CPD Seminar Summary
Tender Team CPD Seminar, May 11th Hampton Hotel, Dublin
Date: May 28, 2010 Author: Wayne Dignam
'Communication without a strategy is like throwing darts blindfolded, just less likely to hurt your audience’
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| Pauric Marray of Consultants Quigg Golden, talks about Remedies Directives |
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| Joe Power, talks about Business Development. |
Tender Team hosted a CPD Seminar at the Hampton Hotel on Tuesday May 11th 2010. It was well-attended with almost forty attendees ranging from solicitors, accountants and quantity surveyors to energy companies and product suppliers.
The theme for the day was about winning contracts through your proposals, be they tenders or prequalification submissions, after all, the only reason we write proposals is to win more business! Delegates learned from our expertise in this area, we provided an insight and strategies that delegates can use to improve proposals.
The day began with my introduction to the rules and regulations of public procurement. What the rules are from the European Directives mean and how they affect you as a supplier. Delegates were surprised to hear the importance of Debrief Meetings with contracting authorities and how they can be of enormous benefit.
Then our guest Pauric Marray from Quigg Golden Consultants spoke about the recently implemented Remedies Directive and how that will affect the way contracts are awarded in future. Delegates were surprised to hear about their new entitlements to review of a decision if they do not win contracts in future.
Our Bid Manager Lorraine spoke about Tender Management and how to save time and money in putting professional bids together. Too often we see managers spending hours unnecessarily on tender management when a lot of the work could be delegated with the right tools for others to follow. Lorraine gave an excellent presentation on best-practice tender management and how to answer a question correctly. Delegates learned how to devise a strategy for winning, a plan for developing the proposal and how to deliver the message that makes it easy to evaluate.
Following our networking break Joe and Caroline provided an excellent presentation on performance management – how to define your previous experience for tenders. Delegates received a unique insight into what evaluators expect when they ask the question: ‘Applicants must demonstrate a professional approach as determined by the Department’s assessment of a firm’s quality control system, planning procedures, audit methodology, documentation and review practices, estimated resources proposed, client service standards and procedures to ensure timely completion of deliverables’. What a question to ask, how do we answer that?
Finally Brian gave a presentation on designing and packaging your bid, a very important topic and ignored by so many companies. Graphics are one of the most effective ways to persuade the prospect to select your solution by conveying both facts and emotion. Delegates learned the basic rules in packaging a professional bid and Brian’s style of presentation was a nice way to finish the presentations.
Plenty of questions and answers followed, with excellent feedback from delegates afterwards. A morning well spent by all.
