By John DiPisa, Founder and CEO, Bid Desk Analytics –
The competition can be fierce in the tax-supported bid business, but the wins can be very rewarding. When bidding direct on public sector SLED contracts, there are three crucial things a dealer must be able to do to win big:
1. Correctly match items to the product description or specified brand.
No amount of work will ensure a win if the products you are bidding simply don’t match the specific requirements of the products being sought.
2. Win new business without bidding too low.
Unless you’re simply trying to move product, no win is worth it if it’s not respectably profitable. Surprisingly, the winning bid is not always the lowest, and often dealers leave money on the table by bidding excessively low.
3. Optimizing margins on renewal business without losing to competition.
That being said, bidding high enough to maintain healthy margins and low enough to win can be tricky. When a contract is renewing, it’s a shot in the dark to bid a product when you have no idea what the previous winning bid was.
The bottom line is that the only permanent solution to fulfilling these needs is to have an external source of extensive and accurate competitive data. That’s where Bid Desk comes in. Our data platform gives you easy access to hard to find, product-specific, office and janitorial supply data, including quick reference SKU matches with high, low and average contract pricing over the past six months. That alone will get you right in the game.
And that’s not all the platform offers. To find out more, simply contact Bid Desk Analytics with your questions, or to quickly see for yourself how it works, schedule a brief, no-obligation demo.
