How a buyer trusts a supplier – building a credible offering

Today we are talking about how MOD decides whether to trust an SME, and how that judgement shows up in bids. We focus on how trust, clarity, and risk perception are formed, before we get into the mechanics of a technical proposal in the next episode.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

So hi, I'm Stu Alden.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

And I'm Georgina Wilson, I Lamar. And together we present Advanced a Contract, the podcast series where we explore how SMEs can break into, engage with, and secure contracts in the UK defence sector.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

So join us as we share insights, strategies, and real-world experiences to help you navigate this very complex uh but at the same time rewarding market. Welcome back to Advanced to Contract, the podcast that helps innovative engineering and technology businesses navigate the defence sector and most importantly wind work. I'm Stu, and with me is Georgina. Welcome back, Georgina. Today we're talking about how the MED or a Prime decides whether it trusts the buyer that it's it's buying from, be that an SME or another Tier 1 or Tier Two organization. We're trusting, we're focusing on that trust, the clarity, the risk perceptions that are formed of that particular company. But before we get into uh the mechanics uh of that, uh we will touch on technical proposals uh in the next episode that that we do. Yes. But today is all about that um that trust and and how that organisation decides how it's gonna uh buy. So let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Yeah, it's going to be a big one, it appears. Yep. So hi everyone. Um so yeah, as uh Stu said, our uh theme is positioning SMEs as trusted enablers rather than just suppliers. I think this comes off the back of I guess from your research and experience of uh what the MOD is looking for, isn't it? Yep. A lot of the time it isn't just suppliers, it's actually partners. Yep, absolutely. Definitely. And so the objective of this episode is to coach SMEs to move from product selling to capability partnering uh by showing how the MOD assesses clarity, risk, uh, and trust through capture led engagement uh and reposition SMEs to think, talk and show up in MOD engagement before the tender and inside the bid. Um, Stu, um as always, let's start with a few opening questions. Look forward to that. Um so I guess from a capture lens perspective, before you speak defence language, uh you need to know which voices matter the most, who's got the biggest say. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so um how how does that work? What are your thoughts on how that can work?

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Yeah, so I I think the the people you need to consider when you're when you're bidding in or looking to bid into a particular opportunity. Um there's four main categories really. One is who influences the requirement, uh, and that's generally engineering. Um, so they'll be looking at um what capability they need an organization to deliver uh and depending where you sit in the supply chain, that'll depend on the sort of type of capability you're delivering. Um there is also the end user, so uh you know what what requirements are you delivering that they that they need in order to do their job and and perform operationally. Um, but also uh if you're feeding into the supply chain, you need to think about the end uh MED procurement. How can you make their life easier, even if you fit feeding directly into the MED, or how do you make your your customer that's feeding into the MED's life easier? Um secondly, there's who signs off the budget, so most importantly, money makes the world go round. Um that's generally in the procurement area uh of an organisation you're you're buying, uh you're selling to, be that the MOD or or a prime. Um but that's usually it's not an individual, it's usually a team decision. Uh so when you're putting in your bid, uh you need to be very aware that that bid might get chunked up and given to various people to mark uh so that you've got to understand um that you are articulating correctly in each section uh and answering the the question that's been been asked. So um and the budget aspect is probably spread across quite a wide area. So are you giving value for money uh not just the figure that you put at the bottom of the bid that that you are pricing it at? Thirdly, I think it's who feels the pain of the current problem, and that's generally the end user uh and whether you've got a sponsor uh for that end user. Um and uh having a sponsor really, really does help you to get a high scoring bid because if you've already engaged, as we've talked before in previous episodes, with the end user and got their uh their buy-in to that particular capability or or service that you're delivering, then that adds a lot of value to the to the bid. And then finally, um, who will be that end user of it? So who will use it, who will support it? So it's not necessarily just uh the operator of the equipment, but it's how easy it is to support and maintain, um, how is it to train on? So you've got to think about quite a lot of things when you're uh when you're delivering um a capability. So if uh Georgina, if you don't know what each stakeholder cares about, the stakeholders we just talked about there, um, and you you can't speak their language, how does you've talked about uh cap uh capture plans before previously? How does you put in a capture plan enable you to articulate that?

SPEAKER_01 6:03

That's a good question, isn't it? Stu, yeah. I'll get out my um what are they called? Not magnifying glass, um snowball. Yeah, a future one. Um I think a lot of it comes down from my experience to the ability to make assumptions. I think I know it is controversial because quite often I've led bid teams where assumptions are not welcomed, right? But actually we need to be able to make assumptions to progress. So um, you know, informed assumptions of course, and you know, justifiable with a rationale, but it it creates a baseline. So we need to have a baseline view of what are the as you said, those four the category, uh the four categories, what are the requirements, the needs, the pain points, all those um the information basically, the insights on those. Um and then that capture plan will identify those gaps. So I think it's quite normal at the start, isn't it? Where we'll notice a lot of gaps, but not to be afraid of that, but it's important to know that they're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

So writing it down helps you to identify that. Yes, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

And so then if there's a gap in perhaps the technical piece, we'd we're not fully sure of the system it's going on to or whatever, that that can then be a clear action from the capture plan, we'll go and seek that information out. Or if the bid's coming in that we know about and we still need to progress and it's the right opportunity, then what assumption can we make on a baseline view of that? Uh, you know, that will still move us forward, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Yeah, yeah. So so if you're looking at that um uh those gaps in the area, that would actually naturally force you to identify uh or or to try and find out who you need to speak to. Uh and then you're going back to those four points of finding out who's the enabler, who's the blocker, um who's who's the who's the the the individual with the information that you need to seek. Definitely.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

I almost the point where I welcome gaps, you know, quite often. Uh there may even be a gap log uh where I encourage teams to put what are the gaps of information because I think quite often we can try and you know we like to cover that up and it's seen as a negative, but actually I I've seen the stronger capture teams and bid teams have gaps, right? Um but knowing about it means hopefully we've got some time to to close that.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Not just assuming that you've got everything covered in your internal organisation. Yes. And I guess also you might um identify partners that you might need to bring in because definitely you as a company might not be able to cover all of that.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Yes, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

So, Georgina, continuing on from there, um some organisations uh sort of do the hard sell. Uh so it's all about the technology, it's all about the product. Um you know, we always say to clients, defence doesn't work with hard sells, uh, it's more about a holistic solution. So, how do you get on the same page as a buyer to ensure that you're covering all aspects of your proposal?

SPEAKER_01 9:11

I've seen it work really well when there's the focus on or the focus shifts from features to actual benefits. Right, okay. Yeah, so that aligns, I think, most well with like the the evaluators or the people reading, whatever it is, if it's a proposal or a brochure during the procurement process. Yep. Um so and also outcomes. So what are the outcomes that the features enable? I think that's like a key one. And I've worked with teams that I know you would have, Stu, where you go through well, these are the features and this is the benefits, and then so what? What does that mean for the customer? So it's about putting that into the submission. Um, I think that signals maturity and a customer focus, which is what's as we've said already, isn't it, which is really needed, and not a sales pressure, okay, which is really good.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Um what you're not doing is you're not sort of putting a load of spec sheets uh in and saying this is the technology, this is better than anything else. So what you're doing is thinking about it, as we said before, from the customer's perspective. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

And depending on compliance, yeah, we could put those spec sheets in an appendix or somewhere, but but they're not the lead. Yeah, exactly, they're not lead and not the main focus. Yeah. It's about making it as an easy read as um possible. Okay. And um, I think as well, speaking in terms of like the operational benefits, um, I think you as you've touched on before, about being faster or cheaper, uh safer, like more reliant uh or reliable, um, how you know how the features enable that to be.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

But also, I guess it's not just stating that, uh it's having the evidence to back up that you are more agile, quicker, faster, cheaper. Um and again, that comes back to uh evidence.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Yeah, and the I guess the competitive insights as well, isn't it? Looking at what the uh competitor performance is or competitor, whatever that is, how you benchmark yourself against other competitors. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

And being honest, I guess, as well. Um definitely you know, because you're not gonna be uh high scoring in all areas, but as long as you say how you intend to make up maybe some deficits in some areas by maybe sort of improving the technology in a in a in a roadmap for for uh development or or bringing in a partner that you can use to supplement that area. So cool.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Yeah, that's that's right, Stu. Um so yeah, so a good bid answer. Why does this matter to MOD, not what the product does? I think is a good summary. Yeah, that's a good one. Um so if we move on to something that's good, we've established it's about the outcomes. We move on to aligning those outcomes with the MOD strategy, um, how do you align or how would you recommend um SMEs align with the buyers strategic objectives, etc.?

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Yeah. Uh we always talk about this uh triangle, so time, cost, and performance.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Um so if you look at the time area, it's you know how quickly can you deliver that capability um at a level that uh is acceptable uh and readiness. And we you know we've heard uh before about gold plating solutions and you know um getting everything everything right, but but within defense it's all about timeliness to deliver. You know, there may be an operational requirement for that capability to be delivered now. Um so sometimes an 80% solution is good enough. Um as long as it's safe, as long as it's reliable and it you know it does what it says on the tin. Um you can get it out there and being used by the end customer or you know, the troops on the ground, who can then provide you feedback and you can iterate uh the design and the development of that product, maybe through hardware or software upgrades. So um that's the time bit. Um uh the cost piece, um, value for money we've talked about before, but it's not also just about the unit price cost of a of a uh of a solution. Think about the whole life cost. Um, it's it often the cost of supporting that equipment through life uh far exceeds the actual initial cost of the individual uh equipment themselves. So you've got to think about uh that complete cost and the and the end customer will want to understand what that complete cost is to support. There's no point delivering a uh a cheaper uh option if it costs more to support when it's in in operation. So and then finally the the performance piece um uh touched on it a bit in the in the time uh area that I described. How can you uplift uh that performance from that initial operating capability, maybe that 80% solution, but it is it modular and able to be adapted and and upgraded uh through time such that it's gonna keep uh it's gonna keep keep relevant uh within the operational environment. So that's quite key to understand how you can keep that uh that capability going through uh whatever uh operational requirements are needed. So yeah, I think that's that's where I'd focus on that time cost performance triangle. Um so back to you, Georgina. If you haven't worked in this sector before, um and we talked about language, defence language before, and how you use that, how do you how do you use that language and how do you get on the same page as as your your buyer?

SPEAKER_01 15:13

So I've seen it, I guess, best used when that language and insights from the capture pre-market engagement phase is incorporated into messaging, which is all about clarity, you know, simple, non-jargon, very just clear to the point. So I think that's what works really well and comes across best uh to the customer. I guess using any sector-specific acronyms where needed that we've touched on. Um and then anything that you can do throughout the process to show that we get we get it, whether that's the operational challenge, commercial challenge, no matter or depending on the type of question and where we are in the process. So if that's an RFI demonstrating that we understand the process and we can feed into that, or if it's an ITT submission, you know, really str strongly following um the bid requirements against the evaluation criteria. Right. So yeah, so it depends on that.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Um so on that evaluation criteria, you're you're talking about how the the bid is going to be marked and assessed. Yeah. Um and often a lot of people don't look at that, they they just answer the question how they think they they want the question, uh they think the question should be answered. Um so you're saying that look at how many marks are allocated to which part of the bid and which is which are the key parts to get right, is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Yeah, and there's there's some depending on I guess the type of procurement, I've seen some really um they wacky mathematic equations, you know, like where you get them. And you can reverse engineer those to see where well, I guess what's most important to the customer, especially when business development or customer relationship maybe has been a bit lacking or where you'd you know maybe don't have as many insights from it. You can really deep dive into the ITT and see well, why has a customer put 30% on this? Because it's of course more value. Uh, and then you can do an assessment of well, pay more attention to this and this, and then that gives you the a quote. Um and it's also really interesting for the review process. We'll come on to this into the technical proposal episode, but we can also use that evaluation criteria to assess you know the review of the technical proposal as well.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

So you're talking sort of red team in if if the red team uses that scoring matrix and goes through your your proposal, you're then marking your own homework before you put it in front of the client. Yes. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Against what Yeah, that's against what they need is going to look at, yeah. Okay. Um yeah, that I think that's uh that works really well. Yeah, definitely. Um and I think from the uh customer evaluation criteria as well, I think it's worthwhile noting that we're often in a position where we're bidding against like business to business, aren't we? Where in private sector procurement there isn't always an evaluation criteria. So I often encourage teams to create their own evaluation criteria just based on that customer insight's competitive insight. So again, it's assumptions. Uh but it is it gives something to target, doesn't it, rather than just like you said, write in the answer kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

So I guess that's where experience and relationships that you've built with the end customer really helps as well. Because if you don't know your end customer, you can't un you can't sort of second guess what they think what what they think is important.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, it comes to bear. Yeah, absolutely. Definitely. In summary, um, in terms of MOD friendly language and clarity being like really key, um, I think it also signals confidence. It shows we're a confident supplier, but then it also conveys confidence to the um MOD or Prime that they can have confidence in us, isn't it? Um so what are your thoughts, do you, on like what does it take for the MOD to see us as that trusted enabler, not just a supplier?

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Yeah, uh so I think um, like you say, uh speaking the right language, um uh almost feeding back the language that they have put in the proposal. Uh a lot of people don't um don't tend to answer the question uh and uh maybe go off on a bit of a tangent in putting together what they think is important rather than actually answering the question. So very much so have always have the scope of work or the RFQ on your desk and keep on referring back to that in terms of what they're asking for, and utilise the language within the RFQ within your responses, uh, and that will naturally gain you credibility by the marker uh doing that. Structure your answer as per the scope of work, um you know, uh make sure your section one is the same as the section one question, that's where your uh compliance matrix comes in that you've you you uh go across and and you answer that question. I've seen in really good bids that you you kind of have a fold-out page at the back of the of the bid uh whereby um you can go down and um look at a table that says question one uh and you you should kind of mark your own homework that you're actually answering all the points within that question within the text of your answer. So that's that's really important. Um and like you said, Georginia, before think about that. So what? Don't just answer a question, reread it and say, so what does that mean? What would that actually mean to my buyer? A, do they understand it? And B, what's the added value that I'm bringing by providing that that answer to that question? So I think that's that's how you kind of get the buyer, buyer on your side.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Definitely. And I think that's a nice segue and potential pause to like the next section, which is about the win uh a win theme light touch, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Um absolutely. Yeah, we'll we'll cover that next time.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Okay, so that's it for today's episode of Advance the Contract, where we help SMEs navigate into the defence landscape with clarity, confidence, and purpose.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

So if you found today's discussion useful, don't forget to subscribe, share it with your network, and leave us a review. And if you've got questions or topics you'd like us to cover in future episodes, we'd really like to hear from you. You can download our top tips and resources from the website link in the episode description.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

Thank you for listening. And remember, every big contract's starts with a single conversation. Until next time, keep advancing.