The Pursuit of Happiness
Not for the first time, I’m wondering about the insanity that is the global procurement process. One of my clients is bidding on a £1 billion IT outsourcing project – alongside 10 competitors – a process that has collectively cost these companies upward of £10 million. Eleven teams, eleven solutions developed over the past year and only one that will see the light of day.
Of course, I believe the team we are supporting is the clear leader – not just because their presentations are going to be Killer – I think they are going to win because they’re happy!
Happy people make good presenters but more importantly happy teams make good partners. If I were the decision maker for the client, I would buy the team that appears confident and happy over the team that looks stressed. The guys who can’t crack a joke or even relate on a somewhat personal level to their audience will fail to connect with and impress the client.
Not that it isn’t serious, each of the teams vying for my client’s future contract must have spent at least £1 million to get this far in the procurement process – a very expensive and bitter pill to swallow if you lose.
From my perspective, if you spend £1 million in the bid process and lose because your competitors spend an extra 1% getting their pitch and presentation right, the ROI is phenomenal, and hardly a laughing matter.
Now have you heard the one about…
