Everyone knows: implementing software is hard. That’s because many factors affect the success of an implementation bid tooling. Consider selecting the right tool, linking it properly with other software and encouraging its use.

Because, of course, you implement software because you have a goal in mind: to work better or faster. The same goes for Bid Management Tooling. Bids are always written under high pressure. Anything that makes that piece faster pays off. And then, if it also delivers better answers, the odds of winning an offer go up.

Consider the following four factors before you begin implementing your Bid Management Tooling:

1.Does the application match your software stack?
2.How much time do you have to do the implementation?
3.Do you have the right people who can do the implementation available?
4.Are users ready for a new tool?

Sales Strategist

What can I help you with?

1. Connecting to the software stack

Of course, you can introduce a tool to your sales team without connecting it to other tools. Just realize that this tool then has a high probability of not being used at the moment suprême. Indeed, people forget after a while that the tool exists if they do not use it almost daily. Integration with your primary tool (often CRM) ensures that usage is natural.

And whether it connects, you should check before you purchase the tool. Most tool vendors publish what APIs they have. Most bid management tools have standard APIs with SalesForce and HubSpot (the largest CRMs in the market). Sometimes it needs a step in between, such as Zapier as Make (formerly Integromat). Useful to know ahead of time.

Want to know if tooling is of (financial) interest to you? Learn more: ROI of Bid Management Tooling

2. Available time

The biggest gain in implementing a Bid Management Tool is the knowledge base. These are standard answers to questions your potential customer asks. About 40 to 60% of all questions in tenders and RFPs are the same. In some sectors, that itself is as high as 75%. If you fill the knowledge base correctly (and keep it updated), it will save tremendous time.

But the answers don’t come naturally. You need to take the following steps to populate the knowledge base correctly:

  • Explore which questions always come back
  • Review the answers given earlier and assess whether they have the right tone and content
  • Adapt the texts and also translate them if necessary
  • Create and set a structure of Tags to make it easier to search through the knowledge base
  • Load all texts and set a review term (6 months to 1 year)

So building and maintaining a knowledge base takes time. This, of course, is much less time than writing texts every time. Still, you should allow at least one work week per year for maintenance and 2 to 4 weeks of writing time to implement your Bid Tooling.

3. The right people available

To populate the knowledge base and create the links to other tools in the software stack, you need people to do that work. These are the skills you need:

  • Copywriter (often found in Marketing, but sometimes in your sales team)
  • Database filler (fast typers and mouse clickers are often found in Sales Support or Sales Enablement, but this work is also excellent to outsource)
  • CRM administrator, also called Admin or administrator (to establish the link with CRM, often found in IT or Sales Enablement)
  • Security consultant (the person responsible for IT Security within your organization always has something to say about the connection and use of a cloud application)
  • Bid Manager (When a Bid Manager?)

Sales Strategist

What can I help you with?

The users are key

A cool tool that no one uses is worthless. And most Salespeople don’t have much time left to click around in a tool to get to know it. So they don’t. Provide good instruction on the tool’s reason and benefits, and show them how to use it. Also, remember to give a brief repeat instruction with each bid over the next six months. If you don’t use a tool for a while, it’s all a little less obvious.

More extensive training is friendly if users are not very tech-savvy. You must explain the tool and, more importantly, remove the fear of using it. In addition, it is essential to make it part of the employees’ work process. Indicate where the Bid Management Tool helps make things easier, faster, and better.

Conclusion

In the above piece, we’ve outlined four key points to consider as you move to implement your Bid Management Tooling. Don’t you want to think about this? Or would you like to get started quickly? Stryfes has a turnkey implementation process. Learn more about Stryfes’ work at our RFP Tools page.

you are not a techie. Right?
Sales leader – that’s you

But even you know: the battle to win the hearts of your customers happens in the digital field these days. Do you know who wins that battle? The companies that use tech and tools to do their marketing and sales. These are 5x as successful as their analog competitors. No Joke, 5x.

Want to win? We all do.

Choosing, implementing and adopting that tech stack? Nobody wants that. Except for us. At Stryfes, we help companies get more sales in less time. All thanks to sales tools and tech. Is that what you want? If so, please get in touch with us without obligation.

Are you up to date with our publications?

Receive our latest alerts directly in your mailbox.