Advice for Winning Long-term Contracts in the Public Sector

“As a consultant, you can have a big impact on the lives of the people in your country.” —David Lewis

Last December, David W. Lewis, (edit: Former) Managing Partner for Cambridge Management Consulting and lead for Digital & Innovation, was featured in SAWOO’s Leaders in Consulting podcast. A platform which is dedicated to giving a voice to industry experts on salient topics for consultants and advisors, David’s episode specifically contended with ‘Mastering Government Contracts: Expert Advice for Winning Long-Term Government Projects’. An insightful conversation, David joins host Sammy Gebele to break down the complexities of government contracts and developing lasting client relationships.

In this article, we will elucidate the main points of this discussion, and highlight the most important steps toward building a presence in the public sector.

A Comparison of Winning Projects in the Public versus Private Sector

Sammy opens the episode by asking David to differentiate the criteria between applying for and securing work in the public sector, as opposed to regular clients and companies. David explains that there are two main differences: ‘One is frameworks, and the other is lead time.’

By ‘frameworks’, David here refers to the UK Government’s continual emphasis on framework-based procurement, whereby your organisation or one you are partnered with must be on a framework in order to deliver work into the Government. As there are hundreds of frameworks that comprise the UK Government, this requires considerable time to establish which avenues are most relevant to the work you are looking to secure, whether they are appropriate to your business, and how to access them.

This, along with other factors such as internal and external politics, can consequently affect the lead time to applying, bidding, and achieving the work in the public sector. This requires your company to be able to absorb a certain amount of time and cost to contribute toward this; the upside, however, is that once this pathway is established and ready, new work within that framework will generally be contracted more efficiently.

How to Build Relationships

Following this, David goes on to explain the importance of building strong, positive, and trusting relationships with your chosen client. Obviously, these are influenced and dependent on the quality of work completed throughout the project, however David attributes as much significance to open and honest conversation sustained alongside this.

For this reason, David warns against ‘mining’ when seeking and selecting projects and work, explaining that he finds a ‘land and expand’ approach to be transactional, as the client can easily assess and intuit when an organisation is more focused on the profit than the outcome. He highlights how this is even more heightened in the public sector, where the work is intended to improve the quality of life for individuals and/or the wider country.

How to Stand Out from other Organisations

When asked for the primary piece of advice he would give to an organisation looking to secure work in the public sector, David recommends isolating what differentiates your organisation from the other contenders, and emphasising this. Public bodies will be expecting a baseline set of requirements from their applicants anyway, so in order to stand out above these, it is crucial to understand your own value-add to the project.

One way to establish and support the USP of your organisation is through forming and sustaining relevant partnerships with other companies who could either benefit from your chosen speciality, or help to foster one within your capabilities. His Majesty’s Government encourages healthy partnerships, and uses its buying power to support the development of a healthy digital delivery SME community.

The Benefits of Networking

In order to initiate and build these partnerships, it is important to make the most out of networking. David warns against approaching networking from a point of transaction, finding the practice of establishing a ‘quasi-relationship’ purely for the sake of reaping business from it to be disingenuous: ‘That’s where I have a problem: It’s the conversation with intent rather than conversation as humans just communicating.’ It is through this latter avenue, getting to know a person before seeking to understand how they can help you from a business angle, that David has experienced the most fruitful and authentic working relationships.

Growing Client Relationships

One approach to securing work and relationships within the public sector which David reiterates throughout the podcast is to make yourself redundant by the end of the project. Though this may sound counter-intuitive, especially when it comes to sustaining repeated projects, what he is referring to is a teach-a-man-to-fish methodology whereby you implement your work into the material of the public sector entity so that it can continue beyond the timeline of the project, proving yourself to be a trust-worthy, reliable, and capable partner in the process.

The positive extension of this approach is the goodwill built with your clients, which will grow more and more fruit over time.

How you can Secure Work in the Public Sector

To learn more about David Lewis’ approach to securing work in the Public Sector, or get to know David Lewis and his career in more detail, you can listen to the full episode here.

To learn about David’s Digital & Innovation capabilities and offerings and how they can revolutionise your business, visit our Digital Innovation service page here.

If any of the topics or challenges outlined in this podcast/article resonate with you or your business, you can reach out directly to David Lewis.

About Cambridge Management Consulting

For more information contact us below.