WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

I am constantly amazed at sales people who, when they lose business, either through an RFP or some other means, won't re-engage with the client, until the next RFP or the like.

During the debrief of why they lost the business, they inevitably ask "How long is the contract for?" When told 1, 3 or 5 years, they check out and no one sees or hears from the company until near to the time that they may have an opportunity to re-engage.

So, as Dr. Phil would say "How's that working for you?"

I've seen too many sales people go off, licking their wounds and figure next time. But if the next time I see you is only when the business is up for tender, then you'll probably lose.

If you were the incumbent and lost or even if it was a potential new client and you lost, don't wait to re-engage, because quite honestly at that point it is too late. And by the way, if you were the incumbent and you lost, well, your competition was certainly cultivating the relationships over the years that you had the business. They understood the client, the client's direction and knew what was needed to win.

I know, you are probably saying, "well, you know those ______ (fill in the blank) procurement people won't make time for me." How often have you tried? And at what level? Yeh, maybe the VP or Director won't have time but others in the chain will, and you can glean valuable insights from them.

And yes, right after losing is probably not a great time to begin the next sales cycle, but even during the debrief, you can say "Well, we thank you for the opportunity. Obviously we are disappointed that we lost. We look forward to keeping connected, so who would it be best to reach out to in 8 months or so?"

And even if they say, "we'll call you," just reach out in 8 months anyway. And see how things are going with the chosen supplier. Have a coffee chat or something like that. Nothing formal, informal is best. Keep your potential client up on whatever new things your business is doing. Say "we've had real success in approaching issues with another company by doing this...."; "We've really moved forward on our sustainability platform...."; "We won an award for......" Plant the seeds. The old adage, you reap as you have sown is a truism.

Start doing your homework and keep up the contact. You don't want to show up in three years and all the players have changed, the strategy has changed and you don't have a clue what's going on.

I mentioned incumbents earlier, but let me tell you that keeping abreast of what's going on goes double for you. If you lose the business on price, then you didn't effectively put forward your value proposition when you had the chance. Furthermore, you missed the business drivers that were pushing in this direction. You missed the opportunity to develop some innovative approach to the business, which could have had the organization meet their metrics, while you maintain the business.

Don't walk away at anytime from a client or potential client. Keep up the relationship. Keep them close.

Because "Call Me Maybe" is not a strategy.

Tendering for the sake of Tendering

Today in the newspaper there was another in a series of articles on inappropriate procurement practices at e-Health. So not that this is new news, but the issue that caught my eye today was about the $1billion contract awarded to IBM without tendering.

The comment that was made by someone in the government was that even though it would have most probably gone to IBM anyway, it should have been tendered. And this is where I wholeheartedly disagree.

Please understand that I am a proponent of fair and ethical procurement. And this also means that when a tender is issued that all parties truly have a shot at the business, vs. issuing an RFP just for optics or for benchmarking.

Over the years, I was often asked to issue RFPs to "squeeze the incumbent" or to "just look like we are considering others." Well guess what? I refused, because I know the costs and time that companies will spend pulling together a competitive bid, the resources etc. And if this I as the issuer am just putting an RFP out there for the sake of optics, then I am being way more inappropriate than if I didn't do it in the first place.

The risks associated with the illusionary RFP are even larger than if no RFP is issued at all -- the main one being that the award can be challenged in court and that the evaluator(s) would need to defend the decision. I have worked on enough of these to know that there is a lot of subjectivity that goes into the final decision, regardless of the weightings and evaluation grids -- at the end of the day, it is not just a mathematical formula.

The time that it costs the organization to issue and evaluate an RFP is also quite massive and I'm sure at this juncture the government and crown agencies are overwhelmed with what is being asked of them -- and understand the decisions that will be made because of lack of resources and time constraints will be suboptimal.

If an incumbent is doing a fine job and is market competitive (a little bit of research will ensure this) and if there is a need for continuity, if they only have this particular expertise -- whatever the reason, the organization would be better served by making a case for no tender than just put one out there which basically is like hiding yourself behind a fake nose and glasses. Everyone knows its not real, but suppliers feel compelled to participate.

If you are not sure, issue an RFI to at least investigate whether there are things you don't know -- which may convince you to issue an RFP.

But please, let's not issue RFPs, just for the sake of doing it. There is already too much waste in government and corporations.