Scale up public-sector sales by getting the whole company on board

One thing keeps coming up when experienced bid managers and bid consultants share their most important insights: a skilled bid writer alone isn't enough.

Just as great salespeople can't rescue a flawed business model, bid writers can't single-handedly make the whole public-sector business successful. Selling to the public sector is more than just responding to procurements. It takes teamwork.

The teamwork behind public-sector sales

There's a lot successful bidders do to maximise their public-sector business. Here are a few examples:

• Understanding public customers' specific needs and challenges.

• Knowing the procurement market, buyers, and competitors well.

• Analysing requirements and making business-strategic decisions based on that.

• Engaging in dialogue with public buyers before procurements are published.

• Analysing current contracts and past procurements.

• Developing their offering to meet the public sector's needs.

• Supporting the bid writer with the right information when it's needed.

• Taking care of the public customer, from first contact through to delivery.

• Investing in smart tools to streamline the sales work.

In other words: far more than just writing tenders. Which of these do you already do? Is there a part you could do more of?

An organisation set up to sell to the public sector

What does an organisation look like when it works together to grow public-sector sales? Perhaps something like this:

• Leadership that sets the direction: the public customer is a priority.

• Product and business developers who understand public customers' needs.

• Marketers who tailor marketing efforts for public customers.

• Salespeople who proactively engage public customers and do needs analysis.

• Bid managers who efficiently find procurements and write winning tenders.

• Delivery that meets the contracting authority's expectations and needs.

The bigger the company, the more cooks are needed to make sure the bid soup tastes good. If you're a small company, a handful of people might be enough – but it's still important to see public-sector sales as something the company does, not something one individual handles alone.

Leadership has to set the direction

Many people who write tenders feel the job is tough. They're expected to respond to procurements and bring in public customers, but feel like they're working against the wind. Why? Simply because leadership isn't prioritising the public customer.

If leadership takes the lead and makes sure the whole organisation works together – then you're well positioned to accelerate your public-sector sales!

Curious about smart public-sector sales – from market analysis to tender? Book a demo and we'll show you Tendium's end-to-end solution!