Hi, Habr! Quite a long time ago I published the first material “ Organization of active sales in web studios ” from the planned cycle about marketing and sales in web studios. Before writing the second material, the hands reached for a very long time, but I finally got together and completed it. I hope the following materials of the cycle will be released more quickly.

This review was based on various web development market research, communication with the management of major market players, my personal work experience in the high price segment of the market, as well as consulting experience for a number of studios.

So, today I would like to talk directly about the sale process in the web-studio, namely, about participation in the tender for the development of the site. Even when the customer does not announce a tender in the open, in the overwhelming majority of cases you will still compete with other companies to which the request has been sent - the “hidden tender” option.
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Tenders are very different, but here I tried to summarize the most important points applicable to any project and any client. Well, as usual, I tried to include useful nuances in order to read it was interesting and cool to professionals in the field of sales.

Let's break the process of organizing the sale into the main stages, and then we will discuss each of them in detail:

1. Briefing, clarification of the task;
2. Preparation and composition of the proposal;
3. Competitive intelligence;
4. Presentation of the proposal;
5. Summing up and "after party".

1. Briefing, task specification

Typically, the tender begins with receiving an incoming request from the client, which includes the task (can be in any form) for the development of the project. The first stage of work on the tender is the initial interaction with the customer in order to obtain all the necessary information to prepare the proposal.

Briefing preparation

The most effective way to get all the information you need is to have an in-person meeting with a client. If he himself does not imply holding such a meeting, all efforts must be made to achieve it (after all, some of your competitors will do this).

Carefully read all the materials. Before holding a briefing (no matter if it is a meeting or a phone call), you should ideally understand all the materials that were provided to you, understand the terminology of the customer, and identify weak points in your concept from your point of view.

Learn all about the client. In addition to studying the materials that were provided, you need to find out everything else about your client. Browse through his entire website, find references to the company on the Internet, read interviews with top officials, be sure to find references to all past and current advertising activities. Try to understand who are the competitors of the client, what position the company occupies in its market. Immerse yourself in the subject area and specific terminology. Look overseas case studies in this area. Yes, yes, this must be done before the first meeting with the client.

Make a list of questions in advance. It is necessary to make a list of questions and clarifications in advance. Be sure to include in this list questions about the relevance of certain sections of the task. Often, in large companies, the site assignment is prepared at the same time, and the tender itself is held a few months later, when the situation has already changed.

Use the standard brief only as a base. An experienced client has seen typical briefs of client agencies many times, and you will make a better impression if you see that, in addition to general questions, you have included in the list items relating specifically to his company.

Briefing strategy

Personal briefing. When the meeting is held without the participation of competitors, your task is to learn everything to the maximum. In addition to the process of clarifying information, it is not at all superfluous to show the client that you have already done the preparatory work. Refer in the conversation to the statements of the top management of the customer company, which you will read in the interview. Ask the customer about bright advertising campaigns that were conducted by his competitors. Screw in the conversation professional term from the customer's industry. Talk more about the client than about yourself. About myself there will be time to tell at the presentation of your proposal.

General briefing. If the briefing is held within a single meeting with all bidders, your strategy should be different from a personal meeting with a client. I will point out a couple of differences:

• Save the most delicate questions for personal communication with the client. Remember that the answer to your question will be heard by all bidders, and you will find yourself on an equal footing with competitors who might be too lazy to ask this question.
  
  In my practice, a situation has arisen many times when correct clarification of the task and clarification of the relevance of those or other wishes of the client allowed reducing the scope of work and the cost of the project. Competitors who acted exactly on the instructions, without specifying its relevance, exhibited substantially large estimates. After losing the tender, they called and made claims in a dishonest game: “How is it that we work in one segment, and you set a KP with half the budget. You either bought everything or you dumped! ”. But all that was needed was to find out that some sections of the task were no longer needed by the client, because the situation had changed. And I would not have to look stupid with such calls.
  
  
• Do not try to argue with competitors or try to show their incompetence. This usually carries a negative connotation. Even if you put one of the competitors as a bad specialist, the client can project a negative on you (“ Oh, I remember, these are the guys who arranged the disassembly at the briefing!” ). And in this case, the winners will be representatives of the companies that have remained aloof from your skirmish.

Correspondence and telephone conversations

Do not limit communication to briefing only. At the stage of updating the source data and preparing the proposal, periodically contact the customer, specify, ask. Sometimes you can even consult on issues related to his professional activities, for example: “ We are preparing a proposal and have come up with a unique online service, but would like to clarify one thing - how effective is offline offline marketing in your area? "

If the briefing was general, be sure to ask “thin” questions to the client already outside of it, in order not to work for competitors.

The client should see that you are not just following the standard “request-briefing-presentation-results” procedure, but are showing genuine interest in his project.

Do not overdo it

Despite the advice to constantly communicate with the client, it is very important to keep the line between the demonstration of your interest and the prevailing opinion of the client "they already got me." Always look at the reaction of the client when communicating with you for signs of irritability.

Customer competency assessment

It is very important to assess the level of competence of the manager on the part of the client within the framework of the initial communication. Already, it is often a situation that the head of the Internet direction on the part of a large client is a more competent and highly paid specialist than the managers on the studio side. There is nothing terrible for you, you just need to understand it in advance and build further communication accordingly, without standard stories about the advantages of creating a website and other things common for a professional, focusing on the actual part of the project and interaction.

NDA

Often the client asks to sign an NDA to participate in the tender (non-disclosure agreement). This is a normal practice. However, when signing the agreement, carefully read all the provisions for unexpected "surprises". And the second point - NDA can help reduce your risks too. If you plan to transfer some important information to the client within the tender (for example, the balance sheet or a unique service concept), then with the help of NDA you can reduce your risks by adjusting the client’s ability to manage this information (for example, prohibiting the use of your sketches in case of loss of the tender).

2. Preparation and composition of the proposal

So, you have received all the necessary information and fully realized the tasks facing your client. Now we need to start developing a proposal. This stage should be conducted in parallel with the competitive intelligence stage, which I will discuss in the next section.

Project group

One person simply by virtue of his competence can not make a good comprehensive offer. So you need a group.

In the process of preparing a proposal, there must be a “main person” who is responsible for the final result and organizes the work of the group. "Democracy", as a rule, does not pass, turning the process into chaos.

In collective work, there are several components:

• Develop ideas. The process by which you can attract the widest range of participants - from creatives and ending with fellow managers. What is the best way to organize brain-stormy, and what are the techniques - this is a separate big topic, which I will not touch on in this review.
  
  
• Drawing up estimate and plan of performance of work. When assessing the scope and planning of work, representatives of the production unit must be included in the process. The estimate and plan must be confirmed by the potential project manager - he will be responsible for the implementation. Difficult technical stages should be assessed by the technical director or system architect, and design work by the company's art director.
  
  
• Analysis of the competitive environment of the client. Attract analysts and strategists to analyze the market situation, select successful cases, identify current problems and trends in the development of the industry.
  
  
• Nuances Attract to the areas that require a narrow profile, relevant professionals. When developing ideas for a FLASH-application, involve an Action Script specialist, and when describing ideas for interfaces - a GUI-specialist. They should not be permanent members of the team, but their core ideas can be the highlight of the proposal.

After the proposal is complete, show it to colleagues who have not participated in the process. A fresh look helps a lot, especially when the work was long with a lot of different options and concepts.

Evaluate tender labor costs

Always evaluate your effort to prepare for the tender and include them in the calculation of the total profitability of the project. Sometimes a situation arises where your proposal preparation costs may be comparable to the budget of the project itself. Such a situation can be allowed only in the case when not only the fate of a specific project is decided within the tender, but also the prospect of long-term cooperation with an interesting client. Always correctly prioritize projects that are in the presale - everywhere you can’t manage it.

The composition of the proposal

There is nothing worse than the final proposal, which is a two-page “tolmud”, in which information about the company, the proposal itself, the portfolio and all sorts of supporting materials are mixed. To read such a file and to understand its structure is beyond the power of anyone.

All materials within the proposal should be brief and concise. They can be divided into two groups: materials about the company and materials on the project. I propose to consider the optimal, in my opinion, the composition of the materials for each of these groups.

Materials about the company (separate documents):

• Short company profile. Document or presentation with squeeze essential information about you. Maximum 10-15 pages. This document should fit the most important - a brief story about the company, key competencies, a list of the most important customers, awards, key advantages, achievements and important facts. Techniques like “the most important facts about us” or “we have done the very first” work well, it allows the client to quickly grab the very essence.
  
  
• List of customer reviews. I recommend to issue in the form of a separate document. For a specific customer, change the order of the reviews, bringing customer reviews from areas close to the customer to the top.
  
  
• A selection of cases. Some of the most detailed case studies for the best projects. Including the original description of the tasks, the production process, local findings, achieved indicators. Be sure to use quantitative parameters and all sorts of graphs and charts. As part of the proposal of such cases should be a maximum of 2-3 - from the closest areas to the customer or on similar types of projects.
  
  
• Full portfolio of the company. This is, perhaps, a thick printout with screenshots and a brief description of all the company's projects. Her auxiliary task is to look through during the meeting, when one of the customer’s representatives got bored, open it on the necessary page while telling about an interesting project, etc.
  
  
• A set of official documents. For some tenders (government order, large companies), the client requires a list of legal documents about your company - a copy of the statute, balance sheets, various statements. It is better to prepare these documents in advance, and the best option is to have a complete set of such documentation (the composition usually requires approximately the same), updating it every few months. If you pass some really important information (for example, to your competitors), and the customer does not seem 100% reliable - do not forget to sign the NDA.

Project materials:

• Commercial offer . The very essence of your proposal. A well-structured document that clearly describes all the issues related to the implementation of the project. Ideally - no more than 10-12 pages.
  
  
• Presentation of the project team. This document may be of two types. The first one is a general presentation for all employees of your company. In this case, this material will relate to the general materials about the company. Try to make it interesting, not limited to dry excerpts a la "resume" - put photos of employees, interesting statements and quotes.
  
  
• The second option is more interesting. You are preparing a presentation of the project team, including people there who are really planning for the client’s project. This format can be made much more attractive to the customer, if you arrange it for a specific task. For example, if you are participating in a tender for an online mobile phone store, take a picture of employees with their cell phones, take a brief quote about what a phone is for them. It will take a bit of time — an hour of a photo photographer, a copywriter hour, and a technical designer's hour for mixing and arranging a presentation in the same style. Add humor. Come up with a general presentation title like “We are in the subject!”. The effect on the customer such a presentation can produce very, very positive.
  
  
• Presentation of ideas on the project. Detailed presentation of your project ideas. Must be accompanied by references from close areas, illustrations, foreign cases etc.

Now we will discuss the composition of the key document from the entire pool - the commercial offer. Depending on the type of project, the composition of sections may vary, but I will try to give some general example:

• A brief description of the goals and objectives of the project;
• The structure and composition of the project;
• Description of the production process of the project (in stages) and interaction with the client;
• Squeezing ideas (with reference to the presentation);
• Estimate + plan (Gantt chart) of the project;
• Description of further cooperation, project support format and possible points of interaction;
• Some conclusion / conclusion / result (format may vary).

Do you design layouts / sketches for tender?

This is one of the most common dilemmas facing the company when participating in a tender. The arguments for are quite obvious. Consider the arguments "against":

• Common market "solidarity". It is believed that companies that are willing to draw design for free at the tender, spoil the lives of everyone else and pull the market down. Now even various agreements have intensified, in which players of some segments conclude “non-drawing pacts”. Well, this is true, sketching the tender pulls the market down. Nevertheless, a single company, as a rule, does not care about the general ideological component and the market. Let's be aware of this.
  
  
• However, there are more important arguments against. Reduced profitability. Purely commercial aspect. I once considered that the development of sketches cost 150 thousand on a project worth a half million. That is, 10% of the total budget (the ratio may be applicable for smaller price segments). And the profit on an individual project taken (for all in different ways, of course), may also be within 10%. And the following situation arises: drawing sketches on a lost tender kills the profit on the next one won to zero! As you understand, the hunt to draw something for free in this situation immediately disappears.
  
  
• Another argument "against" lies in the field of emotions, and few people think about it. If you have proposed an interesting idea, then the customer (this way) presents a very attractive, interesting solution based on this idea. And the sketches submitted by you can “not fall” and destroy the idealistic perception by the client of the stated theoretical idea. A paradoxical situation arises - you spent additional efforts on sketches, and the effect achieved exactly the opposite.
  
  
• Well, at the end of my reflections on the sketches I will mention one argument “for”, which has nothing to do with a particular tender underway. This happens when a situation of idle designers arises. If at the moment there is no work for the designer (but not enough to reduce it), then the most obvious solution is to put him on visualization for current tenders.

The general conclusion - try not to draw sketches, except for the situation when you have simple designers, and you are sure that you will get your choice "in the apple."

Does the CP include ideas?

Although this issue is about the same time about “free work”, I still recommend including specific ideas and concepts for the project in the proposal. This is an important factor that can help win the tender, justify the high price, show the customer that you are immersed in the topic and have something to say about it.

Speak the same language with the customer

It is very important to speak with the customer in one language, to find the “common wave”. Agree, it is foolish to discuss with the IT director questions of positioning and branding, and with the marketing director - the architecture of the server cluster.

Try to identify the key person in the group of the customer and contact him, not forgetting about the rest.

Here is a brief classification of customer roles / representatives. Each of them needs its own approach and its own terminology, its accents in the sentence:

• Director or owner of the company;
• Director or manager of the commercial department (sales department);
• Director or manager of marketing / PR / advertising;
• Brand manager;
• Director or IT manager;
• Director or manager of a dedicated Internet company.

Plus a few more “special” types of representative of the “side” with whom you may have to communicate:

• Representative Network RA (affiliate channel);
• Representative of the system integrator (partner channel);
• The representative of the state customer.

Use the terms in moderation. Do not chew everything up to the children's level, but give a brief explanation.

Any chips

I will mention a few local chips and tricks that can make your offer more attractive:

Format estimates and plan. It is convenient to combine estimates and plans into one block. It is good to estimate / plan fit on one sheet for printing. I even recommend printing for meeting several such copies separately from the general KP. This is the essence, and sometimes only this list will reach the manual. Therefore, it should all be perfectly “licked”, and the work should be divided into detailed and understandable steps. Proper breakdown of work into stages is generally one of the important success factors, especially in complex projects. According to it, the client assesses how well you approached the solution of the problem, and also understands how the interaction will be arranged. Do not scale up the cost. A large number of small amounts of money always looks "harmless" than one "total."

Hourly rates. Often, the client asks to disclose the hourly rates of your specialists. This is a normal practice, do not make a secret of them. There is an opinion that in the near future the format of the “project estimate” will gradually die away, and a large client will make decisions based on the hourly rates of the studio, as is the case in many areas of the “big” IT industry.

Analysis of the subject area and competitive environment. Conduct a brief analysis of the competitive environment. Make a small table with competitors' sites, evaluate them for different parameters. Give links to interesting creative reviews on industry overseas advertising. Write a couple of conclusions about the current situation and trends in the development of the Internet component of the client's industry. This will allow the customer to understand that you approach the solution of his task in a complex.

Clear structuring of information. In any documents, it is very important to clearly structure the information, the order of submission and correct placement of accents. Spend extra time on this after the content of the offer is ready. For example, when it took me 6 hours to develop the actual part of the KP, I spent about 2 hours on rearranging the points in some places, highlighting the accents, adjusting the overall structure.

Accompanying fan. Always try to come up with something cool in addition to the actual part. I will cite as an example some rather crazy ideas (I realized some of them, some remained in my head).

• Teddy bear. You know, there are such teams teddy bears on which you can record a voice greeting with your voice? Dress such a bear in your corporate colors and voice write a couple of phrases about your proposal (for example, a couple of key ideas and the final cost of the project). Everyone will be funny, and, most importantly, be remembered.
  
  
• Comics. Visualize the answers to some questions about the project in the form of a dialogue between the character of the customer and the character of the contractor. Put them in a funny situation. It will be clearly and fun.
• Test for the customer for a discount. When the customer asks for a discount, ask his manager to take a test on the knowledge of Internet technologies. In the case of a positive result, give a small discount. But here we must take into account the possible emotional negative, if the manager does not pass the test. The test can be made serious, but it can be funny.
  
  
• Lego Visualize the client's project and break it down into stages / components in the form of an interesting structure of Lego parts, on each block of which there will be a sticker with the name of the stage. Well, your logo, of course.
  
  
• Pyatnitstso. Promo Interactive has released a very funny book about the Internet. And gave (and now gives, probably) it on all presails to potential customers. This book had nothing to do with the projects under discussion, but customer feedback was very positive.

Include fantasy. If you do the accompanying material thing, in the form of an “object”, then try to make it so that you have your corporate symbolism and caused the customer to leave it on the table, hang it on the wall, etc. In general, keep it in your office in a visible place .

3. Competitive intelligence

The stage of competitive intelligence should be conducted in parallel with the development of the proposal, and its results must be taken into account when the project team is working.

Clarification of the players

Clarification of the tender participants is one of the cornerstones of successful participation in it.

If the information is not open, then the simplest option is to ask the customer directly who is participating. If the customer asks why you need it (and this is quite a logical question on his part), then you can answer that you want to be sure that the list contains teams of a decent level, with whom it makes sense for you to compete, and not just the studio from the lowest Division, which will need to "push with your elbows."

If there is no direct answer, then you should try to find out the composition by indirect signs, periodically inserting the necessary questions into the project dialogue. Also, do not forget about intelligence among your competitors - communicating with their representatives, asking leading and direct questions.

Now let's consider what emphasis needs to be placed in your proposal, depending on who is your closest opponent in the tender.

A game with an equal competitor

• Nuances When playing with an equal in terms of strength and price range, a bright local idea, some kind of nuance, a good move can be a major success factor.
  
  
• Expansion offer. Do not limit yourself to the description of the proposed solution for a specific project. Describe how the interaction as a whole will be built, and what else you can offer the client to solve strategic and operational goals on the Internet.
  
  
• Tuning. When competing with an equal opponent, special attention should be paid to tuning the proposal, “lick” it with the utmost care, and check every nuance.

Play with a low segment rival

If you are playing with a competitor of a lower price range, then try to focus on the following advantages of your company.

• Guaranteed results, reduced risk. Turning to a larger company, the client reduces their risks, since the size and experience of a large player allows you to guarantee the achievement of results. Be sure to tell the customer about it. Mention that a significant portion of your customers are companies that have burned themselves at work with low-end studios.
  
  
• Justify the price. The customer often does not understand how the price is built on the site, and disoriented. Different participants can offer a price that differs by one and a half orders. If your price is higher, tell (better verbally) the customer how it is built. This is done simply: you describe the cost structure of the average studio, the share attributable to the “producing resources” (which are sold to the client), which is about 30%, add the rate of return, derive the overall ratio (usually k = 3-4) which multiplies the salary of the employee. Next, estimate the approximate amount of work on the project. Next, take the budget proposed by the company from the low segment, divide by person months, then divide by k and get the average salary of the employee who will work on the project. Needless to say, this salary for budgets of low-end studios is equal to 10-15 thousand rubles per month ( conduct such an experiment on your own using a close example ). After that, the client very quickly realizes the difference in the qualifications of your employees and those of a competitor.
  
  
• Great opportunities. You are focusing on the availability of specialists of different profiles, as well as on enhanced opportunities for further cooperation outside the framework of a specific project, which the “junior competitors” cannot afford.

Playing with a high segment competitor

If you are on a par with a “senior competitor”, then there are some nuances in this situation that may allow you to win:

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Playing with a “home competitor”

If you participate in a tender with a company that has very good positions within the customer’s structure (either has been successfully working with it for a long time or is sitting on a kickback), then it will be difficult for you to compete and by price (the competitor knows well customer budgets), and on the very composition of the proposal.

The only way out in this situation is to offer the customer an unexpected look at his situation. You must move away from the traditional idea of ​​the project and offer something that will be fundamentally different from all other proposals, pull the client out of his paradigm of thinking. This way you risk “not guessing”, to offer what the client does not need, but this is one of the few chances to win the “home competitor”.

You are the “home competitor”

If the tender is held by your favorite current client (either the regulations oblige, or want to see what's new on the market), then you need to be very careful.

I will make a small lyrical digression. Very often, the attitude to new potential customers inside even large companies is much better than to current customers. A long history of relations has already accumulated with them, various kinds of claims, small conflicts, etc. A new client is always a “magic prospect” and the expectation that “we will do everything right here”. And this is a fundamentally wrong approach. Get rid of him!

You can give a classic example. A very large client comes to you at the tender. For example, Beeline. You drop everything, collect the project team, stay awake at night, make a super offer and win the tender. Great! And then the work on the project begins, there are long approvals, improvements and so on. In general, Beeline has become your current customer. And then it's time to develop relationships, offer new projects and start making money on it. But no. MTS comes to you. And they all drop Beeline cases and switch to MTS tender. This is the most terrible mistake. Putting a higher priority on the tasks of a new client relative to the current one (with a general equality of these clients) is stupid, because the current client is already yours and the new one is not at all. Think right now if you have such clients.

Do not relax. And always keep in mind that your "home" positions will actively attack competitors, including using the method of "unexpected approach", which I wrote about above. Such tenders should always go within a company with a high priority.

Read the second part of the material on Habré .