Summer is here (the media keep telling us how hot it is!). Most of you are on the starting blocks, daydreaming about family holidays and downtime, and that general lull is precisely the ideal moment to set aside a little focus for business development.
Top of the list of avenues open to you: tenders! On paper, nothing very glamorous for the summer season (don’t worry, with a cocktail in hand a public procurement contract always looks more appealing).
Tenders remain plentiful over the summer, with many bids due in August or early September. Here, then, are five reasons why you should consider bidding for tenders over the summer:
1. Less competition!
This is unquestionably reason number one. Many companies tend to slow down over the summer, which means fewer competitors in the running but demand that stays strong.
With the A-level results behind us, we will spare you a sixth-form lesson on supply and demand, but remember that you have a superb opportunity to stand out and improve your chances of winning the tender.
From experience, we know that summer is the best way to take your first steps in public procurement.
2. More time to submit a strong bid
With a potentially lighter workload over the summer, you will have more time to devote to preparing and writing your tender responses.
In practice, that means you can research the client’s needs and requirements in depth, refine your pricing, gather all the information you need and build a compelling proposal that answers the client’s needs.
In short, forget the summer tidying and filing: put that bandwidth to work in your favour and submit a winning tender response!
3. A good season for networking
Summer is a good season for networking events, conferences and gatherings organised by public buyers from cities and local authorities, or by associations and groupings of private-sector players such as Réseau Entreprendre, the French Tech networks, BNI and others.
Attending these events can help you build valuable contacts and uncover potential tenders.
Build relationships with public buyers, with players in your sector and even with competitors who, in a tender, can become partners. Relationships built over the summer can lead to future business opportunities.
4. Fewer internal gates and bottlenecks
Inside a company, bidding for tenders often goes hand in hand with approval gates (go/no-go, bid/no-bid) and multiple reviews by finance, legal and others.
Over the summer, the absence of some can be the good fortune of others!
Use this period to try bidding for tenders and RFPs that take you out of your comfort zone, a little further from today’s core business, so you can look ahead to tomorrow. You could bid for larger tenders, for opportunities that call for a consortium bid (GME), or for opportunities that draw on expertise not yet showcased within your company.
5. Get ahead for the final quarter!
Who has never lived through the year-end scramble for orders? After a restful summer and a holiday that has recharged your batteries, along comes the famous “Q4”, a period when the sales side has to work miracles to hit the year’s targets and forecasts.
As it happens, bidding for a public procurement contract over the summer can help you win tenders and land projects that will help you reach (and beat?) your year-end targets.
This proactive approach, in a favourable context and season (see reason 1 above), can give you the slight head start that saves you chasing opportunities at the end of the year.
Conclusion
In short, do not let the summer heat break your commercial momentum. Take advantage of what the season offers, step off the beaten track and explore the possibilities of tenders and public procurement contracts.
With less competition, more time to prepare and the chance to meet buyers at networking events, July and August are a perfect opportunity to grow your revenue and hit your targets, all while sipping cocktails (let us keep the good summer habits all the same)
If you do not know where to start, or you would like a hand so you can still enjoy your summer, the Prime Conseil teams are here to help!