Summer is here (we hear enough in the media about how hot it is!). If most of you are in the starting blocks, dreaming of family vacations and relaxation, this moment of general idleness is the ideal time to reserve a minimum of concentration for business development.
Top of the list of development avenues you can consider: invitations to tender! On paper, it doesn’t look very sexy for summertime (rest assured, with a cocktail in hand, a public market is always more fun).
These calls for tender continue to be numerous during the summer period, with many responses due in August or early September. So here are five reasons why you should consider bidding during the summer:
1. Less competition!
This is undoubtedly the number 1 reason! Many companies tend to slow down their activities during the summer period, which means there are fewer competitors in the fray, but demand is still quite high.
With the baccalaureate results behind us, we’re going to spare you a senior course on supply and demand, but remember that you have a superb opportunity to stand out from the crowd and increase your chances of winning the tender.
From experience, we know that summer is the best time to take your first steps in public procurement.
2. More time to put in a good bid
With a potentially lighter workload during the summer, you’ll have more time to devote to preparing and drafting your tender responses.
In practice, this means that you can carry out in-depth research into understanding the customer’s needs and requirements, refine your costing, gather all the necessary information and create a compelling proposal that meets the customer’s needs.
In short, forget summer tidying and archiving: use this bandwidth to your advantage and submit a winning bid!
3. A good time to network
Summer is an ideal time for networking events, conferences and gatherings organized by public purchasers in cities and local authorities, or by associations and groups of private players such as Réseau Entreprendre, French Tech, BNI and others.
Attending these events can help you make valuable contacts and discover potential tenders.
Establish contacts with public buyers and players in your sector, including competitors who could become partners in a bidding process. Building relationships over the summer can lead to future business opportunities.
4. Fewer internal milestones and blockages
In the corporate world, taking part in invitations to tender is often synonymous with validation milestones (go/no-go, bid/no-bid), various and multiple reviews by finance and legal departments, and so on.
During the summer months, one person’s absence can make another’s day!
Take advantage of this period to try and respond to RFPs and calls for tender that are a little outside your comfort zone, a little further away from your core business today, and project yourself into tomorrow. For example, you can apply for larger invitations to tender, for opportunities that require you to respond as part of a consortium (GME), or for opportunities that call on expertise that is not valued within your company.
5. Get a head start for the last quarter!
Who hasn’t experienced the end-of-year order-taking race? After a restful summer period, after the energy of the vacations, the famous “Q4” is upon us, a period during which we have to perform miracles commercially to meet the year’s objectives and forecasts.
If you think about it, bidding for public contracts during the summer can help you win tenders and get projects that will help you meet (and exceed?) your year-end targets.
This proactive approach, in a favorable context and period (see reason no. 1 above), can give you that little edge that will prevent you from chasing opportunities at the end of the year.
Conclusion
In short, don’t let the heat of summer dampen your sales momentum. Take advantage of the opportunities offered by the summer season, get off the beaten track and explore the possibilities offered by public tenders and contracts.
With less competition, more time to prepare and the opportunity to meet buyers at networking events, July and August are a perfect opportunity to increase your sales and achieve your objectives, while sipping cocktails (let’s keep up the good summer habits).
If you don’t know where to start, or would like a helping hand to make the most of your summer: the Prime Conseil teams are here to help!
