Ten tips for winning Government IT deals

6. Leave space for ticks

Like a news story, responses to tenders should avoid long slabs of text.

McNamara said evaluators might prefer summaries with bullet-points that evaluators can tick.

“You can’t tick paragraphs,” he said.

He counsels that SME suppliers should consider that they are helping evaluators if they provide a clear, concise set of promises.

Also consider using flow charts and pictures to break up the text.

“A photo of your workshop floor can convey a lot more than just slabs of prose about the products or support services you might offer,” he said.

If in doubt, go for more white space, he advises.

7. Have realistic expectations about government panels

SME suppliers that are included on panels sometimes burn out by investing too much in a capability on the assumption they will win a lot of business from their newfound status.

Being on a panel is merely “a ticket to the dance”, McNamara said.

In practice, it is rare that anybody beyond the top two or three companies on a panel get the majority of the business.

The rest, he said, will continue to miss out unless they find ways to continually engage with the Government client.

8. Choose partners carefully

A major issue for an SME as a subcontractor is partnering with a larger vendor without due care.

Some SME suppliers have negotiated deals with larger prime contractors without reading the fine print and have effectively lost ownership of intellectual property.

“You could sell the farm very quickly, if you are not careful,” McNamara said.

He said it was important to understand that a prime contractor likes to have two or three companies that perform the same basic function for them – at times in competition. SMEs need to take care to check whether the prime has done an exclusive deal with them or the same deal with three or four others.

SMEs also need to work to develop the trust of the prime contractor such that the large organisation believes that the smaller can deliver.

“You need to demonstrate that,” McNamara said. “Get referee reports from people you have done some work with. That weighs very heavily in our experience.”

9. Get it right the first time, on paper

Orals (or in-person presentations of responses) are not often used, in McNamara’s experience.

He said bidders should avoid using oral presentations to vary or amend a response.

“That would seem disingenuous and a client would conclude you don’t know what you are doing,” he said. "You are moving the goal posts. You would not want to do that.”

The tender response has to be as close to perfect as it can be. Any mistakes you let by will come and bite you, he said.

10. Learn from your success

While it seems standard to request a debrief from an agency to learn from your failure to win, McNamara is astonished by the SMEs that fail to request a debrief when they succeed.

“A smart SME tenderer will insist on a debrief as to why they won - and what issues may have counted against them - to indicate areas they need to improve upon,” McNamara said.

Debriefs of successful tenderers should happen more often, McNamara said.

“It is an important first step in getting the confidence of your client. Not only can you do the things you are good at, but you’re keen to address any perceived weaknesses. That’s really important.”

Do you have any further advice you can contribute? Please comment below.