Smart Bidding - How to Win Contracts

In November 2019, Brighton Chamber of Commerce hosted another sell-out Catch the Wave event. Catch the Wave is a Brighton-based programme of business support. This event involved a panel of procurement specialists giving advice and practical tips on winning contracts from some of the biggest organisations in and around the city. The principles in this information are equally useful wherever you are.

The event was chaired by Emma Mills-Sheffield of Mindsetup, a procurement expert who’s handled large-scale bids of up to $0.5bn. She explained big bids can take up to five years but there are set steps for all tenders.

Panellists’ tips

Susan Carroll from Scala Advance talked about her tender bid experiences and the importance of listening to your gut. Susan advised to think hard about your business and vision to ensure you’re right for the job. Take a big picture view and be proud. Your success can be the client’s success. She recommended adding case studies and testimonials. Even if you don’t win, it’s opening a relationship with a client you may not have had before and it’s worth keeping in touch – Susan did this and it’s proved beneficial.

Karen Brown, Head of Procurement at Gatwick Airport, explained how their £400m annual budget is split. £50m is spent with SMEs and they always try to work with the local economy eg construction, marketing and IT.

Karen advised against bombarding her with emails, instead SMEs can register on https://www.gatwickairport.com/procurement to be invited to tender. Projects up to £50k are dealt with by individual departments, while anything over go through the Procurement Department. If you don’t go on the list, you won’t know about forthcoming tenders.

Julian Wood, Head of Procurement & Insurance Services at the University of Brighton explained that University departments have a discretionary level of £5k with anything over going through the procurement process https://www.brighton.ac.uk/about-us/working-with-us/supplier-information/index.aspx

The University year-end is 31 July so sometimes there’s a small budget to spend, mainly on products.

Julian said he’s happy to chat on the phone about the process rather than get emails, which go unread (we were now getting the message). Again, Julian underlined that bidders need to answer specific questions on tender documents, not offer what you think the client needs, and always keep to the word count limit.

Another site to register: https://www.sesharedservices.org.uk/esourcing, a collaboration between public sector authorities.

Cliff Youngman, Head of Procurement at Orbis, a partnership between Surrey, East Sussex and Brighton & Hove City Council, looks for the best value for money for residents. His team influences a £300m annual spend for Brighton & Hove, plus Adur & Worthing, and overall £1.2bn for Orbis of which £500m is spend with SMEs.

30% of Brighton & Hove City Council budget is spent within the city, 20% with SMEs, anticipated to increase to 50%. Tenders can be broken down into ‘lots’ of specialist areas.

All tendering is now carried out electronically and there are also adhere EU procurement thresholds. Cliff explained Brighton & Hove City Council’s procurement processes and gave his top tips:

·         Read the question and evaluation carefully

·         Respond as asked and don’t make assumptions

·         If you’re not sure, ask

·         Explain how and why

·         Be honest

·         Tailor your response

·         Understand the specification and demonstrate you can deliver

·         Be innovative

·         Social Value adds value

·         Submit the day before the deadline in case of troublesome IT

·         Attend site visits if offered

Responses to questions to the panel

You can influence if you think the tenderer is looking for the wrong thing but always keep to the process, then make suggestions once you’ve won.

Tenders can be from a consortium of suppliers but there should be one lead business. Clients are looking primarily at the financial health of the main contractor to mitigate risk and you must be prepared to be jointly and severally responsible. You must have a clear structure and demonstrate you have necessary resources.

Get expertise like coaching for the pitch or design if needed. Plan carefully so you don’t have to panic at the last moment.

The pitch team should include those working on the project (not marketing people) as clients judge whether they can have a good working relationship.

Bidding is cyclical and you can be asked to bid again in the next round.

Overall, clients are looking for fairness, governance and value for money.

Delegates left the workshop with a renewed awareness and vigour for tendering, and with many useful tips to put into practice straight away.

Jill Woolf is Managing Director of leading strategic PR and marketing consultancy Chimera Communications and a mentor at the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator as well as at the Business Schools of the University of Sussex and University of Brighton.

Sleep Like a Baby, Live Like a Superhero

Chimera Communications' MC and Brighton Chamber Vice-President Jill Woolf recently caught up with Brighton Summit workshop leader Alison Prangnell of Anderida Coaching. Alison is a Master NLP Coach and Clinical Hypnotherapist, with a passion for health and mindset in life and business. Her workshop is called Sleep Like a Baby, Live Like a Superhero.

Alison Prangnell

Here we learn more about Alison and why she wanted to be part of the Summit.

Jill: When, how and why did you become a Stress Management Consultant and Performance Coach

Alison: I started my own business two years ago after coaching part-time around my old day job. I was inspired to work in stress management because of my own journey.

Like many people I worked in environments with a lot of stress, either because of culture and management style, volume of work, or the way I handled it. I got burnout and became pretty ill.

When I had burnout, it was before everyone started talking about it. I went to the GP and all I got was a shrug of the shoulders. It’s better now, I know, but I had to learn from the ground up how to make myself well again.

So, I combined this knowledge with my experience of management in fast-growing SMEs with coaching skills like NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) to help businesses and their people become more resilient and create a culture that doesn’t fuel stress, burnout and illness.

The result is happier, more motivated people and a more profitable business.

Jill: What type of people come to you for help and what are the main causes of their issues?

Alison: I work with senior execs through to anyone experiencing stress in their day-to-day lives.

People believe the major factor in their stress is work, which can’t be denied but what many people don’t have a clear sight of is how many other factors contribute to their stress experience. If you take control and do something positive, you can significantly reduce your stress symptoms by managing all the other factors and become more resilient, physically and mentally.

We can’t eliminate stress, it’s a programmed response to a situation. What we need to get better at is recognising and managing our response to those situations, which is easier than many people think. 

Jill: Do you advocate the old adage that we need eight hours’ sleep?

Alison: The sleep you have and when you need it will vary from person to person and their circadian rhythm. Science supports the idea that most people need between 6-8 hours’ sleep. As most people will have experienced, if you aren’t getting enough sleep your ability to think and make decisions, along with your emotions and energy, will all quickly get out of kilter.

People believe they are still performing but the less sleep you get, the more mistakes you make (as confirmed by a study by The Lancet). There will be other factors that affect your personal sleep requirement including circadian rhythm, metabolism, the level of physical or mental stress you are under, your overall health etc.

There are those who say, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”, feel they are superhuman and don’t need much sleep. It’s a fallacy. Science shows they are shortening their lifespan by restricting their sleep and pushing themselves at maximum for the rest of the time.

Our systems simply aren’t built for it and we start to get ill. It is safer to go by the benchmark of 6-8 hours and adapt according to your lifestyle and physiological needs. It really is that simple.

Putting it even simpler, we teach our children they need sleep. If they don’t get it, let’s face it, they melt down and all hell breaks loose, then we’re desperate to make sure they get the right amount of sleep the next night! Yet as adults we suddenly believe we are now different. We aren’t. Our brains and bodies need to recharge.

Jill: If you’re someone who sleeps badly, can you ever ‘catch up’?

Alison: No, not really. There isn’t a sleep bank you can draw on. If you’re tired, you need to allow your body to sleep. The best advice is if you’ve had a week, say at a conference where you’re burning the candle at both ends, get back into your proper sleep routine with full sleep cycles as quickly as possible. That way your body can get you back on track quicker.

Jill: It’s easy to believe that lack of sleep is a phenomenon which has materialised over the last 20 or 30 years, but has it always been so and we just haven’t talked about it or is it more to do with the increasing use of technology, which was meant to make life easier for us?!

Alison: People have always found it hard to sleep at some time or another, we’re human after all. Particularly in times of stress our sleep can suffer, they can be intrinsically linked. Having said that, some people who are stressed sleep for England. I always did!

Technology is a big contributing factor, it has insinuated itself into our every waking minute and our bedrooms. It’s designed to be addictive, keeping your brains awake even when your sleep cycle needs your brain to start slowing down to get that sleep you crave. Playing on your mobile phone all evening won’t help you sleep better. Period.

But there are so many other factors and that’s why you can’t look at sleep in isolation, it is modern life overall. We have busier lives where we are on the go all the time, desperately trying to balance families and work, invading our personal lives through technology, and we feel like we have too little time for relaxation.

Factor in the explosion in the volume of sugar and caffeine (and alcohol) we have been consuming - all of which are sleep disruptors; even our exercise regimes. We run out of time and try and do a workout late at night which again disrupts our ability to sleep properly.  

If we want better sleep and less stress then making small incremental changes (which we can manage when things feel fraught and we don’t want yet another task on the to-do list) will start making big differences. All of this is manageable even though it might not seem like it at first glance.

Jill: In your opinion, does it follow that the higher up you are in an organisation, the less sleep you get – or need?

Alison: Well if you are an exec who wants to make the best decisions make sure you get some sleep!

But no, however high up in the organisation you are, you’re still a human that needs sleep. It shouldn’t be dependent on the organisation and your rank as to how much sleep you get but if work is giving you sleepless nights, it needs to be addressed.

This applies to everyone though, at every level in the organisation, front line or backstage. Everyone has pressures that apply to them individually. What is certain is that lack of sleep will affect your team’s productivity, engagement and effectiveness. The idea that you should just keep pushing yourself or your employees harder is self-defeating for your business performance, whether you are an exec or an employee.

Jill: Tell me about your workshop for the Summit. Great title, by the way.

Alison: The workshop at the event is a taster of the longer one I offer businesses and individuals. So many people don’t understand all the factors they could change, even just a tiny bit, to get better sleep and a better quality of life.

Improve the quality of your sleep (it’s not always about quantity) and your health, relationships and performance in work, sport or flying the world with your superhero cape can only improve.

Jill: What will attendees get out of the session?

Alison: They’ll understand sleep better and how important it is overall, not just relieving them from feeling frazzled. They’ll go away with quick wins – practical ideas to help them start improving their sleep cycles and energy after the session. Most of all, they’ll learn how they can get greater control over what’s happening rather than feeling at the mercy of the ticking clock by the bedside.

Jill: How do you sleep?

Alison: Very well! I love my sleep. I know I need eight hours’ sleep and I try and manage my days to ensure I get it. If I have an early morning, I go to bed earlier making sure I get full sleep cycles. If I get disrupted sleep, I know there’s something else I need to work on during the day.

Jill: How can we book on to your half or full-day sleep workshops and where do they take place? (I might well see you there soon 😊)

Alison: I offer in-house workshops for businesses and public sessions throughout the year people can book on individually. I advocate the full-day events as you can really start getting down to the details and put a personalised plan together as well as learn some self-hypnosis techniques.

Businesses can contact me directly regarding internal workshops on alison@anderidacoaching.co.uk and sessions are posted on www.anderidacoaching.co.uk New dates are being scheduled at the moment!

 *Brighton Summit is THE business conference for the Brighton area and takes place annually. This year it's on Friday 11th October. See www.brightonsummit.co.uk for more info.

5 ways to improve your customer service and your reputation

You’ve got your branding spot on. You even have a style guide. You’ve got all the employees you need. Your premises look great. Your website is sparkling. You’re proud to be eco-friendly and sustainable, not a plastic straw in sight. You have leads and appointments. You have a sales pipeline. You aren’t worried about cash flow. Yet. You have it all down pat.

What could possibly go wrong?

Have you seen bad press for companies that give poor customer service? How you treat your customers, even just one customer, can have a good or bad effect on your company.

Customer service is about every element of the purchase experience with your company, from the initial research to after-care support. If you have a small business, you’re more likely to be aware of how your customers are treated. If you are at the top of a large company, this isn’t possible. How do you know how your customers are being treated?

The main reason why a customer leaves or doesn’t buy from you again is because they feel you don’t care about them.

How can you show them you care? It’s simple. Provide excellent customer service and be authentic from the top down in your desire to give your customers an excellent experience from start to end, which then becomes the start again – there’s nothing better for the business heart and for the business pocket than repeat customers.

From the person on Reception who chooses whether to acknowledge the customer who has just walked in or carries on talking to their colleague (BAD), to the car dealership which sends you a personalised video every fortnight to let you know how your new car is being built thereby keeping you in the loop (GOOD), it’s a choice each business owner must make.

Show your customers you care

Do you have “We provide excellent customer service” somewhere on your website, in your mission, vision or values? Do you really mean it or is it something you thought you had to put on there?

There are thousands of negative customer service stories on the web but relatively very few positive ones. People tell many more people when they have a bad experience than when they have a good one, and word of mouth counts. I am the sort of person who takes to Twitter immediately I have dreadful customer service because it’s absolutely not necessary and the offending companies need to be outed.

Here are five ways in which you can offer excellent customer service for your customers:

1. Call back or respond as quickly as possible

Doesn’t it make your blood boil when someone promises to call you back and they don’t? In my experience, I always expect the worse then I can be pleasantly surprised when it does happen. I make bets. I’m not often wrong. And isn't it nearly always the mobile phone and utility companies?!

Rather than an empty promise to call back, if you can’t do so with the information needed, then call back anyway and say it’ll take longer. It’s amazing how much this will alleviate stress on behalf of the customer, and it’ll give you extra brownie points in the long run.

With the thousands of emails we all receive, find a way of prioritising the important ones and exercise good time management to get back to the others within a reasonable period, say within two working days. A footer added to your corporate signature explaining this customer service promise will make people aware. It’s good PR.

Ditch those hated automated phone systems. Last week I was holding on for over ten minutes while the message cut in every minute to tell me my call was important to the company. It clearly wasn’t important to the company because if it was, they would have a better way in which to answer their phones. And I don’t mean outsourcing to overseas call centres who can only deal with customer enquiries via scripts. It’s not the customer service assistants fault, it’s the fault of the company which isn’t equipping people well enough to be able to offer excellent customer service.

2. Know your customers inside and out

Great interactions begin with knowing your customers’ wants and needs; what makes them buy; what mood they’re in when they buy; what time of day they buy; and what is it that prompts them to buy from you.

If your business is small enough, get to know your customers, remember their names and previous conversations. If you have a larger business, use an effective CRM system so that when someone calls your company, the person answering the phone can see the last contact with the customer and effectively deal with the query or update them on the previous issue.

3. Be prepared to do something to rectify a problem

One of the best ways to damage your reputation is by not taking responsibility if you get something wrong. And even if you don’t think it was your fault, weigh up the cost of putting it right anyway to avoid a disgruntled customer.

Consider these scenarios:

You buy a relatively cheap bunch of flowers for home from a low-price supermarket. You’ve used the store a fair number of times and you’ve been happy with the quality of the goods. You’ve purchased similar flowers and they’ve always been fine. You’ve never had to complain before. You’re a good advocate of the brand. On this occasion, the flowers died more or less overnight. You couldn’t get back to the store because you were busy and it took several days before you visited. The customer service assistant was arrogant, rude and tried to make you feel small. You complained to the manager who was no better. Is the very small cost of refunding a cheap bunch of flowers worth the rather large cost of the many people you will tell about your experience?

On the other hand, mentioning this to a friend who works for a higher-end supermarket, she said their policy is to immediately refund or replace regardless. Now consider which store you’ll visit in future.

There is a direct correlation to the bottom-line profits of those who offer excellent customer service.

4. Aim for excellent and achieve it

Going above and beyond will not only result in repeat business and happy customers, it will have a positive effect on your reputation, arguably your most important asset. Make sure everyone in your business, whether it’s one employee or thousands, offers the same level of customer service. Regularly do mystery shopping to check. Make it a part of your business culture and get buy-in from everyone from the CEO to the delivery driver. Have consequences if someone lapses and find out why. Maybe there's something you can do to put it right. Always investigate and report back to the customer.

5. A customer is for life not just for Christmas

Think long-term and keep your customers happy, and they will be loyal. Customer retention is so important. It costs much more to locate and convert new leads than it does to retain and satisfy existing customers. It’s a no-brainer.

6. Buy five and get one free!

If your brand is known for excellent customer service always, then there is an argument that says you’ll be able to charge a little more for the privilege or if not that, then customers will buy more from you thereby increasing revenue. 

Either way, it makes sense. Can you afford to get it wrong?

Chimera Communications can help you identify what’s going right and what could go wrong in your organisation. We can work with you to get your internal and external communications right. And we can show you how to make your customer service excellent.

Contact us now for an initial chat on info@chimeracomms.co.uk or 01903 812275.

Popular client misconceptions

I’ve always worked on the premise that my colleagues and I work as extensions to our clients’ own teams, as if they have a PR and marketing department without all the on-costs and employment issues. In the main, this has worked extremely well because there are so many benefits for the client.

There are, of course, some exceptions to the rule. Well, there would be, wouldn’t there?! These take the form of some strange misconceptions that some people have of what working with consultants is all about. I’ll give you some examples of some of the questions or comments I receive …

Will you halve your fee and work for [peanuts]?

Er, no. Would you?

It still amazes me that people expect others to carry the burden of their bad planning, lack of forethought, or queasy management. If you’re setting up a serious business then you need a proper business plan to ensure you know where you’re going and you need a realistic budget to get you there, not least of which to let people know your business is there as well as encourage them to buy from you. You’ll need enough resources so you’re not working 24/7, and an exit strategy in case it all goes horribly wrong.

By the way, it’s perfectly ok to have a kitchen table business and know you want to keep going as a micro-business. If your income pays the bills and you have no desire to scale up, that’s absolutely fine. Whatever works for you.

But please don’t assume you can ask other small businesses (or even larger ones) to work for peanuts because you want the service, expertise, experience and professionalism but don’t want to or can’t pay for it. That’s just not fair, and actually it’s quite insulting. And yet some do. Well, you know what you get if you pay peanuts! Think honestly about how you’d feel if it was someone expecting you to do the same.

I’m paying you but I won’t listen to you

Then you’re wasting your money. When we ask our clients for something, there’s a good reason. When we suggest a different way of doing something, explain to us why it won’t work rather than dismiss it out of hand. We’ll likely have tried it successfully somewhere else or know a business where it’s worked well, hence the suggestion.

If you think you know better than us then again, you’re wasting your money. You’ve chosen to employ consultants, why not focus on running your business and let us take on the job for which you asked. After all, you’re the expert in your business, not us. Let us work with you to help you make more money, be more successful, get better known, or whatever your objective is.

Social media is free so why am I paying for it?

You’re paying for our expertise and experience in PR-led messaging and communications. There’s not only the time spent creating messages and supporting graphics, inputting and scheduling, we build up your follower/fan base, create and join in conversations on your behalf, respond to inbound messages, and manage your reputation this way too. We work to your business plan objectives, goals and targets. We don’t spend oodles of time creating massive reports at the end of the month when you can check your insights for free yourself, but we are continually monitoring what’s happening online for you.

I don’t have time to send you stuff, can’t you do it yourself?

Well no, we’re not mind-readers. You know what’s going on in your business, in your teams, with your clients/customers, and in your industry. We rely on your commitment to the partnership to give us ample input so we can, in return, help you.

On the other hand

These are just a sample of the comments I hear from potential clients. It’s not all like that, of course. We have had and currently have some wonderfully switched-on ones. 

They’re the clients who say:

• What do you need from me?
• I’ve created a really tight brief so you know exactly what we need
• We couldn’t have done it without you
• Our sales are up 40% on this time last year – thank you!
• Wherever we go, people recognise our company name and brand
• We’ve recommended you to our own clients

That’s what we like to hear!

If you’d like to be one of the select band that make up the Chimera Communications client base, get in touch with me now - jill@chimeracomms.co.uk