Bid Management is akin to preparing for an examination. The bidding process is more or less similar to the examination process, though a little bit complicated in reality. If you can relate the sequence of the examination process with the bid management lifecycle, you can easily understand how it works. Here are some important terms and details:
- The Pre-RFX stage is like preparing for an examination.
- RFX floating is like releasing/posting the Exam Schedule.
- Tender Document Fee and EMD are like Examination Fees.
- RFX is the question paper.
- Your Proposal is the answer sheet.
- Proposal preparation is like preparing for an examination.
- Proposal building/writing is like writing the answers.
- RFX's Terms and Conditions are like the rules of examination.
- Location is place/e-place to meet the buyer or submit the proposal.
- The Procurement Officer is like the invigilator, who generally initiates the procurement process and receives all proposals and sends them to the Evaluation Team.
- The Evaluation Team checks your proposal responsiveness and awards scores for both technical and commercial responses.
Finally, the result of the winning bidder is announced. If you are not happy with it or wish to know how you performed, you can go for the debriefing session. This is like a revaluation process. If you feel something is wrong, you can opt to protest or complain against the system to higher authorities. Usually the salespersons from simple service sales or simple product sales background get into panic situations when they are supposed to deal with a documented procurement lifecycle.
This is quite natural for those who usually interact directly with prospects and close the deals in a single or multiple meeting/meetings. They don't have much exposure to the Public Procurement procedures and the exhaustive documentation process involved in such tedious exercises. Hence, they often face difficulties while dealing with the Federal/Government procurement, at least for the initial deals.
