You Didn’t Lose Your Last Bid Because of Price – Part 3: Debrief

We’ve been talking about why you really lose bids and it isn’t because of price. If the prospective client says your price was too high, it means you did not explain the value and why your price is higher. People pay more for quality and ingenuity, take BMW as an example – they’re not the cheapest option.

In the last two posts, we discussed bids in regards to the actual proposal and presentation; this week I want to discuss improving your process with a debrief – win or lose. I suggest having two debriefs, one internal and one with the prospect.

Internal bid debriefs – You probably don’t do these and, if you do, you may not call it a debrief. We like to meet the morning after a proposal goes out and after the presentation to discuss one thing – what can we do better? This is about the process and system. If the printer jammed at the last minute, you need an alternative option (and start printing earlier in the process). It can be small things like blocking off more time in the conference room to practice your presentation or something larger like hiring a presentation coach to improve the team’s speaking skills. Whatever it is, get it out while it’s fresh in your mind, but I do find it is best to do it the next day so ideas are fresh in everyone’s mind and emotions can calm down.

It is one thing to make a mistake, but you don’t want to make the same mistake twice. Continually, improving upon your systems of delivery will increase your accuracy, efficiency, and win ratio.

Debriefing the Prospective Client – This is the better known version of the debrief and seldom used when it isn’t a tight race. Usually a debrief is only requested when the runner up feels something isn’t right. Regardless how you place (if that is even known), it is always good to do a debrief, but you have to stay focused on why you are there. You can not go into a debrief and attack the lost client because you will never change their mind and you’ll only hurt yourself in future bids.

Accept that the bid is done and look to the future. Ask open ended questions like: What made the winning bid stand out? What was your favorite part of the winning team’s presentation? What could we have done better to win this bid? What suggestions do you have for us for future bids with you?

Also, many companies do not do internal or client debriefs when they win because they naively see everything as perfect and are too excited about moving forward on the project. You may only win a bid because you were the best of a lot of bad options (hopefully this isn’t the case). If you don’t ask similar questions when you win, you’ll never know. Ask your new client: What made you select our team? Do you have any suggestions for us on future bids with you? Usually clients are much more open with the winners and willing to talk about the bid, even if it is informally throughout the process of the project.

Remember to continually improve because your competitors are improving, which means they will either catch up and pass you by one day or they’ll get so far ahead of you that you’ll have to settle for their leftover low-bid work.