Book Review: Strategic Tendering for Professional Services

April 21, 2025|Accountants, Kim's Blog, Lawyers, Management Skills, Marketing, Psychology, Relationship Management, Selling, Statistics and trends, Strategy|

Back in May 2017 I reviewed the first edition of this book strategic tendering. And I have been recommending it ever since. So I was delighted when the authors did an extensive overhaul of the contents to publish the second edition in 2022. This review concentrates on the newer material – so please read the earlier one as well. It remains a must-read for anyone involved in professional services marketing and business development – whether a novice or expert in pitching, bidding and tendering. Book Review: Strategic Tendering for Professional Services by Matthew Fuller and Tim Nightingale (Second Edition).

The new edition of Strategic Tendering for Professional Services

I was so pleased to have been at the Business Book Awards event back in 2017 to see the authors win in the sales category. It was very well-deserved. And they have over-delivered on this updated post-Covid and digital world version. It is still a gold mine of knowledge – wrapped up in a practical, hands-on guide.

It has much stronger sections on pricing, procurement and writing; new sections on listening, public sector pitching and also diversity and inclusion (D&I). It also offers a comprehensive and realistic view of the role of technology and automation in pitching. They invited experts to write the sections on diversity, procurement, pricing, public sector and technology.

There’s a helpful summary at the end of each chapter outlining the key points. Like the first edition, there is understandably more emphasis on law firms than other types of professional services firms. Although there are examples from accountancy, consultancy and engineering firms.

Contents of Strategic Tendering for Professional Services by Matthew Fuller and Tim Nightingale (Second Edition)

Introduction
The yes/no game
Listen very carefully (to the client)
Diversity and inclusion
Planning to win
We need to talk about procurement
Smart pricing
The art of writing a persuasive proposal
Public sector pitching
Presenting: closing the sale
Post-pitch feedback – If you don’t ask, you don’t get
Technology: a new competitive advantage?
Where do we go from here?

Key messages and evidence

Happily, whilst recognising the importance of processes the book emphasises individual relationships over hygiene factors. With the need to counteract a world swamped with information, there is a premium on getting to the nub. And to be able to appeal to emotion as well as logic.

Another great addition is the inclusion of a series of interviews with senior decision-makers on the corporate side including: ALM, Meggitt PLC, Nestle UK, Robert Waltesers Group, Massmart, DXC Technology, Liberis and CARFAX Inc.

If you need any further encouragement to read it, the book is endorsed by the glitterati of PSF marketing including those from Allen & Overy, Slaughter & May, Hogan Lovells, White & Case, Linklaters and EY. As well as a few leading General Counsel.

To bid or not to bid?

There’s information on the range of questions you must answer to make a decision. Including:

Relationship questions
Market questions
Financial questions
Conflict questions

There’s a fabulous table considering different approaches to yes/no or go/no decision.

Listening

I was pleased to see this new chapter on listening – as it is a vital part of the marketing and sales process. Too often, fee-earners rush in to tell clients all about their services without really listening to what the client says (remember that “Telling isn’t selling!”.

“The whole tender exercise should be two-thirds about the client and what they need and one-third about how your firm will deliver it”. Enough said.

I’m a huge advocate for improving listening skills and would thoroughly recommend this book You’re not listening – What you’re missing which I reviewed in summer 2024.

I liked the service delivery model RATER – Responsiveness, assurance, tangibles, empathy and reliability. There are four sub-dimensions in each and there’s a table to show the importance of each service component and its effect on loyalty. Nisus Consulting data from 2019/20 found responsiveness, strategic thinking and personal chemistry are ranked first, second and third. (Note: Technical expertise ranked 15^th).

There’s a detailed exploration of the formal desk research to be completed:

Review own feedback data from the client
Desk research – background to the prospective/client company
If you don’t ask, you don’t get

I consider how to research your pitch competitors here Pitching, differentiation and competitor analysis There is a great table listing out the types of questions you might ask the client.

In the authors’ comments about mapping out the key decision-makers, they mention some databases which track individuals and where they have moved in their careers and have non-executive or other interests (e.g Home – BoardEx).

Diversity and Inclusion (D&I)

This new chapter was developed in conjunction with Sally Bucknell, Director of D&I at EY UK.

A key message here is about ensuring your firm is converting rhetoric into reality. Not providing empty statements or vague values. As if we need a reminder, there’s a strong argument for the business case for diversity. There are also clear definitions of equality, diversity, inclusiveness and belonging.

“A plethora of research started to report positive correlations between diversity and business success, including: GDP per capita and gender equality, equality and productivity, better gender balance on boards leading to better share price and financial performance and gender balanced leadership with better all-around performance on corporate governance, corporate responsibility talent dynamics and market acuity”.

The authors explore how to evidence D&I through data, targets and D&I action. I would have liked to see more information about how to tackle questions about sustainability and other social and ecological concerns.

Planning to win

This chapter appeared in the previous edition. The emphasis is on managing the relationship with the client. And outlines the process for researching, preparing and delivering the pitch. There are helpful tables on: proposal classification, key roles and responsibilities,

The planning process covers:

Gather information
Agree your contact strategy
Check compliance
Develop your proposition (and SWOT) Malcolm McDonald on value propositions – How to develop them
Timeline and milestones
Team communication

In a section on structure the authors tackle the brand consistency challenge Persuasive writing – Brand Voice and Tone of Voice – Kim Tasso

Procurement

This new chapter was written by Dr Silvia Hodges Silverstein, founder of the Buying Legal Council in the USA.

There’s research exploring the evolution of procurement in professional services. For example, research in 2002 in the legal market established that only one in five instances was a FTSE100 company selecting a firm using a formal tender process and one in ten appointments some less formal means or partial tender process was used.

Repeating the research in 2004 the numbers had changed very little but the comments were beginning to take a different slant. The impact of the 2008 financial crisis is explored – where procurement started to become more involved, primarily for rates negotiation. A general counsel reports bringing procurement into his selection process in 2014 and found their metrics helpful.

The analysis concludes that procurement is there to assist in the process but the final decision must be the sponsor’s. But that the situation is rather different in the public sector. (Although the authors note that their research indicates that few select on price alone and often it is a price to other factors ratio of 60:40).

There’s an exploration of procurement’s role. And mention of the dreaded online or reverse auction. The author provides a helpful table of some of the pricing models used.

The relationship between procurement and BD is positioned as star-crossed lovers. And an examination of procurement versus the brand with references to the Big Four, the Magic Circle and McKinsey.

I liked the table describing the seven things that firms should be asking procurement about an RFP.

Smart pricing

Whilst this chapter was in the first edition, this updated version is much better. The authors asked Ori Wiener to outline best practice.

There’s an analysis of pricing and negotiation myths. Supporting decision-making theory, authors note “when talking to more than three or four potential service providers, clients will often eliminate the highest and lowest bidders”.

There’s a helpful exploration of the foundation of pricing and negotiation. And the basic approaches to pricing are described (cost plus, market pricing, precedent pricing, value pricing, relationship based, product based, outcome-based).

Basic pricing steps are outlined:

Gather all available information
Beware scope creep
Create an internal cost estimate
Defining the fee proposal
Proposing/negotiating the fee
Saying “no” – hard to do but sometimes absolutely necessary

There’s also a section on alternative fee arrangements (AFAs) – with a useful table showing structure menu (mitigation of risk, cost-focused and value-focused). And a three-page table on the most common PSF pricing structures. I appreciated the section on pricing in times of crisis (e.g. the Covid pandemic).

The art of writing a persuasive proposal

There are a few points in this chapter that I simply don’t agree with. But also a lot that I fully endorse. The chapter contains lots of intelligence from listening research to support points.

I always reflect that value-added services quickly move from being opportunities to include to being threats that you must cover. The three-page table of key value-added services is helpful – although on reflection many of these are now considered standard and we are constantly pushed to be more innovative.

Personally, I would refer those who are interested in writing persuasively and content crafting in pitches to consider: Book review: Everybody writes by Ann Handley – Kim Tasso and Book review: Unleash the power of storytelling by Rob Biesenbach

Public sector pitching

Another welcome new chapter in this edition. And the authors drew on experts in PSF who focus on the NHS and other public authorities. Public sector bids are much more structured, formal and proceed more slowly – usually with a PQQ (Pre-Qualification Questionnaire).

It notes that any service exceeding £125,000 (OJEC Procurement Threshold) has to follow compliance procedures. And that there are strict rules around or embargoes on interaction with the client. Clarification Questions (CQs) can be used to tease out motives and requirements and in-person conversations can be requested.

A public sector inhouse counsel comments that that whilst procurement was heavily involved, his department runs the tender. He mentioned clear scoring criteria, introducing KPIs, incentives to measure performance and different fee structures.

There’s a helpful checklist for public sector bids. And a note that 10 per cent of all marks in future central government tenders are awarded for social value initiatives and future plans.

Technology: A new competitive advantage?

The former global CIO and COO of Linklaters contributed to this section.

There’s a helpful analysis of the use of technology in the process of constructing the proposal document. Designed to reduce the need for senior BD professionals or fee-earners to reformat documents and recreate content on the fly so they are released to use their expertise on other aspects of the tendering process.

Proposal generation using purpose-built templates is explored – both for document assembly and desktop publishing. With a note that often the information is obtained from MS SharePoint systems. Then workflow and work allocation processes are considered.

The eight key considerations when developing a governance framework is considered. And there’s a case study of a top 50 UK law firm’s 12 month implementation of a pitch-generation software solution.

Naturally, the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is discussed. There are short sections on natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML). With frequent mentions of CRMs and their integration into firm-wide information systems – and a brief mention of big data. Version control challenges are mentioned in a section on virtual teams working together on pitches.

Interesting tender stories and case studies

One of the leading Australian law firms implemented an extensive review of the way it managed pitches. They looked at a whole range of issues and examined the process from “cradle to grave”. Probably the most controversial finding was to pull all BD members off proposals and to task the associate community with taking responsibility for managing all pitches.

A global law firm estimated they submitted more than 6,000 proposals pre annum and that this was growing at 10 per cent year on year

At a global engineering firm in the Middle East the scale of projects was vast. They categorize pitches by scale and importance of work – A (must win), B (regular work) or C, the amount of time it will take to put a pitch together – 1 (months of work), 2 (weeks of work) or 3. They try to look ahead and see where the A1s are coming from. There are 11 steps in their CRM process and step 2 is positioning.

“Always phone up and ask me about what we want. Unless you can clarify what the client wants, how can you deliver?” (Senior inhouse counsel, FTSE 100 company)

“When you’re in a bank working on appointing lawyers for a banking deal, everybody looks at the firm it [the RFP} is prepared by and if its Clifford Chance or Allen & Overy, they say ‘that’s good’. If they haven’t heard of them, they’ll be described as ‘clowns’”

“I’m shocked by generally how poor bids are. I feel they are regurgitating marketing material without any thought to the client…each firm that presented had 20 minutes and several had to be cut short” (Public sector General Counsel).

There’s an excellent article about tender debriefs from DAC Beachcroft.

An analysis of the business process and working practices within the business development function of a large global law firm showed that 75% of a typical business developer’s time was spent in low level tasks, finding content to include in pitches, reformatting proposal documents etc.

Favourite quotes

Winning is 90 per cent perspiration and 10 per cent inspiration

Do fewer RFPs, but do them better

Network Rail reduced its legal panel from 15 law firms to three in 2019

A report by Liberum showed that the top 100 UK law firms control 72% of the UK legal marketing, up from 50 per cent 10 years earlier (there are many other great market statistics in the introduction)

The presentation is a team sport

Procurement professionals appear not to seek out rankings and directories

All major market surveys looking at the criteria for choosing an adviser show price as being in the top five or so criteria, but very rarely as being one of the top two.