‘You can win government contracts,’ award-winning business women tell local businesses

With the announcement by The Prime Minister’s Enterprise Advisor, Lord Young, that the government wants 25 percent of its £230bn procurement spend to be with Small and Medium sized Enterprises, two award-winning Wiltshire businesswomen have set up a join initiative to help local businesses win government contracts.

Purpol Marketing, specialists in government contract bid management, and Sales Coaching Solutions, specialists in sales training, have combined their expertise to provide practical and valuable insight into how SME’s can effectively bid for local authority contracts.

Denise O’Leary, managing director of Purpol Marketing said: “Bid management is a specialist field, it demands understanding and conformance with strict procurement requirements.

“For success you need the generation of a compelling response backed up with relevant evidence.”

“We have created a half-day workshop that will provide local SME’s with the tools that they need to be able to bid with confidence.

“We will take them through the bidding process from the supplier perspective, providing hints on what you need to include and also importantly what not to do.”

Alison Edgar, managing director at Sales Coaching Solutions said: “We will also show them how the optimal presentation of their information will make it easier for council’s to award them the contract.

“Starting with looking for opportunities, through the completion of procurement information and also importantly how you can sell yourself and your company at the interview stage.”

Denise and Alison will use their combined expertise to show their audience how to achieve consistently successful bids and why certain bids fail.

They will discuss the critical elements in the bidding approach, the importance of understanding emotional and rational buying motives and the essential sales techniques needed to win at the interview pitch stage.

The workshop, scheduled for the Wednesday, April 15 at the Chippenham Golf Club, starts at 8.30am. Attendance costs £49.99 including lunch.

The event can be booked at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/yes-you-can-win-government-contracts-tickets-16199263433

“This is a really exciting initiative,” said Denise. “Having helped companies win places on £4bn construction frameworks as well as much smaller local government contracts, I am keen for local SME’s to understand how they can get a share of the government spend.”

“We practice what we preach,” said Alison. “We are delighted to have our businesses recognised for our success and believe we can really help other local companies win more business.”

Denise is a finalist in both the Enterprising Wiltshire Awards and the Wiltshire Business of the Year awards. Alison is recognised as one of the top 10 business coaches and is also a finalist in the Wiltshire Business of the Year awards.