The bid process is best viewed as a cycle, because information and experience gained from each bid should be used to improve future bids.

The bid process (or cycle) encompasses all of the sales and back office support activities from the initial identification of an opportunity through to the post-sale review.

Opportunity Discovery Phase

During this phase customer facing account staff hunt for procurement opportunities with new and existing clients. This phase also includes the creation of opportunities through marketing and consultative selling activities.

Account managers and support staff play the biggest part in this phase, periodically receiving direction and assistance from business development and capture managers.

Typical activities that fall into this category include:

• Outbound Sales Calls

• Face-to-Face Customer Meetings

• Various direct marketing exercises

• Monitoring of tender notification web sites

• Customer and/or supplier site presentations and demonstrations

• Provision of specific narrative and cost information in relation to specific products and/or services

In summary this is essentially the sales centric phase.

Information Capture

The information capture phase involves capturing client related information in order to build a suitable profile to aid the bid preparation process. Also in this phase specific information about existing and planned initiatives is sought and captured for direct use during the solution design phase.

A bid capture manager will often commence their involvement with a client during this phase and develop a strategy to take the opportunity through to the point of securing the clients business

This phase is part of the pre-solicitation process.

Proposal Preparation

The preparation of a client submission draws together all members of the bid sales and auxiliary teams including subject matter experts (SME’s) who contribute specialist input and/or content to the proposal.

SME’s involved in proposal preparation may include

• Administrative Support Personnel

• Customer Service Personnel

• Editors / Writers

• Financial Analysts

• Legal Advisors

• Operational Personnel

• Profilers

• Project Office Administrators

• Risk Analysts

• Researchers

• System Engineers

The individuals mentioned above are typically involved in proposal preparation on a project basis as required by the bid manager.

When preparing a complex proposal you can reasonably presume that the client will require a potential supplier to make a presentation to key stakeholders prior to the successful respondent being announced.

Negotiation & Fulfilment

Routine contractual and financial negotiations take place shortly after a successful respondent is announced. The completion of appropriate due diligence exercises is extremely important to the success of all procurement projects.

The fulfilment phase involves all of the activities detailed under the execution and control stages of the procurement project implementation plan.

Post Bid Review

When a product or service is in place and all contractual and financial matters have been finalised, take the time to sit down with the client and discuss how well the opportunity was planned, executed and controlled. Use this process as learning opportunity and as a demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement.