As a bidder, are you involved in negotiations? (Yes, you are. Every bid. Every day. Whether you realise it or not.)

As a bidder you might not feel you get involved in negotiations. Customer negotiation is more often completed by the sales team prior to the bid team writing a proposal that ‘formalises’ what’s already been negotiated. Or the negotiation phase after the bid’s submitted is run by the sales or commercial team.

If that’s the case, you might not think you need to prioritise improving your negotiation skills and confidence, as you’re not likely to be responsible for leading negotiations any time soon. 

If so, you might be thinking about ‘negotiation’ too narrowly and missing a real opportunity to improve your bidding. 

The Oxford English Dictionary defines negotiation as ‘Discussion to reach an agreement’. We like this definition because it simplifies what negotiation means, takes some of the mystery away (or even for some people the distaste around how negotiating can feel manipulative), and opens up our understanding of all the times we’re actually negotiating. Even if we don’t recognise that’s what we’re doing. 
For example, how many times during a bid will you, as a bidder, have ‘a discussion to reach agreement’ on some aspect of the bid process or the bid?

The bid-no bid decision is often based on a discussion about the merits of the opportunity. You might think it’s unlikely your organisation will win as no pre-work has been done on it, you don’t know the customer’s requirements, and a competitor does. And you’ve got other more winnable bids to do. The salesperson might disagree and want you to bid. What agreement does that discussion usually lead to? How often does your view prevail?

You (or someone on your team) are likely to discuss input to the bid with Subject Matter Experts to agree what input you’ll get and when. How easy are those discussions to reach the agreement you need?

Who‘ll write different bids or answers, what goes into the storyboard, what edits are included in the final submission, what the price will be. They’re all discussions you need to reach an agreement on to get a winning bid submitted.

They’re all, in fact, negotiations.

Even when you get home, discussing what (or where) you’ll eat, what you’ll watch on TV, what you’ll do this weekend (if you’re not finishing off that bid which needs submitting on Monday), where you’ll go on holiday.

They’re all discussions to reach an agreement – they’re all negotiations you might not realise you’re having.
So, what if you had even a slightly better understanding of the processes that help reach an agreement during a discussion?

What if you could spot how others are approaching the discussion?

What if you understood better the possible options around the agreements you could reach and how to reach them more smoothly? Not just the traditional ‘I win, you lose’ options, or even the ‘haggling-until-we’re-both-not-entirely-happy-but-can-tolerate-what’s-agreed’ options. But real win-win options. Or options you hadn’t even thought of before the discussion?

Understanding a bit more about the fundamentals of negotiation can help you with all those.
And, by having the right type of discussion, you can gain a deeper understanding of the other person’s aims, needs and challenges (and they of yours). Which can help build a better relationship – making future discussions even more productive.

So, with all that in mind, how do you feel about your involvement as a bidder in negotiations? Would you perhaps prioritise a little higher knowing more, and feeling more confident about negotiating as a route to improving your bidding?


‘Learn to Negotiate Effectively’ is just one of the modules in our Management and Leadership Skills for Bidders online course.

The module takes you through the details of what negotiation is, how you can negotiate better and more confidently, and how to put those skills and approaches into action in your bid team, and beyond, every day.

Because the course was created by bidders, for bidders, we link the skills and approaches included in the course to what you do every day in bidding. That helps you understand the ideas more easily, and helps you translate them into action in your role in bidding more effectively. To find out more, sign up for our newsletter, or sign up for the course go to www.mybidcareer.co.uk