Busting the myths: you cannot contact or engage with buyers during the procurement process

Are you struggling to grow your business?  At the moment a lot of business owners I speak to are struggling to grow their businesses? Most business owners I speak to have not given much consideration to selling to the public sector. Why would you? It’s complicated, your business is too small, the cheapest supplier will always win, the reasons not to go on.

What if I told you, these were myths? That the public sector wants to buy from you! Join me over the next few weeks while I bust these myths, you can even go back and look at the myths I’ve already busted here.

The myth I am going to debunk this week is that you cannot contact or engage with buyers during the procurement process.

MYTH #4 is: you cannot contact/engage with buyers during the procurement process.

The reality of this myth is that you can contact the buyer. In fact you have the right to formally contact the buyer in order to fully understand the contact.

During the procurement process there will be a way in which you can ask questions of the buyer. Normally this is done by using the portal where the notice is being administered but it can sometimes be by email.

However, you can raise questions should be laid out within the tender documentation. This will include any deadlines by which you must raise any queries.

Any questions that are raised will be anonymised and shared with all interested parties. This means that if clarifications are being administered by email you must make sure you are receiving updates when questions are answered.

You can ask the buyer:

• The scope of the contract

• How the tender will be scored

• Confirm the tender procedure

• What value the contract is over the full contract lifecycle

• And more.

We advise the business owners we work with to ensure they have reviewed all tender documentation prior to the deadline for asking questions. We also recommend that they have drafts of all questions drawn up by then to ensure they do not have any clarifications that will not be answered.

TOP TIP

Make use of the clarification function, making sure you ask any questions prior to the deadline. It is also important that you review the questions (and answers) raised by others.

What are you waiting for?

Last week in our blog we busted the myth that contracts always go to the same suppliers. You can find it here.

You can download our free guide here which takes you through the first steps to take in preparing to sell to the public sector. Or book a virtual coffee here . We’ll talk to you about your business and the opportunities available to you and your business.