We’re delighted to bring you this blog co-written by BidWrite consultant Anne-Marie Tripp and Sue Papadoulis – Journalist & Founder at Profile Media, one of our key strategic partners. Profile Media uses its PR expertise and media networks to assist with pre-tender strategic profile building and market positioning.
At first glance, public relations and tendering seem worlds apart. But if you scratch the surface, you’ll quickly see some shared traits. These translate into advice that works equally well for public relations and tendering alike.
Let’s have a look at this advice and, more importantly, what you can do with it to improve your tendering outcomes.
Opportunities are meaningless without readiness
Many of you will be familiar with the old saying that “success is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” – so much wisdom wrapped up in eight simple words! This is especially true for public relations and tendering.
From a public relations perspective, the first time many businesses engage a PR firm or start focusing on media outreach is when they want to make a significant announcement.
Even if it is a good story – like launching a new community initiative – if you’re not conducting PR activity on a regular basis, you won’t have accrued any media capital. The media won’t know who you are. They won’t have any context on why you’re important. And you won’t have any media relationships that might help tell your story.
For these reasons, ad-hoc attempts to get media exposure aren’t likely to get the results you want. But if you are consistently providing thought leadership, analysis, and sharing your expertise with the wider community, the opportunities it can present are only limited by your willingness and ability to capitalise on them.
Growing your business gets easier when more people know who you are, and more people respect your expertise. Consistent PR is a fabulous tool to achieve these goals, making an excellent companion to another major element of business that performs better with preparation – tendering.
For many organisations, responding to an RFT (Request for Tender) means scrambling to get a submission together by the deadline. It can be a rushed, stressful process and if that happens you know your submission won’t be as competitive as it could have been.
Contrast this with well-prepared organisations. They undertake ongoing and meaningful networking with industry contacts. This provides valuable insights into market trends, upcoming projects and any regulatory changes. Importantly, it also increases their credibility and visibility as a reliable, knowledgeable and capable partner.
Building stronger relationships with clients also provides an opportunity to understand their real (and often unstated) pain points, needs, and expectations. Consequently, when a tender does come to market you will know about it in advance, and you can use the knowledge gained through client relationships to tailor your tender response precisely and without guesswork. Plus, those relationships will make you a known entity which can reduce perceived risk in the mind of your buyer.
The best time to get ready was yesterday
Imagine that the busyness of life has trumped chores, and you’ve let your house get messier than you’d like. But then a fussy friend announces a surprise visit. Suddenly, tiding everything up is now urgent – and you’re still busy. As a result, you’re not going to do a great job, and when your friend arrives, you’re going feel stressed from the pressure of being rushed. You know it would have been so much easier if you’d just stayed ahead of the chores in the first place! The same applies to public relations and tendering.
Getting PR-ready
We’ve already covered the fact that your desire to gain exposure for your story through media coverage isn’t enough to make it happen. You first need to lay the foundations that enable it to happen. So what does this look like?
- Decide what you want to achieve from any media exposure. This helps you build your media strategy.
- Meet with a public relations agency to discuss your objectives.
- Once your objectives are understood, the agency can research channels, titles, and stories likely to resonate with your target audiences.
- Let the relationship building and content production activity begin.
It’s important to note that this is not a set-and-forget process. It requires an ongoing commitment and reflective iteration to help build momentum.
Getting tendering-ready
Tendering is deadline driven. The earlier you start, the more time you have. Early, structured and ongoing preparation ensures that your tendering resources – both human and material – are aligned, available and ready before the tender opportunity hits the market.
Here’s a list of things you can do before even seeing the RFT documents:
- Ensure you have the right team and capabilities in place to create a compelling response.
- Assess how you stack up against your likely competitors – in ways that matter to your buyer.
- Obtain an independent view of how your financial position presents to evaluators in the event you are shortlisted.
- Secure any required or likely security clearances, quality certifications or insurances.
- Plan for any PR activity you need to undertake to position yourself favourably.
- Update your library of company documentation, case studies, key personnel CVs, and standard operating procedures, plans and policies.
Not being prepared can make for a stressful, frantic tendering process. At worst, you may not even make it to the submission box on time.
Don’t let the urgent trump the important
It’s easy to overlook activities that don’t have an immediate payoff, only giving them attention when there’s a deadline or a pressing need. But this ad hoc, reactive approach commits you to a self-perpetuating cycle.
Breaking it is possible, but it requires an understanding of the value that integrated and longer-term planning brings.
It also requires you to shift perspective – to view public relations and tendering as perennial activities. We’ve helped clients shift past the trap of immediacy. It yields wonderful results.
Good PR preparation gives you the opportunity to influence target-client perceptions through stories that matter to them, through channels they trust. This pays off when your targeted tendering opportunities arise.
And rather than reacting to individual tenders as they come to market, taking a longer-term approach to your tendering – one characterised by planning and developmental needs – puts you in a stronger position to make the most of the opportunities when they do arise.
If you’re puzzled about what purposeful preparation looks like, and how you can make public relations and tendering perennial priorities in your organisation, call Profile Media or BidWrite for further information.
We know how all the pieces fit together, and we’re happy to help.
RELATED VIDEO: Check out this webinar recording – How Strategic Reputation Building Helps You Win Tenders – where BidWrite’s David Lunn is joined by Profile Media Founder Sue Papadoulis and Mackenzie Marine & Towage CEO Paul Mulholland to discuss their case study of combining a powerful PR strategy with tendering support to secure a high-value contract.
