When you lose a bid, an existing contract or member of staff do you ever stop and think why that happened, what could have been done to prevent it or whether it is possible to rescue the situation?
To be effective in business it is vital to request / obtain constructive criticism and feedback to understand why it 'happened'.
If we do our job in running a business, we should never have too many nasty surprises but it is easy to take your eye off the ball and find out too late that;
Pricing was a problem
Estimating skills were out
Politics at play
Lack of commitment or quality or understanding
Not listening
Changes in direction
We lost out on a contract earlier this year, one we wanted for many reasons. We were deemed above the line on pricing, but spot on on presentation of specification and above all listening to requirements. We have kept in contact with client for many reasons, but mainly to learn from my/our mistakes.
Friday, we received interesting news - the Contractor has 'defaulted' and I (and one other Contractor) have met with client to discuss taking over at short notice.
Not walking away and keeping in touch has proved valuable to us and the client, he now sees that cheapest is not best if you can not execute on the Contract.
When you lose, it is well worth the effort understanding why....
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Replies
i hope you get the contract at the price you tendered. have lost a few jobs on price alone and noted on on or two of them the original winning contractor is no longer doing the job but the client has never come back to me maybe out of embarrassment? but i do not worry about it usually the time has bean filled fairly quickly
a lot of people fall down on presentation - going to do a quote straight from another job - ie. caked in cement/concrete dust or mud - doesn't give a good first impression right?
equally, i was asked to quote for some artificial grass a month ago, after the sales rep for a big company, and get this - she was a female sales rep (why i highlight this becomes apparent in a minute) said to the female client when she got to the part about bonding the grass 'oh, you had better get your husband out for me to explain this to, it's a bit technical' the husband dutifully came out, listened, looked to his wife and said 'did you understand that dear, went straight over my head' and went back inside.
otherwise the client was happy with the product and the quote - the rep lost it entirely on her presentation. result for me :)