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would like to achieve. From the moment an
initial contact occurs they position themselves
as a potential business partner. They hit the
ground running, and allocate sufficient
resources early on to build up an unassailable
lead.
Senior managers in the more successful
companies participate in pitches. They are
interested, understand the importance of
business development activity and want to be
involved. The visible and active support of
senior management can be decisive in close
contests. It demonstrates the importance
attached to a particular order and/or potential
relationship.
Winners try to understand how buying
decisions are made within a prospect’s organization.
They identify influencers, opponents
and allies. They consider the personalities
involved and remain sensitive to how buyer
concerns may change during the course of a
particular procurement. People like to work
with individuals and organizations they feel
comfortable with. Winners work hard to
establish empathy, build trust, and match the
culture of prospects.
Where possible, winners automate the
more mechanical aspects of proposal production.
Time freed up is used to tailor responses,
differentiate offerings and build relationships.
Thus sales representatives could use a laptopbased
tool for accessing presentational
information, assessing requirements, configuring
and pricing suggested solutions, and generating
proposal documentation (see www.
cotoco.com).
At the end of the day the crucial differentiator
between winners and losers is that the
winners want to win. Prospects are not ‘items
in their in-trays’ as is often the case with
losers. Winners are devastated when they
lose. Win or lose, they also regularly review
their processes, submit their practices to independent
or peer review, and debriefs are held
to learn from both successes and failures.
The results of the Winning Business Research
Programme (www.luton.ac.uk/cfc)
suggest the winners among the companies
examined could do even better. The ‘super
bidders’ – the 4 per cent who win more than
three out of four of the competitive races they
enter – are only very effective at less than
half of the 18 critical success factors identified
by the ‘Winning Major Bids’ report (Kennedy
and O’Connor, 1997). There is enormous
opportunity for most businesses to significantly
improve their performance. ‘Win rates’
are directly related to how many of the identified
key factors a company is good at.
Many of the changes that may be required
to increase bid win rates can be put in place
relatively quickly and at a modest cost.
Guidance is also available in the form of ‘winning
business’ reports for particular industries
and professions (see www.ntwkfirm.com).
These spell out the relevant critical success
factors. They also contain best practice case
studies and commentaries by industry experts.
A bespoke benchmarking service
accompanies the eight reports covering individual
professions.
Sales support tools can also be used. A
laptop-based solution reduced the sales cycle
of one company by up to 50 per cent and
won the 1999 Award for Knowledge Management.
The original investment was returned
within four months by just one order. The
knowledge management framework used
(www.K-frame.com) won the 2000 eBusiness
Innovations Award for Knowledge Management
and is used to communicate complex
and technical messages.
Processes and practices for winning business
should be regularly subjected to an
independent review. Even though there is
enormous potential for improvement many
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors