The construction industry is a high risk business but one that is synonymous with low profit margins that have been driven down through competitive tendering…and it’s not the only one.

But you know how it is…you submit your tender and line up with all the others hoping that the client will choose you. The difficulty is that your competitors offer what appears to be the same service, which makes it hard to choose and so it all comes down to price.

And when buyers dictate that you must bid a very low margin to get the work, your profit benchmark has already been set and there is very little you can do to improve matters. I’m sure that you’ll have read in tender documents that the client says they will pick the ‘most economically advantageous tender’…but what does that really mean?

I’ve spoken with lots of procurement professionals and most tell me that they want to get the best value for money solution within their budgets, for the minimum risk. However, I know that some see this as being the lowest price and will not consider the added value you offer, so it’s important to remember that…

Price is only important when there is nothing else to talk about…

Increasingly, major frameworks and large contract agreements use judging criteria that combine quality and financial assessments. But if you’re not in this market is there anything you can do? The simple answer is…

Yes!

Your job is to get your potential clients talking about other issues well before they decide to issue a tender or draft the questions they will judge you on. This is a crucial part of the bidding process and one that is often missed out. When you get this right you can shift the ‘price driven buyer’ to become one who buys using a balance of value and price…which can bring shared benefits to all parties.

To do this, you have to understand your market and the issues that are affecting your clients today, and likely to do so in the future. Once you’ve identified the things that are important to them you’ve got to come up with your own creative solutions. The important thing is not to wait for them to tell you how they want you to tackle these issues but to continually evolve your approach through new and inventive ideas. Develop your own solutions that work for your clients to reduce their costs, but not your profit margins, and work for your business too.

I’ve previously talked about using the 3Ps Process to tell your story in a way that is easily and quickly understood. When you use this approach you will take your audience on a journey of discovery from their Problem to your Product (your goods or services) and finally to their Purpose, which is the benefit they want to achieve…even if they don’t know it yet! (Check it out in our free guide here). This will get them talking about the other issues they ought to consider before they issue a tender enquiry.

Now, don’t be afraid to share your ideas and solutions widely…you want to change the thinking in your market, so that includes your clients and your competitors. If you get yourself ahead of the game then others will have to play catch up and your clients will see that you are leading the way. They’ll recognise you as the natural industry expert and may even ask you to help draft the tender enquiry…doesn’t happen? Well, this is exactly what happened to one of my clients who surprisingly won that contract!

The problem is that most people can only realistically manage around five clients effectively, so they tend to focus on the immediate decision makers and often neglect the influencers and rising stars. But these wider groups can become your clients of the future and they will certainly shape the market in the shorter term.

To address our needs on this issue we developed our own Digital Marketing Solution to engage with our direct clients whilst ‘speaking’ with thousands of others every week. It’s been so successful that our clients are now asking us to devise similar solutions for them. We’re in the process of finalising this now and will launch this new product soon…so watch this space!

But don’t you delay…start to identify your clients issues, find your solution and start telling them about it today. Use LinkedIn, direct email, face to face meetings and any other way you can think of to get your message out there and change buyers minds.

Top Tips
Consider the challenges your clients are likely to face in the near future; perhaps some change in legislation or a stricter quality standard. Brainstorm your solution with your internal team to devise an inventive approach that is new to the market…and now start telling your clients and influencers about it…again…and again…and again!

Please Share!
Our growing band of like minded people has an appetite for learning new ways of winning work and I’d like to know how common this issue is. Please share your experiences so we can all continue to learn and improve how we work.
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