Search:

'No Bid' isn't the end of the road in sales

In my experience it can often be a brave decision to no bid on a sales opportunity. But, as long as you've come to that decision as the result of a consistent process I guarantee that it will save you and your company lots of time and money and move you away from the "quoting and hoping" mentality that many companies I have come across have.

If you haven't got a consistent process for qualifying opportunities and making the call to pass with a no bid or whether to go for it, then have a search for my other article on this topic and learn the 10 key questions you should be asking yourself before committing your time and energy.

If you do no bid there are still useful activities you can do to make the most of the situation. The following 3 key points will help you build a constructive strategy to help you move forward with a prospect you are targeting.

1) Be open with your prospect:

I have often found that making the offer to no bid can help you strengthen your relationship with a client or prospect because they have to commit time energy and resources to assessing all bids and this could save them time.

2) Explain why you're not bidding:

Explaining your reasons to no bid can often lead to some additional information that could help you in the future. On one occasion I can remember no bidding a communications solution to a large financial institution because we could only offer 75% of the specification - we were then asked by the prospect to partner with another specialist company and do a joint bid, which we ultimately won together.

3) Position yourself for the next opportunity:

Look for valuable inside information to help position you for the next opportunity. It's very easy to just ignore the potential client after no bidding, but I urge you to stay in contact and keep a watchful eye on what happens with the project. Keep asking awkward questions for the competition. I've remember decisions being altered even after letters of intent had been agreed, both in my favour and against me, sometimes in favour of competitors who seemed to appear from nowhere at the last minute. So, be professional at all times, but do what you can to rock the boat.

No sales person likes to make the decision to no bid on a potential opportunity but making that difficult choice on the basis of reasoned and consistent criteria can save you time and energy that could be better invested in other opportunities. So make the decision and stick with it but don't burn any bridges or close any doors after you - successful sales is all about relationships and the 3 key points above can help you use your no bid decision to help strengthen that relationship with the client or prospect.

Article Source: http://www.contentspool.com

Phil Smithers is one of the UK's leading sales coaches, sharing the most effective and powerful sales tips, training and mentoring you need to boost your results and start achieving your goals, right now! If you want to learn more about building stronger client relationships and winning more business profitable business then go to www.doublebubblesales.com/ and listen to an in depth interview with Phil.

Tags: business, bid, sales, decision, tender, opportunity, qualify, competitive, proposal, sales training, relationship

Please Rate this Article

Not yet Rated

Add to Onlywire

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Business Articles Via RSS!

Other Articles From - Home | Business

The Value of Strong Branding By: Alphonse Adams - Branding is the process of creating distinctive and durable perceptions in the minds of consumers. A brand is a persistent, unique business identity intertwined with associations of personality, quality, origin, liking and more. Here's why the effort to brand your company or yourself pays off. 1. Memorability. A brand serves as a convenient container for a reputation and good will. It's hard for customers to go back to "that whatsitsname store" or to refer business to "the plumber from the Yellow Pages.
Tags: business, business, finance, online business, money, marketing, advertising
The Necessity of a Solid Marketing Plan By: Alphonse Adams - There aren't many things in life that you would get into with out a plan. Marketing is no different. Your overall marketing plan should cover about a six month period, and should be made up of weekly and monthly marketing schedules. This is how you do it: 1. Figure out how much money is in your budget. As we all know, marketing of any kind costs money.
Tags: business, business, finance, online business, money, marketing, advertising
The Recipe for Effective Marketing By: Alphonse Adams - Product Your Marketing plan has to be built around your product. But before distribution can begin, market research needs to be performed. Analysing the Market place and researching what competitors are doing will bring perspective to your Marketing strategy and vision. It will also provide key indicators on pricing and potential. Something to consider is your product's life cycle which is important in determining when the market will reject your product. Once a product is launched into the market, a stable growth in sales is common at first.
Tags: business, business, finance, online business, money, marketing, advertising
Next for Your Business: A Marketing Plan By: Alphonse Adams - Many people include their marketing plan as a section in their business plan. Really, though, marketing is important enough that it deserves a plan of its own, separate from the technical details of the business. Here's what your marketing plan should include. Your Marketing Strategy. It might sound silly, but it's good to get the core of your marketing plan written down, just so people can see what the rest of your plan is aiming at.
Tags: business, business, finance, online business, money, marketing, advertising
CoSHH Guidelines - Using Cleaning Products Safely By: Dale Allen - Cleaning products play a crucial part in our daily lives and when you work with them on a regular basis, it is easy to forget how hazardous these products can be. It is crucial that when we use chemicals both at home and at work, we use them safely and effectively, because if we don't then accidents can easily occur. Most products used for cleaning are labelled "corrosive". A corrosive substance is one that will destroy or damage the texture or substance of a body, especially human flesh.
Tags: business, coshh software, coshh assessment, coshh risk assessment, coshh, coshh management, coshh regulations
Getting Quality Printing for Brochures By: Domingo Powers - Compared to any other marketing material brochures are comparatively affordable and have greater pass-on value. Posters can surely grab more attention because of its huge feature and visibility, but they occupy space and are only restricted to just one area. Posters don't move unlike brochures that can travel form one place to another. The edge of this material from the others is that it can be handed out and passed on from one person to another. The affordability of this material had been very helpful for business starters and small businesses.
Tags: business, business, finance, money, marketing, advertising, strategies
Tax Relief Program Information By: pjesse mas - A dependable tax service will analyze your state of affairs by asking you many vital questions about your present tax situation. Then, it'll take the information that you have supplied and find methods that will help you find an option to deal with the back taxes you owe. Typically, the tax service will do the initial evaluation free of charge. After you have decided to make use of the service in your tax problems, then its tax professionals will work diligently to represent you.
Tags: business, tax relief tax lawyers tax attorneys tax attorney tax lawyer tax help tax debt irs tax debt irs tax help tax debt relief offer in compromise irs offer in compromise wage garnishment
Does Your Websiet Create the Buzz you Need? By: Domingo Powers - What makes a site buzzworthy? It's hard to quantify, but it's safe to say that a combination of: - eye catching design dynamic page layout clear navigation audio clips news boxes free give-aways or bonuses regularly updated pages quotes and recommendations as well as great copy, all go together to create a site with the X factor.
Tags: business, business, finance, money, marketing, advertising, strategies
Security for Your Venture, Wireless Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) Signal By: wallacemdob - If you're a small business operator, you keep a great deal of information in your place of work. Information along the lines of trade and industry strategies, and business secrets and techniques could be included in the information that you retain inside your place of work. This is why you want to secure this information and keep it confidential so that you can have the edge against your business competitors. Leaking information can mean disaster and in some cases, it means losing a lot of wealth and risking bankruptcy.
Tags: business, voip calling info, voice over ip, internet phone service, pc to phone
How to Create a Useful Catalog By: Domingo Powers - Catalogs, especially in business sector, are used as a promotion tool to advertise their products, services and also to attract buyers or customers. Catalog can be classified in to two kinds, a software or database catalog and a hard copy catalog. When we say software or database catalog, this is the kind of catalog which is made by computer programmers. As the name implies it can only be viewed by the use of a computer.
Tags: business, business, finance, money, marketing, advertising, strategies

	Print This Article
	Post Comment
	Add To Favorites
	Email to Friends
	Ezine Ready

Submit Articles

Member Login

Top Authors