Bidding for contracts: transformation through speech
objectives
- Present convincing arguments to potential clients.
- Make the verbal presentation unique from the written offer
- Empower managers to bid professionally while improving their client relationship skills.
targeted skills
- Structure the bid.
- Choose your best people to make the presentation.
- Create a compelling message.
- Know how to manage your audience
what's at stake
If a verbal presentation in support of a bid is prepared at the last minute it will have little or no structure and it will most likely be rejected.
A verbal presentation should never be a word for word regurgitation of the written proposal. Besides taking far too long, it is in no one’s interest to say absolutely everything. Also, the audience is likely to be a broad spectrum of decision makers: senior management, accounts, maybe even a partner. They are unlikely to be as specialised as the initial contacts.
But these are the people who will make or break a bid. Too much detail and too much jargon will bore them and also provide them with opportunities to trip you up.
What is needed is a well thought-out strategy backed up by a clear and well structured message, with the right priority given to the most pertinent information.
method
Each filmed session is led by a journalist and a business coach. They show the team how to structure a bid using journalistic techniques, how to supplement the bid with concrete examples, figures and anecdotes, while selecting only the most pertinent details.
This is followed by practise presentations in front of a camera, and finally, using role-play situations, the participants learn how to handle different audience profiles - the ally, the supporter, the critic and the opponent – effectively
