Having a good price — often, the lowest price — is the fourth-most important thing in winning bids.
“What?!?” you (or your sales manager) cry. “Price can’t be fourth.”
Well, yes it can.
First, you must meet schedule, so they accept your proposal submission.
Second, you must comply with all submission mandatories, so they look at your technical proposal.
Third, you must score well by offering a solution that responds well to the technical requirement, in a compelling and persuasive manner, so they look at your price.
Which brings us to fourth place – you must have a good/low price, so they award you the contract.
How do you get to low price? Well, it doesn’t fall from the sky and it doesn’t rely only on the technical solution. Instead, it requires a concerted, disciplined focus on three things:
- Meet only the client requirements stated in the RFP
- Scrutinize the contingency factors
- Manage your markups for overhead and profit
Companies that win consistently are the ones that implement a strategy that accounts for all three factors.