Introduction
If you are not already selling your products and services into the Public Sector, you really should consider it; there has probably never been a better time than now. In 2024 around 20% of public sector procurement was spent through SME’s – around £40 billion. And it is growing. In 2025 new procurement rules were set out in an aim to boost spending through SME’s including the mandating of of SME spending targets.
Contrary to popular opinion, navigating public sector procurement rules is not as difficult as you may think and the potential benefits, often far outweigh the perceived negatives.
Take for example, the fact that any Government Procurement above a £118k per annum spend threshold has to be advertised, in an open, transparent manner and contract awards are made for a specific term/s which are rigorously adhered to. They can be of significant monetary value, where payment is made quickly and effectively, enabling awardees to better manage, forecast and invest for their future capability, profitability and ultimately growth.
Successfully delivering a Public Sector contract, can also speak volumes about your Organisations capabilities and can act as powerful ‘proof-points’ used in the right way. The more Public Sector organisations you work with, typically the greater your chances of converting others too, as dealing with one Council’s requirements (for example), will not be dissimilar to dealing with the requirements of another.
What is the Public Sector Construct:
When we say Public Sector, we usually mean service providers that form a pivotal part of HM Government and which are funded/part-funded by you and I as taxpayers. However, this also extends to the Not-For Profit charity sector, often referred to as Third Sector.
In summary therefore, the key sub-sectors within the Public Sector construct are;
• Central Government – Major Departments i.e. HMRC, DVLA, MOD, MOJ, Home Office,
• Local Government – Typically Councils,
• Health – NHS, Health Ombudsman’s,
• Education – School’s, College’s, Universities,
• Not for Profit – Typically Charities and Housing Associations.
Accessing Public Sector Contracts:
Certain Public Sector organisations still let their contracts in isolation and consequently you are dealing direct with each of them on a case-by-case basis, throughout their own individual tendering process. There are a number of ‘free to access’ aggregator tools available in the marketplace, to enable you to access all published Public Sector tender opportunities in one place i.e. Contracts Finder or Find a Tender.
Others Public Sector organisations, recognise that in isolation they have neither the bandwidth, skillset or collective buying power of a Group and instead decide it is better to collaborate, going to market by way of a Public Sector Framework/s. Major Framework providers/groups include;
Pan Government:
• Crown Commercial Services (CCS),
Central Government:
• Ministry of Defence (MOD will have a range of their own),
• Ministry of Justice (MOJ may have their own that extend to HM Prison Service, Probation Service and Court Service),
Health:
• NHS Shared Business Services (NHSBS),
• NHS Supply Chain (Overseen in partnership with DHL),
• London Procurement Programme (LPP or the 5 Major London NHS Trust Groups),
Education:
• London Universities Purchasing Consortia (LUPC),
• Southern Universities Purchasing Consortia (SUPC),
• North East Universities Purchasing Consortia (NEUPC),
Local Government:
• London Contracts Supplies Group (LCSG),
• Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO),
• Northeast Purchasing Organisation (NEPO),
Other:
• Procurement for Housing (PFH),
UK Regions:
• Met. Police and Blue Light Services (may have their own and collaborate on occasion),
• Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS),
• Welsh and Scottish Government (may have their own and collaborate on occasion).
Public Sector Framework benefits
The benefit of being an approved supplier on a Public Sector Framework, is that you have gone through a formal tendering process and have presumably been selected based upon capability, measured against a range of criteria. You will be provided with a list of potential public sector clients, who are signed up to the agreement and can award you, or one of the other approved suppliers a contract to support their needs specifically, by way of a direct award, mini-competition or ad-hoc call off arrangement.
Winning a place on a Framework is however only part of the challenge, when in essence all you have actually secured is a license to sell. You will still need to go into full business development mode if you are to be successful. Suppliers who wait for business to be awarded to them on the back of being granted a place on a Framework, are often left disappointed, as a number of contracts will have been awarded to preferred suppliers who are more proactive in driving uptake of the contract.
Selling to Public Sector is not just the preserve of the large Corporate Organisations, increasingly Small to Medium Sized Entreprises (SME’s) are being encouraged to take part, with their successful uptake measured and monitored, gradually removing unnecessary bureaucracy, aiming to level the playing field for a wider demographic to benefit from Government contracts. As I’ve already said, in the past year alone in excess of £40Bn was spent with SME’s which accounts for 20% of total Public Sector expenditure, with roughly a third of Local Government (i.e. Council’s) spend being spent with SME’s.
Starting with a Strategy:
It is easy to be bamboozled by the scale of opportunity that exists within Public Sector/Government and in so many cases I come across, Organisations jump on board, taking a scatter-gun approach to securing new contracts within the sector and in doing so, tie up resource, time, energy, cost in the process, often for a zero return. This is in nobody’s best interest and will quickly put the brakes on any forward progress you may hope to make. What is needed instead, is a well thought-out, detailed strategy which fundamentally addresses;
• Why Your Organisation and Public Sector,
• What could your Organisation bring to it,
• Where are you strong, where are you weak, where are the opportunities and threats to your approach (SWOT),
• What are your products and services ‘sweet-spot’ relative to Public Sector,
• Which parts of Public Sector fit within your target ‘sweet-spot’
• Who typically makes the decision on your products and services within Public Sector,
• Where do they congregate, (consider; events, marcomms, speaking seminars etc),
• What is the nuanced message/s you are targeting them with, versus what they will want to be hearing,
• What proof-points can you use i.e. Case Studies to help bolster your message,
• What is the hook/s to garner their interest,
• What does good look like in terms of delivering in your products and services,
• Why you versus your competition (consider; usp’s, win themes, value proposition),
• What resource do you have available to support your public sector strategy, who is going to be doing what and when,
• Are all of your internal stakeholders aligned to the strategy/approach.
Enacting the strategy:
Having established and communicated your strategy to your internal stakeholders, it’s time to think about enacting it, accepting that it will take time initially to make the required headway and to ‘build up a positive head of steam’
Therefore, adopting a pragmatic methodological approach is important, as is a fair degree of patience. Much better to identify a series of Quick Wins, Medium- and Longer-term objectives taken from the agreed strategy, that can then be apportioned across your team and implemented, with progress measured and monitored through to conclusion, by way of a simple Red, Amber, Green (RAG) status flag mechanism.
Ongoing communication is key and in this regard, you want your organisation and its capabilities to be known by as many Public Sector representatives as possible (both at individual organisation and framework levels) networking at every opportunity and developing this network as early alert mechanisms for potential new opportunities.
Various stages of Public Sector Tender Process:
Remembering, you have taken the time to build out a target strategy, you know who you are targeting and why. You also have in your back pocket, a story and a hook, that will help you win them over early and position you/your organisations capabilities as a ‘potential candidate’ for their considerations (in an ideal world, you want them to go to tender with you already in mind as a potential shortlist candidate).
Early engagement is therefore key as is having an extensive network across Public Sector, particularly in the areas that you are directly targeting, as they can often provide you with additional/anecdotal insight that you can use to tailor your communications and pitch.
Using the various Government tender tracking services (i.e. Contracts Finder or Find A Tender) be sure to look out for any Pre-information Notices (PIN’s) or Expressions of Interest (EOI), these are intended to alert the market to the fact that a specific Government Department is intending to tender its requirements.
Accepting that Procurement teams are often generalists, they will be looking to the market (i.e. you/your organisation) to engage with it early, help it form its understanding and in certain cases having an influence into what it writes in its tender specifications, these are therefore valuable opportunities to engage with, if you want to secure positive outcomes at tender award stage.
During this time, be sure to identify future tender timelines and gear up accordingly, building out your library of content, proof-points, case studies, references etc. in advance. Depending on the complexity, value and contract term of the procurement requirement, the tender process may consist of some/all of the following stages and as these advance, various suppliers will be deselected, with a view to arriving at a shortlist as quickly as possible;
A. Pre-Information Notice (PIN),
B. Expression of Interest (EOI),
C. Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ),
D. Invitation to Tender (ITT) or Request for Quote (RFQ) or Request for Proposal (RFP),
E. Shortlist (may consist of Presentation and/or site visit and/or sample review),
F. Best & Final Offer (BAFO),
G. Standstill period,
H. Award,
It is also worth building in broad consideration for;
I. Implementation,
J. Delivery of Business as Usual (BAU),
K. Monthly and Quarterly business review processes (MBR/QBR),
L. Contract Retention Strategy and Service SWOT (to align for 2nd and 3rd Contract terms)
Pitching to win:
Upon receiving a Public Sector opportunity/tender, it is important to remember the mantra; If it is worth pitching for, it is worth preparing for, conversely if it is not worth preparing for why on earth is it worth pitching for. Be sure to ask yourself some searching questions, are we pitching to this opportunity for the right reasons i.e. does it form part of our strategy, does it sit well within our capability ‘sweet-spot’ can we add value and deliver a profitable return on investment (ROI) for our business, if the answer to these questions is no, walk away, there will be other opportunities, unless of course you are pitching for another reason i.e. you want to unsettle the incumbent or you want to get your organisation known for future opportunities.
If you are going to pitch, then be sure to ‘pitch and presume’ i.e. work on the premise that you will get through to the shortlist process, using the language of presumption in your pitch materials and showing a picture of what the future looks like for the client upon awarding the business to your organisation.
When building out your tender response, try to place yourself in the shoes of the recipient, remembering they may receive, 10, 20, 50, 100 responses and for them they are looking to deselect potential providers as rapidly as possible, so make it easy for them to navigate and enjoyable to read, limiting the use of AI, instead drawing upon your own library of content, case studies and visual proof-points to build out your story and your position relative to each question.
Whatever you do, if you must lift previous content from other tender responses, make sure it is relevant and nuanced specific to this live opportunity you are working on now. There is nothing worse than reviewing a ‘cut n paste’ response, procurement will spot this a mile off and it will ‘speak volumes’ about your level of commitment to their individual cause.
Do not worry if you cannot do today everything that the client is asking for in order to secure the contract. What you must not do however, is to use ‘smoke and mirrors’ to bluster your way through the questions, as this will become obvious to seasoned procurement professionals. Instead show them a roadmap of what it looks like to be able to deliver their requirements in time for go-live of the contract, remembering that you are the expert in your field and you should be able to do this, as well as pointing out the likely ‘bumps in the road’ you/they are likely to encounter along the way. This not only positions you as credible, it shows you are realistic, and honest, somebody they can potentially do business with, who is in it for the long term.
Again, working on the assumptive, be sure to consider (in plenty of time) the next stages in the tender process too i.e. is there a shortlist presentation stage, site visit and/or sample review. Consider what this may look like, what form it will likely take and gear up accordingly, drop the appropriate dates into your relevant stakeholder/s diaries, building in time for ‘trial-runs’ plenty enough in advance, so that you can iron out any blemishes ready for the day in question.
Social Value & ESG:
Like it or loathe it Social Value and Environment, Social Governance (ESG) are placing an increasing part of Government’s considerations when awarding contracts and therefore contribute a significant score weighting to any tender evaluation.
The trick to doing well here is to be ‘match fit’ in advance, taking the time to educate yourself on the requirement and where you/your organisation sit in relation to it, identifying the gaps and building out a plan to address areas of non-conformance, looking at how you can introduce policies and processes that offset these gaps and identifying what the cost to remedy these is versus the potential Return on Investment (ROI). In my experience, there is nothing like the prospect of a major contract/game-changing win on the horizon, to enact rapid and positive change in an organisation.
It is worth considering that from a Social Value standpoint, you/your organisation will always be stronger nearer to your central hub of operations (employing locally, buying locally, putting back into local societies and the local economy) than you are miles away from it. In this regard, you are more powerful pitching for opportunities in your immediate locality building out from there, than you are pitching for business in areas where you have little or no representation.
Government Organisations want to award contracts to a wider cross-section of the business community and want to assist you in the process, helping you to be compliant with their needs. If they get the sense that you are willing and enabled to do what is necessary to be compliant, they will be more willing to score you positively in this regard.
In conclusion
There is nothing to fear and lots to gain when pitching for Public Sector business, as long as you have a strategy which all key stakeholders in your organisation are aligned too. Be realistic about the time it will take to make headway in the sector and diligent in your approach. Steady progress is the name of the game, moving gradually toward a full head of steam. The longer you engage with Public Sector the more you will get to understand its nuances and be able to pivot your business and processes toward its demands, securing you more business wins in the process.
Sales Perfect’s ‘Fit-To-Bid’ programme by public sector specialist Karl is a comprehensive tool kit of training, consultancy and practical support designed to help you successfully sell into the Public Sector. If you need help or assistance in building out and/or executing your strategy, feel free to reach out to Karl via Sales Perfect’s website.
