When he later learned that the firm that got the project had a lock on the deal from the beginning, he asked the purchasing officer why they'd asked him to submit a proposal. The purchasing officer replied, "Oh, we needed to get at least three bids."
You can spot some recruitment notices and RFPs where there are hints that they are going through the motions. Here are a few things to look for:
- Short response time. This favors the person who's known of the project or has worked for them before.
- Abnormally narrow project requirements. Same as above. You can find job announcements that are so designed for a specific person it is surprising they left out the birth date and name.
- Arcane pre-bid requirements. These too can weed out competition from new firms.
If all three are present, alarm bells should be ringing.
1 comment:
It's even better when they pass your proposal around to see if anybody can deliver the same but cheaper....Never submit a competitive proposal early....
We have no control over what somebody else does, do we want to play or not, stuff like this happens everywhere, but what may have been the case for years sometimes the lock opens, because somebody changes jobs or there is an issue with the usual winner. If you have been a long term bidder your straight away in a better position than you were before. Even if you don't win it's an opportunity to showcase your business. Somebody will review your bid and your name will go around.......Develop methods and procedures to spend as little time as possible on bid presentations, especially those deemed to be unattainable....increase your opportunity to be in the right place at the right time, times change, peoples jobs change, companies evolve, but they usually remember those genuine, well presented and prepared people they had personal dealings with in the past. Slow chipping away often can earn big rewards.
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