Case Study - Tenders with a Personal Touch

“The tendering process seems anonymous but you can make your business personality shine through and be successful”

For Inge Hill, starting her consultancy PathCreating was a big step, she has a strong track record in consultancy, but ending a spell in the Higher Education environment and moving from London to the West Midlands at the same time made for a lot of changes. As an experienced management consultant she has a lot to offer, including training, facilitation, evaluation and organisational development but was unsure how best to identify new clients.

She approached the tendering process with some suspicion, like many people she felt the process would be very anonymous and that companies with an ‘in’ with the client would most probably win the business. Her experience over the last year though has demonstrated that these barriers can be overcome and having won 3 contracts in 14 months with roughly a 1 in 4 hit rate she now makes tendering a regular part of her marketing strategy.

The key for Inge is to establish as much of a relationship as possible with the tender owner and to only go for tenders where such a relationship is possible and where the feedback she gets suggests that her approach to the contract will be appreciated.

As she says, “I put almost as much effort into selecting the tenders as I do writing responses and I reject many more than I apply for. If I can’t make contact with the client and get a feeling for what’s really required then I just don’t take it further"

This very personal approach has paid dividends for Inge and also seems to have overcome her early fears that moving away from London would make life difficult. With clients as far afield as Newcastle and Lewes in the South East she is happy to work wherever clients need her skills and plans to specialise further to capitalise on the new contacts she’s made.

Inge had experience of the tendering process before joining Skillfair but says that a being a member has openend up different markets and a great additional income source. She is also sharing her expertise by offering offering workshops on successful tendering with public and Third sector across the UK.

As she says, “The tendering process seems anonymous but you can make your business personality shine through and be successful”