HOW TO ATTEND A TENDER OPENING (PUBLIC SECTOR)
I do not know about you
guys but I find the journeying part of any process, the most monotonic. The beginning
is well, a little hard but after you begins and before you end is the
period which you may find boring, but is THE
MOST IMPORTANT PART in a tendering process.
In my sales career, I
have had the experience of excellent beginnings neutralized by poor follow up.
And it is here that temperament and the confidence
is necessary. People will try to sledge you so that you lose your
concentration. There are no ground rules here. Everything is below the belt. And
it is here that experience pays.
Therefore,
it follows that it is here, in this stage, that you will be subjected to
ridicule & challenges and as in cricket, it is necessary to keep your head
straight. Think of all those runs you have scored against better attacks (if
you have not, imagine you would have...forget about real life, if you cannot
even DREAM about winning, you are suffering from acute
loser blues! My friend, perhaps you should consider a different career and I'm
not trying to be funny).
I think that before we
move on to another block, maybe we should have a recap. And here goes
Tender Openings: What a specialist does
1.
Be present when the tender is being opened, if it is a press tender.Do not be late.
2.
Try to make a rolling-your-eyes.."young kids really" expression to
the bossman.
3.
Don't antagonize anyone but stand up to get the information you are entitled
to.
4.
If the indentor is known to you, do be in a hurry to end the process, so that
the other guys know the least.
5.
Judge the competition and you have the idea about their bids.
6.
Do not be the first person to leave the room but don't be a pest either so that
they can push you out.
7.
Give interesting technical answers should you get a chance.
8.
Keep your ears in the customer's room. No, I don't mean use the extendable ears invented by Fred and George in "the order of the Phoenix" but think about it and it is possible.
Finally, I forgot to tell
you how to ask for an extension. Irrespective as to whether you are organized or not,
you'll always find that you are unable to complete in time. Send over a fax or an
e-mail asking for an extension because of blah blah( the best excuse always is
to the tender justice). Remember, always ask two times what you want and you
will get it. There is a way to do everything and everything is best done in that way. You should either do it
or learn how the other man does it, and then try it your way. Its the runs which matter, not how they come
ANECDOTE
One of the biggest dealers of KBL once tried his best to get me out
of the race. He could not do anything at the lower level and went up and met the GM of the IOCL refinery. His attempt flopped and I got that order for 2 nos HSC pumps
with drives and accessories, i.e. M+P landed that supply order. I
don't need to mention the dealer's name as the biggest dealers in Assam
and one of the biggest in India. The same company M+P later became a little inedible. but life is like that. Moreover, I was lucky that by the time I quit, I had acquired the rudimentary basics of capital goods marketing. Today M+P market in NE has gone down and the conditions exist which are only a little better then when I was there. It's become the wild west all again
I
guess that does it for today.
See you next time.
Take care and have an awesome day
Bilbo
(I put in the Beatles
photo ‘cos there is a similarity...we are on the road too but specially because I am a fan)
Dear Sir or Madam, will u read my blog
it took me days to write it, I just
slogged.
Its got a number of ads like a flick
Please why don't ya just click....
..Nopaper Blog writer...
Nopaper Blog writer...........
..Nopaper Blog writer...
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