The Big Day

I've never considered myself particularly good at bid work. This stems from a dry spell around 1998-9 when my score was "played 7; lost 7" and my confidence was totally shot. Since then I've steered clear of it whenever I can, and I'd been pretty successful at hiding too - having been on design and delivery work pretty much full-time for the last seven years.

But when I was earmarked as the lead solution architect for this latest piece of work, I knew there would come a time when I would have to get on my hind legs in front of the customer, and sell our solution to them. That time was this afternoon at 2pm. We'd worked on the presentation all day Friday. Some people had added bits during Saturday and I'd been revising my sections on the train down to London yesterday afternoon. Then we rehearsed it twice yesterday evening and continued working on our own sections either late last night or early this morning, depending on personal preference. I added a few discreet builds to my slides to help me tell the story, and amended some graphics for added legibility. I also converted my script into punchier and more personalised language, and then transcribed it into bulleted mnemonic form so I wouldn't fall into the trap of reading it out.

Following a get-together of the presentation team for a further run-through to check the changes, we then had one final rehearsal in front of the full team (presenters and those who were there to assist with the Q&A session) before taking it to the customer.

So by the time I stood up, I'd been through the material four times before in full-on presentation mode, as well as reading and re-reading my notes countless times. I know someone who will be impressed with this level of preparation and it will come as no surprise to her that the final delivery went off not only without a hitch, but brilliantly. In particular, I received personal compliments on my presentation from each individual in our team, including the Managing Director who said my section had been full of energy and enthusiasm. For the first time ever, I came out of the experience feeling positive and buoyed up with team spirit. Shortly followed by actual spirit as we adjourned to the bar across the road to celebrate a successful presentation and relax after the tension of the past four days.

After 'The Big Day' comes 'The Big Wait' as they deliberate on the suppliers' different solutions and choose the one they want to go with. We'll find out in seven days.


My mate Bon asked if he could keep up with my blog via RSS, so you'll notice I've now included a link to the feed in the 'Links' section on the right. By now I might have my first subscriber ;o)