Bid Interview Training

Many clients seeking to procure work are placing increased emphasis on the tender interview in their evaluation models.

The tender interview is increasingly becoming a significant factor in the decision to appoint and clients now typically request to see the staff that will deliver the contract. This means that is no longer possible to send in the ‘Marketing Team’ and most clients are specifically requesting to see key staff such as the Contract Manager, Resident Liaison Officer, Site Manager and, on occasions, frontline Operatives. These members of your team are often ill prepared for the Bid Interview environment and rarely participate in the production of the bid. Their performance in the interview will often have an influential impact on the outcome and the perceived credibility of your bid.

PML has created a training package that can be tailored to meet your specific needs. As an
organisation that is expert in procurement, and which often represents the client, we can train, coach and mentor your staff to outperform the competition when they attend bid interviews. Furthermore, we can help them appreciate the perspective of the client, how to impress resident representatives and the dynamics of working as a team in an unfamiliar environment. Most importantly, we can provide a ‘safe’ environment in which to practice, to get it right and be ready to deliver an excellent presentation.

PML will work with you to create a bespoke package of training to improve your bid interview performance. This can be to support a ‘live’ bid process or as part of more generic training. We can cater for teams of up to 12 staff or smaller groups that will work together in making a specific presentation. We can also undertake specific 1-1 coaching and mentoring.

Where can we help?

PML has extensive experience in all aspects of procurement including:

• Tender Interview Production
• Presentation Skills & Techniques
• Mock Interviews & practice sessions
• 1 to 1 coaching
• Helping you identify your ‘best’ staff
• Sample bid interview questions
• Team dynamics & interview protocols
• Presentation analysis & critique

We can help raise the performance of your bid interview team and specifically help build
the confidence of your frontline team so that they become comfortable in bid interview
situations. By investing in your key staff they will become more familiar with your businessand help you secure more work.

Where do you benefit?

There are many benefits of training your staff to participate effectively in bid interviews.
They will perform better and are more likely to give the client confidence in your
organisation. This may be the ‘single’ factor that determines the outcome of a tender
award.

However, by investing in your core frontline staff, they will develop a better understanding of their clients and residents. Ultimately, this means that they will use every interaction to give positive messages about your business and the quality of service that you provide.

We also believe that this training will help your team to operate more effectively in other
important forums, such as the Core Group or Resident Meetings, as your staff become
more confident and develop better communication skills.

Why PML?

Our directly employed team have a mix of skills and expertise to meet your business
needs. We will put together the right team to deliver the training you need and to nurture
your staff in a challenging yet supportive learning environment. Our team has both strategic and operational experience; and a full range of professional qualifications to create realistic bid interview situations. We can provide a neutral training environment to deliver the training if required.

We are also associated with many best practice organisations so that you can be sure that we have a good understanding of what clients expect. These include:

• Constructing Excellence
• Housing Forum
• PPC/TPC Steering Group
• Asset Skills Council
• Chartered Institute of Purchase & Supply
• British Institute of Facilities Management

The feedback we have had to date is excellent and the organisations with whom we
have worked are performing better in all interview situations and client interactions.

Contact Us

Contact us to discuss the issues that you face and free consultation on the support we
can provide. As standard, we will provide you with a clear project brief with defined outputs and price proposals before we commence. We look forward to discussing how we might meet your business needs and to helping your organisation improve, develop and grow.

Email Kim Newman or Tyron Stalberg, or call us on 020 7256 2216.