Bidding to win-Bidding to win

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The webinar “Bidding to Win,” hosted by Guy Lloyd, featured Sarah Hinchcliffe explaining how successful bidding starts long before an RFP or ITT is issued. She argued that companies should not chase every opportunity, but instead qualify bids continuously and objectively, focusing only on those they can realistically win.  <br /><br />Sarah stressed that selling and bidding should be joined up as one business development process: marketing, sales, capture, bidding, and delivery. She distinguished between bids, proposals, and quotes, and warned against unsolicited proposals, which she sees as risky and often ineffective.  <br /><br />A major theme was the importance of capture work before formal bidding begins: shaping requirements, building relationships, understanding competitors, and creating a win strategy. Once the RFP arrives, teams should not rush into writing. Instead, they should assess the tender, hold a kickoff meeting, plan content, build win themes, manage governance, and only then draft and review the proposal.  <br /><br />She also highlighted common mistakes such as failing to answer the question, being too supplier-focused, and producing feature-rich but benefit-poor responses. Her advice: write customer-focused executive summaries early, ask for win/loss debriefs, and withdraw professionally if an opportunity is not right.

Keywords

bidding strategy

RFP response

capture management

bid qualification

proposal writing

win themes

business development

tender evaluation