Ian Forbes reveals why firms should strive for differentiation in the bidding process.

As a pitch consultant for over ten years, I have worked on a wide variety of tenders with values ranging from a few hundred thousand to over a billion pounds. Whatever the size, it has been my experience that tenders are won by teams who can clearly differentiate their offer from that of competitors in a few key ways:

• They show that they understand the prospect organisation better;
• They create a better relationship with the decision makers;
• They provide more compelling reasons for the prospect to partner with them, often beyond that asked for in the request for proposal (RFP); and,
• Their actual bid is more memorable because of the clear focus of its direction, and the clarity and power of its communication.

Sadly, however, many organisations still bid for important pieces of business without having a clear process to help them achieve these success criteria. Without a robust process they struggle to really differentiate themselves.
In these situations, law firms can fall foul of what I call 'cut and paste' pitching, where the business development team is instructed by a partner to put together a bid by cobbling together parts from past bids and the firm's credentials document.
In the worst cases, these proposals rely on case studies from other clients in the industry sector, details of the many offices in the firm's network, some words on its business philosophy and exhaustive profiles of the lead partners '“ nothing about the benefit of partnership to the prospect.
If there are attempts to address the prospect company's needs, it is done on a rather superficial level that only serves to demonstrate a lack of real insights to the organisation.
So what do the really successful companies and firms do? They make sure that every bid, large or small, is thought through using a process that uncovers real insights not just about the prospect organisation, but also about the individuals within that organisation that will be the decision makers. It is a procedure which can be referred to as the 'bid room' or 'war room' process and it is integral to virtually all major pitches. The war room becomes the central place where all the information you have gathered about the pitch is held, for team members to review and act on, to build the firm's offer. It is the place where the information you have on the prospect company, the relative strengths of your firm to handle this opportunity, the stated pitch needs, insights on the competition, your proposed selling messages and the timeline of your bid, will be consolidated.

Profit from a power map
One of the most important analysis tools in the war room armoury is called the 'power map' and the resulting detailed decision-maker analysis that flows from it. The power map is a visual representation of the interconnectivity of all the people who will influence the decision to appoint the successful firm.
Why is it so important? Because without truly understanding how the decision will be made, and who will influence the decision, it is not possible to prepare with any confidence the ideal offer and set of persuasive messages to support the bid. This analysis is particularly important when the bid is run under procurement protocols.
Constructing a power map will usually force you to realise that there are many more decision makers and influencers than the few you have met when taking the brief or that have been identified in the RFP. Now you have the opportunity to get to know them and their issues.
Start with decision makers. For, they have both the authority and influence. Then focus on those with influence but not authority. They can persuade and cajole others to follow. Their influence can be so strong in some cases that the person with authority might bow to the influencer, even though the influencer does not have the right to enforce the change.
Sometimes the CEO might be the decision maker. In other situations it could be another c-suite officer or a senior line manager. Make sure you get it right. The full power map is not always obvious. Be wary too of the client contact who tells you that he or she is the sole decision maker. It is rarely the truth. Ego often gets in the way of accuracy.
Obviously, being present in a bid will help significantly when drawing up the power map. However, all is not lost if this is not possible, as there are a number of ways to learn the information that you will need to succeed. And key to gathering such information is utilising effective probing or questioning skills. By asking the right questions of the contacts you have, you can test your assumptions and thereby draw up an accurate power map.
Good probing skills will help uncover the rational, emotional and political motivators of the decision makers and key influencers. And it is these motivators that will drive your solution. This information will help your team select the most appropriate messages, benefits and evidence to convince them.
Conversely, lack of data about who the decision makers are and what is important to them will force the pitch team to make assumptions. Research shows that more pitches are lost because they were based on assumptions (later proved wrong) than for any other reason.
The cliché 'people make decisions, not companies' is very relevant to the preparation of a bid. Most companies who are successful at bidding, profile the individual decision makers identified in a power map in substantial detail. Perhaps the best known exponents of this practice are the high profile bids by major cities for the rights to host sporting events such as the Olympic Games. It is common knowledge that extensive dossiers are built about each International Olympic Committee delegate as part of a city's bid.
Create a simplified version of that type of dossier which still captures critical information such as business behaviour style, the various motivators that drive them, and insights into the guiding values they bring to making a decision.

Plan for battle
Successful teams harness all the insights the war room brings them to then develop a raft of compelling persuasive selling messages that are specifically tailored to that opportunity and to the decision makers '“ not cut and pasted from another document. These messages are what create real, relevant and effective differentiation in a bid. They help the team to present those selling messages in such a way that the decision makers will relate to them fully, by facilitating the building of a rapport with the decision makers, and thereby a good relationship with the prospective client.
Above all, a war room process gives senior partners the opportunity to track progress on a bid, and to input into it in a very time efficient manner. It also minimises the wasting of both financial and manpower resources by avoiding time spent pursuing strategic dead-ends within a bid and by helping to lift the win-rate of the firm '“ a key benefit in the current economic climate.
By employing a robust bid development process that focuses on understanding the decision makers, a firm will deliver a better, more clearly differentiated, response to a prospect's RFP '“ giving the firm a winning edge in the bidding process and the tools to profit from the pinch.

Ian Forbes is a principal pitch consultant and CEO of London-based bid consultancy Corporate Persuasion. He can be contacted at iforbes@corporatepersuasion.com