Are contract tender websites worth their fee?

[cndp]

Hello to all;

I am new to UKBF and would really appreciate some advice about entering the contract tendering field.

I am the new general manager of a signs, printing and vehicle livery / wrap company. We have just moved to brand new dedicated premises, so for the new year I am looking at ways of driving the business forward, with more 'steady' work rather than regular one offs, which the company has been doing in the past. I have been here now 4 months, and things just feel a bit stagnant. I really want to drive this ship forward. It has taken me this long so far understand the dynamics of the business. It really is missing those regular big orders that we all yearn for. I have a dedicated marketing manager who deals with all our social media and advertising but....

Could you please advise if the tendering websites are worth their fee? I'd love to hear failures as well as successes? Just so I can decide whether to spend out or not? (I'm seeing fees of between 250 to 375 GBP per annum) We are fully equipped with our own machinery.

I hope that makes sense, and my apologies if I have posted in the wrong section or if it even has already been asked!! please point me in the right direction if this is the case?

Kindest Regards

cndp

 

[Mr D]

Depends. Can you find enough tenders you can go for without those sites?

 

[fisicx]

....I have been here now 4 months, and things just feel a bit stagnant....

...I have a dedicated marketing manager who deals with all our social media and advertising but....

If they are stagnant then the marketing manager isn't doing their job properly.

Ask for some stats on how well all this social media is doing or the ROI on the advertising. Do you even know how your current customers found out about the business?

I needed a sign making a while back and I just looked on Google and found someone within seconds. I wouldn't have ever thought to look on FB or twitter.

If a corporate client needs their fleet doing they won't be looking on FB either. If you want the big contracts the marketing manager needs to get off their backside and go find them.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

One of them phoned me and said we can get you contracts with the local councils and waterboards
I said very good we have had contracts with them for over the last 20 years !

Based on this phone call I would never trust them

I think we all need understand that as business owners it is our job to go out and get them ourselves There is no easy route to the contract you are after

 

[ethical PR]

Hello to all;

I am new to UKBF and would really appreciate some advice about entering the contract tendering field.

I am the new general manager of a signs, printing and vehicle livery / wrap company. We have just moved to brand new dedicated premises, so for the new year I am looking at ways of driving the business forward, with more 'steady' work rather than regular one offs, which the company has been doing in the past. I have been here now 4 months, and things just feel a bit stagnant. I really want to drive this ship forward. It has taken me this long so far understand the dynamics of the business. It really is missing those regular big orders that we all yearn for. I have a dedicated marketing manager who deals with all our social media and advertising but....

Could you please advise if the tendering websites are worth their fee? I'd love to hear failures as well as successes? Just so I can decide whether to spend out or not? (I'm seeing fees of between 250 to 375 GBP per annum) We are fully equipped with our own machinery.

I hope that makes sense, and my apologies if I have posted in the wrong section or if it even has already been asked!! please point me in the right direction if this is the case?

Kindest Regards

cndp

Your marketing manager should be advising you on this. In general most public sector organisations advertise tenders for free on their own site and regional portals or sector specific portals such as NHS.

Who has your company identified as their target markets in terms of customers?

Your marketing manager should have a measurable marketing strategy and plan that s/he uses to identify in what way your services are better/different than your competitors, who your customers are and what activities you company is carrying out to reach your customers and bring in sales

The marketing activity should be supporting your company's sales activity.

Do you manage them? what processes are in place to understand how your marketing activity is linked to sales and awareness raising of your company?

What measurements has your marketing manager put in place to evaluate the success of your marketing activity and how it converts in terms of customers placing an order?

 

[Noah]

At a slight tangent, is this of use, or something similar in your area?

Welcome to The Chest, the North West's Local Authority Procurement Portal

 

[SamPEL]

If you were putting something out to tender would you really hide it behind a pay wall? Of course you wouldn't and mostly neither does anyone else.

Those Tender Websites are typically just aggregating lots of publicly available tenders in one single place. They're not giving you any sort of special access, they're just making your life slightly easier.

If you want to be a bit sneaky lots of these tender websites let you subscribe to their alerts for free (you just cant click through to the actual tender without paying) when something looks interesting you can usually do a bit of clever googling using their description and turn up the real source of the tender and bid directly for free.

 

[Mr D]

There used to be a big tender website for EU.
When I say big, a small search could return hundreds of results. Mostly council and large company tenders but usually found a few dozen could apply for each year.
Worth looking around for places to check daily or as SamPEL suggests subscribe to alerts.