SMEs selling to Public sector- UK Government listens via Social media

According to an 'Urban' Dictionary on the web, ‘smeaze’ is a combination of sleaze and smut.

Fortunately the colloquial pronunciation of SMEs currently being used by Government officials that sounds so similar is not such a combination. (SME stands for Small ,Medium Sized Enterprises)


Six months ago, Prime Minister David Cameron and Francis Maude, the Minister for the Cabinet Office (MCO) announced reforms designed to further open-up the public sector marketplace to suppliers.

'Today, we are announcing big changes to the way government does business.

By that, I mean what I say: literally, the way it does business. The contracts it signs, the goods and services it purchases - and the way it purchases them. We need to make the system much more open, more competitive and transparent.It's about making our country less wasteful and more accountable.

It's about opening up opportunities to new, small organisations as well as the old, big ones.

It's about being more dynamic, in our economy, and in our public services.' 11th February 2011

The UK coalition government is putting considerable faith in growth derived by the private sector to pull the country out of its recession.

The Crown Commercial representative for Small Medium Enterprise( SMEs) Cabinet Office Stephen Allott addressed this year’s Public procurement Show 2011. (Pictured below speaking at the Guardian's Public Procurement Show 2011 in June)

SMEs now have a voice at the top table of Downing Street and Prime Minister Cameron’s ear.


( Indeed David Cameron wrote an inspiring letter to the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management for their BESMA awards ceremony. See link below)


The Government has set a target to public procurement of 25% of spending with SMEs.


A strategic dialogue is being developed between Government and SMEs. Through the No 10 Downing Street website they collected a vast number of responses to a request from small businesses on problems they encounter with Public Procurement.

Part of Mr Allott’s speech covered the “ Supplier Feedback Service” part of the Cabinet Office based in Norwich.

Also he reminded us that there are still the conduits of communication of our democracy through writing to our Member of parliament, the relevant Minister and Officials in Government.

As well as inbound feedback , Stephen Allott is engaging with Trade Associations as well as outbound conversations – talking to the market place.




'Buyer Days' have become part of No 10’s commitment with their Product Surgeries held by the seven main procurement divisions of central government e.g. “ Surgery Lite” and " Innovation Launch Pads such those held in Birmingham.

From April-July last year 351 submission have been heard from SMEs on ways Government could save the country money. More Launchpad Dragons’ Den styled surgeries are planned for the future.
http://www.ogc.gov.uk/procurement_policy_and_practice_ogc_supplier_feedback_service.asp

SMEs can be more flexible than their bigger competitors, often quicker to react and can offer better pricing.

In Public Procurement they may still favour bigger suppliers for a number of reasons including;-
 Risk aversion
 Sales coverage of bigger sales team
 Inertia of incumbency
 Reduction in Procurement capacity- less time for ‘shopping’
 Loss of technical capacity

One fact raised by Stephen Allott at the Public Procurement Show 2011 did surprise me. He emphasised how Social media is being used at the core of Government. On the no 10 Twitter site they received 1 ½ million replies.SMEs suggested the following remedies to UK Government to attract more SME bids .

1. More dialogue with procurement 80%
2. Less paperwork 80%
3. Supply documents at a later stage 74%
4. More free tender information 66%
5. Use of shortlist 58%
6. More time for tender submissions 50%
7. Bidder training 47%
8. Smaller contracts 47%
9. Use of framework contracts 44%


http://twitter.com/#!/number10gov
( The official twitter channel for the Prime Minister's Office based at 10 Downing Street)


One of the ideas being seriously considered from these 'buyer open days' for SMEs included a proposal for a website for job seekers to find work increasing the likelihood of re-employment by 50%.

The EU have a definition for SMEs – companies with

Less than 10 employees with turnover less than € 2 million
10-49 employees with a turnover of between € 10 million
50-249 employees with a turnover of less than € 50 million

They must be autonomous and a subsidiary of a non EU parent company.

Much of Stephen Allott's presentation drew from the September 2010 report from the consultancy GAK ( 110 pages) “Evaluation of SMEs access. ( scroll down for link to get the pdf of this report) The UK did not always compare well to other members of the EU in terms of public sector contract value to SMEs.

The reasons of course are not totally straightforward since the type of buyer, the things purchased and tendering procedures including EMAT (Economically Most Advantageous Tender ) criteria could be seen to be biased towards the big players in UK public tenders. Stephen Allott suggested ways to improve the way public procurement could work with SMEs as well how Public Procurement could allow more SMEs to compete for such work.

SMEs have a contribution to Public Procurement in many ways.

To sum up Stephen Allott stressed that there is value to be had with SMEs. SMEs are an access into innovation and SMEs contribute to employment since 60% of the country's job creation comes from them.

Related Links:

Prime Minister, David Cameron's letter to the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management's BESMA awards dinner within the blog post on this link. http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/05/made-in-britain-sold-by-britain-besma.html

Other useful links on Selling to Public Sector ( Official Government and independent sites)
Contracts Finder Site – Find live opportunities to tender to Public Sector
http://www.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/?xgovk3w=bl1000&xgovf0p=xgovs9k=biscfxgovr3h=cftx1xgovc8h=1000xgovk3w=bl1000&xgovd2v=en&xgovj6d=01ef13e99c80a45eb5ac0e09495ac909ba8b65b5

GHK report :EVALUATION OF SMES’ ACCESS TO PUBLIC PROCUREMENT MARKETS IN THE EU
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/dg/files/evaluation/pme_marches_publics_report_en.pdf



Cabinet Office
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/search/apachesolr_search/smes

Servicedesk to Cabinet office

servicedesk@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk


Innovation Launch Pad
https://www.innovationlaunchpad.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/Page/Home

Example of one ministry site with guides for selling into it.
Suppliers guide for selling to HM Customs and Revenue
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/about/supguide.htm

For SMEs and HM Revenue and Customs
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/about/supguide.htm#9





IT business watchdog style site
Campaign4Change site ( IT and Public Sector) http://ukcampaign4change.com/

Selling to the NHS- How Sales Champions keep improving their skills

Sporting champions and Champions in Selling have been much on my mind this week .

Rory Mcilroy's fantastic victory in the U.S. Open over last weekend and the first week of Wimbledon Tennis Championships fortnight got me into Champion mindset mode.

Just in the last two days I have had the privilege to work with a great group of sales champions from Dansac UK.

I met a young lady ( quite possible a sales champion of the future from Romania who was both nervous and excited about attending her very first sales course within the renowned Marriott Group in London.

Lastly I had a inspiring conversation with a Birmingham Cab driver whose courteous but focused hunger for increasing his corporate business with his executive car company uplifted me -even though by all rights I should have exhausted after a running a very intensive programme.

I was so inspired by the fantastic result of Rory Mcilroy at the US Open, What fantastic mental toughness that young star has. After his disastrous capitulation just a few weeks before at the Masters where an overnight lead of four stokes on the last day of the Masters disappeared he just learnt from his mistakes and moved on. He is a super example for professional salespeople to emulate in their striving to be champions of the Selling greens.




(Signage for DHL's Corporate Golf Day at the Marriott Forest of Arden Country Club and Hotel)


We all need our heroes and its nice to adopt new heroes as well.

Much of the real sales life is working a process which can become a set on unconscious routines which if we are not careful makes us become a bit stale and we can lose our sparkle.

Reading autobiographies of sporting stars can inspire us. The stories of the likes of Andre Agassi in tennis, Bobby Charlton in Soccer, Lance Armstrong in Cycling show us what focus and hard work and particularly how to tackle the disappointments and failures on the way to becoming a champion.

I have just come back from a great trip up in the Midlands at the Marriott Forest of Arden Hotel. I have not been to the hotel for a few years .

From a trainer’s view point Marriott are top draw and top dollar. Comfortable bedrooms , great dining and they understand what trainers need in terms of support and decent sized rooms. The Forest of Arden is a beautiful setting. The lush greenery of the Aylesford and Arden Courses with attendant ducks and deer make for a superb setting.


. Whilst I was there were two Corporate Golf Days. One day was for the Courier and logistics Specialists DHL and the other for Comet that was a combined fundraiser for Cancer Research campaign.

Despite the numbers on the corporate golf days, the group I was working with, DANSAC, was well looked after by the Marriott Team despite all the other guests.


( Tee No. 1 of both the Arden and Aylesford courses)







We did not have time for Golf but we still had a lot of fun refreshing our professional selling skills. Dansac are market leaders in top quality ileostomy products offering products not only of the highest quality from a clinical perspective but also in designing a product for ostomists that is comfortable and discreet.

Selling anything into the NHS is particularly challenging for suppliers and procurement at the moment as a result of Government Cutbacks and increased drive for value for money. Both Acute services and NHS Trusts have to strive for cost savings targets arising from the Public Accounts Committee ( PAC) on the procurement of consumables of 10% of their consumables expenditure, by amalgamating small orders into larger, less frequent ones, rationalising and standardising product choices and striking committed volume deals across multiple trusts.

So the Dansac Sales team and I were working on revising and refreshing the offers of their differentiated value proposition in this very individual market sector.

We set about examining ways to keep the conversations with the NHS business directed.
We set about understanding how champions maintain the winning mentality. The recent success of McIlroy acted as a great catalyst. We developed a deeper appreciation of which skill sets needed refreshing both from an individual and team standpoint.We examined and developed how to keep the Dansac story fresh for both ourselves and clinical and procurement sectors within the NHS.We considered how we should be support clients within the NHS in this period of change.









(Jill explains how she goes about dealing with a particularly challenging objection.)























( The team take note and Listen to Jill's wise words and advice)


We used a number of ways of learning from visualisation, metaphor and creative thinking to fundamental marketing strategy, brand extension and management to business development and sales skills appropriate to the special needs of the public sector and particularly the NHS.

This was an intensive skills workshop for an experienced sales team. They were up for plenty of stretching both mentally and physically.


















(Hands on training- preparing for the mini- role plays)

So far as the detail of what we covered, debated and 'strategised' clearly industrial confidentiality requires me to give readers of this blog no detail.

Only to say the Dansac team have been sharpening their selling tools which will give their competition something to think about!






(Team Dansac UK - even Aleksandr Orlov( Meerkat to the stars gets in on the act as well!))









The Dansac team have a great open hearted enthusiasm for their business. They worked hard and played hard. We learned together in creative ways and had a lot of fun doing it. - as you can see-






(Leo and Debbie in full skill practice flow sharing particular business challenges)


A number of members of the Dansac team had travelled some distances to take part in this Sales Refresher Workshop. One had just come back from a European Trade /Clinical Conference in Bologna Italy another came down from Dundee, Scotland to join the team colleagues. Some have serve in the industry nearly 20 years others had been just four weeks with Dansac so the totality of Sales wisdom in the room was immense.
( Mr Appeal posing for a photograph!)

Other realted links

Government procurement update
http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/search/label/Procurement%20-%20Public%20Sector

Public Procurement Show 2011
http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/06/guardians-public-procurement-show-2011.html

Challenges to tenders and Supplier relationship management
http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/06/tender-meat-challenging-tenders-and.html