Business Publications
Winning New Business: the Critical Success Factors - by Colin Coulson-Thomas
 | How to succeed at competitive bidding Most companies adopt losing approaches to competitive bidding, and struggle to win new business despite large expenditures on training, consultancy and software support. Every one of 60 entrepreneurial companies recently visited in the latest stage of a continuing investigation by Professor Colin Coulson-Thomas would like to win more business, yet only a handful of them approach competitive bidding in a winning way. According to Coulson-Thomas, “In the competitive bidding arena a wide gulf exists between winners and losers. They exhibit very different attitudes and approaches.” His investigations reveal why some companies are so much more successful than others. Studies undertaken cover sectors such as construction, engineering, manufacturing, IT and telecoms, and seven professions ranging from lawyers and accountants to engineering and management consultants. The Professor explains “Winners are confident and proactive when approaching those they would like to do business with. They identify prospects that would make good business partners, and ruthlessly prioritise available opportunities. Turning down some invitations to bid allows more effort to be devoted to those retained.” Prof. Coulson-Thomas believes most companies could increase win rates by adopting more of the critical success factors set out in ‘Winning New Business’, a resource pack his team has produced. He explains “Most of the changes required are attitudinal and behavioural and can be quickly made. Winning or losing is a matter of choice.” Coulson-Thomas finds that winners “enter their prospects’ worlds and focus their responses and structure their proposals around prospect needs, priorities and selection criteria. They understand the value and benefits sought by prospects, their business environment, cost of ownership issues and the factors they consider when buying.” The winners are also better at differentiating, building personal relationships and establishing the superiority of their offerings. According to Coulson-Thomas, “they excel at every stage from being invited to bid, through offering support or ancillary services, to negotiating a contract. They understand their prospects’ purchasing decision making processes and the roles played by different individuals within them.” Coulson-Thomas points out that, “winners start with clear objectives. They think through the outcomes and relationship they would like to achieve, and allocate sufficient resources early on to build up an unassailable lead. They remain sensitive to changing buyer concerns throughout the purchasing process, and work hard to establish empathy, build trust and match the culture of prospects. They regularly review their processes and practices, and learn from both successes and failures.” Coulson-Thomas concludes: “Even the winners could do much better. The ‘super bidders’ - the 4% who win more than three out of four of the competitive races they enter - are only very effective at less than half of the 18 critical success factors identified in the ‘Winning New Business’ resource pack. Quite simply, there is enormous opportunity for most businesses to significantly improve their ‘hit rate’." Authors: Colin Coulson-Thomas, Carol Kennedy, Matthew O’Connor, published in association with the Centre for Competitiveness. The Winning New Business resource pack consists of 4 items:
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