Ditch the PQQ 'Scattergun'!

One of the keys to successful tendering is the ability to take a sensible long-term approach. That means developing a strategy that enables you to identify suitable contract opportunities and then implementing a defined process to help produce the responses. In the long run, this strategy should not only help you increase your success rate, but it will also help you save substantial amounts of time and money.

On the other side of the coin, there is a view that there are ‘quick wins’ to be had from submitting as many PQQs as possible, in the hope that at least one makes it through to the next stage. Some refer to this as the ‘Scattergun’ approach.

Writing and producing successful PQQs involves attention to detail and meeting the buyer’s minimum requirements. Adopting an approach where the focus is purely on quantity means that these two areas are more often than not ignored – unless you are the kind of organisation that can afford to employ a large bid team (and at some cost too!).

There are major pitfalls to this approach and it can have many negative effects on a business, including:

• Wasted time, money and resources

For example, if PQQs fall under the remit of a sales team, their focus is no longer on generating new business but writing a speculative PQQ instead.

• Copy & Paste = Poor quality submissions

It’s natural to look for shortcuts when we are busy and tender documents are no exception. However, there are no REAL shortcuts when it comes to producing a winning PQQ. Each one requires differing levels of attention as opposed to “how quickly can I get this one out?!”

• Damaged reputation

In the interests of fairness, each submission is taken on face value. However, if you have submitted a PQQ that completely misses the point and is scored badly, how will it look if in the future if you are stood in front of the same buyer and they have a choice to make between you and a competitor who submitted a more compelling submission?

• Losing focus on potential winners!

If the focus is on quantity over quality then there will no doubt come a time when a tender, that a business has every chance of winning, falls by the wayside because rather than giving it the attention it deserved, there was a whole stack of other, less suitable PQQs that needed completing.

Every organisation is different, as are the industries within which they sit. From our experience here at S2, we find that that the most successful tenderers are those who are selective about the contracts that they go for, a strategy that we encourage others to adopt. In addition, we also like to stress the importance of having a defined process in place to deal with tender opportunities effectively. This enables a business to take full advantage of all of the time available and ensures that only the necessary resources are assigned to a bid.