_{The Perfect Supplier Presentation}

1. Presentation style

Of course it’s helpful to have some slides to answer the brief. But the detail of the RFP responses has already been provided.

The mistake I see many suppliers make is to regurgitate or simply throw up onto the screen their original RFP response.

You’ve already passed that stage.

The value is now in the conversation.

Use the opportunity to present to provide 5 or 6 clear and simple slides that help explain how your solution will deliver to the brief.

This prospective partner had understood the evaluation criteria and created a clear diagram / visual to explain against each criteria…e.g. their implementation approach, their understanding of our needs, their incident response etc…

The slide then became a reference point for the discussion, not a dry set of words to present.

It led to a focused and engaging conversation with plenty of opportunity for the evaluation panel to ask questions.

2. Fulfilling the brief

Sounds simple doesn’t it?

But this supplier had understood the brief, by asking plenty of questions from the Procurement team ahead of the presentation.

I don’t think many suppliers take this part seriously enough but a good sales/ procurement partnership is built through understanding.

And when you think about it…the Procurement team is the bridge between the supplier and the evaluation panel.

By asking questions ahead of the presentation, it also demonstrated a partner who was taking the brief seriously, wanted to get full value from the session and wanted to leave a good impression.

What Procurement team is not going to admire this approach?

3. Answering with honesty

The no bullshit approach really.

How many times do we see this in Procurement though? Suppliers who we know are papering over the cracks in their offers or suppliers who exaggerate product features (only to be found out later at Discovery phase).

In last week’s perfect presentation, the service provider was asked a question about their experience of providing the service in our specific sector.

With complete control and unapologetic honesty they proceeded to explain they don’t have direct experience. But they were able to give clear examples they understood our unique sector requirements and had researched tis.

This was refreshing. It gave the evaluation panel confidence that every word they spoke from that point forward we could trust.

4. Leveraging Individual Expertise

How many times as a Procurement pro have you seen a service provider turn up en-masse and yet you’re not sure of the value (or even the role) each of the individuals is there to give?

Or worse, you’re not sure who will be your actual relationship manager, and they’re not even sure themselves?

In this brilliant pitch, there were four individuals presenting but each had a clear and distinct role and area of expertise.

Nobody spoke over anyone else, each had their part to play and it was clear everyone understood who would be best placed to answer questions from the evaluation panel.

It was seamless and felt so well prepared.

This was a small but definingly big thing in terms of the flow of the session. It felt so well organised and prepared and built trust through credibility.

5. The Importance of Self Control

I don’t ask many questions during an RFP pitch.

This is the time for the Evaluators (the Subject Matter Experts) to probe.

I’ll normally only chime in with clarifications when it comes to questions on fees and charges, or elements we may need to ensure are covered by the contract.

But one question I’ll usually ask as part of the wrap up is this:

“We’re meeting 3/ 4 potential partners so, as an elevator pitch, can you summarise in 60 seconds why you consider yourselves the best provider for our requirements. What sets you apart?”

What I loved about the response to this one is that the relationship manager took his time.

A long and controlled pause (not a nervous one but one that demonstrated maturity and poise).

He then gave a very specific and concise 60 second pitch that perfectly summarised what made them uniquely positioned to deliver against our requirements.

The control was actually inspiring to watch

and yet again credibility and trust was augmented by the way he approached this.

We miss the opportunity to ‘score’ a presentation.

And of course I’m not advocating evaluation teams make presentation style a key part of their decision making criteria.

But I’ve seen so many poor presentations from suppliers over the years, I wonder how many have undersold their offering and lost out on business as a result?