Winning New Business... the Critical Success Factors
Why is it that some companies are better at winning new business than rivals - even though their products and services are no better, or possibly not even as good? The answer is simple: they're more skilled and determined in the way they go about bidding for new business.
This management report, based on a detailed research project carried out with 293 companies, shows exactly what it is that those top-quartile companies, which win most of their new-business bids, do that their rivals don't. But the report is more than just a study of bidding trends.
It is packed with the kind of practical advice and help that any company - large or small - can use to raise its own new business performance to best practice standards. The report will help you to identify the key issues to focus on, then use a wealth of detailed checklists to draw up plans and put them into action.
- Authors: Colin Coulson-Thomas, Carol Kennedy, Matthew O'Connor
- Price: £24.95
- Publisher: Policy Publications in association with the University of Luton
- Pages: Paperback 300mm x 218mm
- ISBN: 1 872980 22 8
Contents
Executive summary
1 Winning new business: a global perspective
- Why winning new business is getting tougher
- The research and its methodology
- Meet the superbidders and the rest
- Headlines from the research
- Why the superbidders win more new business than the rest
- What separates the winners from the losers
2 How to win a place on the shortlist
- The three big questions in buying decisions
- Management briefing: Understanding the role of internal stakeholders
- Qualification: selecting and evaluating opportunities
- Winning a place on the shortlist
- Checklist: key shortlist questions
- Shortlist best practice: where the superbidders score
- Management briefing: How to use reputation to build market position
3 Key activities in winning new business
- Five important questions and six vital answers
- Creating a buyer-seller bond
- Understanding the customer's buying centre
- More about buying centres
- Contacting customers
- Communicating key messages about company and product
- Management briefing: Shaping things to come: strategies for creating alternative enterprises
- Understanding the great divide
4 Managing an effective new business team
- Winning new business starts with leadership
- Management briefing: The two-team bidding strategy
- Recruiting and managing a new business team
- Management briefing: International operation and communication
- Creating a winning team spirit
5 Negotiating to a successful close
- What matters when you start to negotiate
- How to out-negotiate the competition
- Checklist: structure, layout and format of proposals
- Setting the negotiation in context
- Management briefing: The art of changing the spec
- The art of closing the deal
- Knowing when to walk away
- Management briefing: Price for profit
- Negotiating a partnership relationship
- Partnerships: comparing the winners with the losers
6 A new model for winning business
- Introduction: learning from best practice
- Model A: the pre-bid phase
- Model B: understanding the client and the buying decision
- Model C: assembling, leading and managing an effective bidding team
- Model D: negotiating to a successful close
Appendix 1 Winning new business checklists
- Checklist 1: Winning new business strategy
- Checklist 2: Target prospects, requirements, sectors and markets
- Checklist 3: Available offerings
- Checklist 4: Communicating corporate capability
- Checklist 5: Competitor analysis
- Checklist 6: Creating initial awareness
- Checklist 7: Importance of competitive bidding
- Checklist 8: Obtaining invitations to bid
- Checklist 9: Evaluating business opportunities
- Checklist 10: Understanding prospects
- Checklist 11: Understanding buying decisions
- Checklist 12: Managing bid teams
- Checklist 13: Formulating proposals and bid responses
- Checklist 14: Pricing proposals
- Checklist 15: Presenting a bid or proposal
- Checklist 16: Negotiating contracts
- Checklist 17: Evaluating bidding outcomes
- Checklist 18: Managing the new business team
- Checklist 19: Managing channel and value chain relationships
- Checklist 20: Managing customer relationships
- Checklist 21: Selecting key accounts
- Checklist 22: Understanding the individual customer
- Checklist 23: Establishing and building key account relationships
- Checklist 24: Locking out the competition
- Checklist 25: Building business partnerships
- Checklist 26: Evaluating and managing key account performance
Appendix 2 Survey questionnaire statistical data
Appendix 3 Further reading
Another book? If you're interested in Winning New Business, you may also find the following useful:
How to Build a Winning Bid Team
Practical advice to improve key skills that help you win more business Read synopsis
The Contract Bid Manager's Toolkit Read synopsis
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