisions are emotional: not rational. The sales rep who earns the most trust wins. The Superstar is always looking to earn trust within her account and with her key client contacts.

 

Rather than "slanting" the bid specifications, the Superstar takes great pains to insure that the bid is generic and does not alienate any vendors, because that is in her client's best interests.

 

Does that mean that the Superstar does not include her unfair advantages in the bid? No, like anything, it is not what you do, it's how you do it. Rather than rig the bid with lock-out bid specs, the Superstar insures that the bid includes general topic areas that are unique to her company and simply permits each company to explain.

 

For example, if your car is the only one that had 1000 horse power while all the others had only 800 horse power, the bid specification would look like this: 

"The minimum horsepower required is 800. Agree - Disagree.    Please explain ________."

 

What if the car you are selling in the above example has optional automatic collision prevention software and others don't? Then simply leave a space at the end of the bid and ask each vendor to "elaborate and show pricing for any features/capabilities that you believe should be included in our evaluation."

Interestingly, occasionally you may find yourself in a position where your client insists on a lock-out bid specification. I have found myself in this spot. I would take this another opportunity to stress the importance of keeping the bid generic. 

Melinda, I hope this gives you some additional insight into how to approach bid specifications and gives you some insight on being a true sales SUPERSTAR!