Don't paint over the rust

To win the right to possess the sought after posts you all occupy you invested in your development heavily and deferred enjoyment with many years of hard slogging and grafting to get where you are today, working in an amazing firm with a global reach.

 

 

To succeed in sales we need to understand how this process works today and continually update and refresh our approach and skill set to match the shifting buying approaches in our markets and the demands new technology brings too.

Do not believe you can do anything of lasting worth to improve your pitchability or tendering skills in a day or less. You can’t.

I have never seen transformational change in pitch/tender skills take place in less than a two-day event, with much work before and after it too necessary to make the changes work and become embedded in your culture. Pitchability, as I call it is a talent that needs nurturing like your sector and commercial abilities. This is the way to make it fresh, relevant and cutting edge too.

 

Group think and mindset about roles have to challenged too. Successful sustainable tendering and pitch wins are underpinned by a healthy, open and frank relationship between the professionals, their leaders and the BD team. 

 

Is it time to overhaul your whole bid go no go and resource allocation to tenders and pitches? Are you in danger of believing that your ability to do so many things at such a pace is the best way to tackle and sustaining and growing the BD pipe? Are the better models out there? Have we got our tender/pitch culture right?

 

You have very experienced and talented people in your BD teams whose voice perhaps needs to be brought more to the fore. Failure is still my best teacher when I attend to what it says about what I need to change. Remaining teachable is a real quality in this space now as the client and market demands are changing so fast. 

 

Are you teachable at this moment? What would it take for you to be so?

Innovation in how you tender and pitch. Clients are desperate for this in the tender and pitch space and have ended up tying up disproportionate resources partly because of procurement power but also because they too are too busy to change.

I see opportunity here. Big time. If you can pause now and see the real communication task that is front of you. You could steal a real march on your rivals by a fresh and distinctive approach based on your beliefs about how you engage in this space. 

There is a new powerful zeitgeist creating change, disruption and opportunities everywhere wherever you look in every marketplace and professions. You could be really bold and lead the charge to new ways of pitching your profession in your space.

My view is there is a stark choice here for you and your competitors. Tune in to it, embrace it and learn now or risk a long battle to defend and  repair what worked in the past in the hope it will work in the future. It won't.

A good garage will tell you that a respray is not the answer when you need a new vehicle to carry your most precious cargo, your brand.”