Business isn’t always ‘fair’. We don’t always get what we might think our efforts and abilities deserve. Contracting for outsourced business can be an especially brutal process.
Apparently small and sometimes unfathomable differences, or opinions of evaluators, can make the difference between a large win and a total loss. Seemingly irrelevant of the effort you’ve put in.
Nevertheless, one of the things we ask our incumbent clients when looking at their rebids is ‘Why do you deserve to keep this contract?’
Another question we ask, for similar reasons, is ‘What have you delivered on this contract that you’re most proud of?’
They’re not questions clients usually expect us to ask.
The reason we do, is to get to the core of what the incumbent has done that’s really outstanding, different, or better than the competition might have achieved.
It helps people move beyond the compliance mind-set that can sometimes dominate contracts or rebids (or bids for that matter).
But it also helps go beyond what can sometimes be a mechanical process of deciding strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in determining SWOTs, Most Important Requirements, win themes, differentiators and discriminators. Although we do all those too.
What answers do we get? And why are they useful?
Asking an incumbent what they’re most proud of, and why they deserve to win gets people thinking differently:
• It often focuses them on the one or two things that are actually most important about their delivery to date or their solution.
• It can reveal something about how the contract has been delivered that otherwise might not have been mentioned, or might have been lost in a list of things completed or achieved.
• Sometimes it can reveal what those being asked see as the most important aspects of the contract and how it’s been delivered.
• It can also reveal the culture and thinking applied to the contract.
Ideally we hear about how the customer’s end users have been served particularly well, an innovation or improvement that made a real difference, reaction to an issue that solved a pressing customer problem.
Or perhaps something about staff performance or how they’ve been helped to develop.
These not only reveal the focus of the management team, but often uncover real examples or case studies of what’s been achieved which can be used in the rebid submission.
If we hear about increased profitability or turnover, it can reveal something else about the view the contract team have had in running the contract and how they’ve thought and acted.
If profit has been the only focus, the incumbent may have a harder task to convince the customer they deserve to win (usually the customer will have picked up this as the incumbent’s priority during the contract – and might not appreciate it).
Looking at how profit and increased turnover was delivered is useful in understanding the contract. Profit is after all the point of business and of winning most contracts, so a proper focus on profit is right.
It’s when it’s the only thing seen as important, you might have a tougher task in your rebid to convince the customer you deserve to win.
And with further prompting about what they’re proud of in terms of customer delivery, staff can reveal a more balanced view of what’s been achieved.
What sets off warning bells?
Warning bells can start to ring when your question gets no answer at all, and a blank or confused look.
Sometimes it just takes a little time for the’ unusual’ question to be processed and to get answers flowing.
But if nothing has been done on the contract that those delivering it are proud of, or think means they deserve to win. Or there’s nothing in the rebid solution that people can point to that stands out in the same way, you might find it difficult to win.
After all, if you can’t think of a real and compelling reason why you deserve to win, why would your customer think any differently?
So, the next time you’re preparing for a rebid, or looking at one of your existing contracts, as well as doing all the analysis that rightly goes into your preparations, ask the team and yourself the same questions we do:
Why do we deserve to keep this contract?
What are we really proud of on this contract / in our solution?
You might be surprised by the answers.
If you’ve lost a rebid and want an objective review to tell you why and how to avoid losing other contracts, contact us to schedule a call.
We can help you understand everything you can do during your contract and in your rebid to help make sure you win.
Contact us for a chat about how we can use our experience and techniques to support your rebid through our consultancy services.
