The Top 5 Mistake Bidders Make: No 4. Who is the client?

Having scored a few hundred PQQs and ITTs over time, one of my biggest frustrations has always been those submissions that tell you exactly what they will do for you – seemingly whether you want it or not.  The ones that have completely missed the point are even worse – they clearly haven’t understood the client requirements either due to a lack of planning, or care.  Sometimes they do this in an obvious way – shameless cut and paste sections detailing a different clients name to the one procuring for example!  However it’s also obvious when reading a submission from a company who clearly hasn't done their research, doesn't understand what is important to their potential client, and is therefore only able to provide basic answers.

Understanding the client is absolutely key to a successful bid.

Before you even put pen to paper on your response you should have listed out the key client requirements, and their potential drivers.  This is particularly relevant to the public sector clients.  They are process driven and dependent on bureaucracy, for good reason – after all, they are accountable for public spend.  And because of this, our public sector clients are also expected to meet a huge number of national, regional and local policy drivers - when you work in the public sector you will never be just building a building.  A good example of this is the Government Construction Strategy (GCS). Construction represents around 7% of the GDP, and is seen by government as both an indicator and a driver of growth in the UK economy.  For that reason the GCS was launched in 2011 with a huge number of stretching targets relating to the way construction is procured and managed incorporating things like BIM, cost benchmarking and so on.  For most construction clients in the public sector, much of this is likely to be not only complex, but somewhat overwhelming too.  It makes sense that a construction company who understands these requirements and targets, who can demonstrate how they will help their public sector client to achieve them in their bids, will score more highly in the procurement process.

Another, more simple, example – a public sector client asking for examples of where you have implemented lean construction is no doubt looking for a company that can demonstrate cost and time savings.  Why? Because they have strict instructions as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review to cut budgets by 20% minimum.

At the end of the day, a client is looking to ‘buy’ the services of a company that clearly understands their needs, can respond to them, and ultimately help the client meet their own targets and survive the scrutiny of the public sector. You must be able to demonstrate your understanding in your ITTs and PQQs.