Negotiating For Contracts

[GordonSecurity]

I will be negotiating for a large contract this Wednesday. I will be competing against four other guard companies for the contract. The prospective client wants to interview each company representative for 40 minutes. They will ask questions like how long have you been in business. I haven't been in business that long. What should I say? What can I do to impress the client? What can I do to compete against companies that have been established for quite some time?

[SgtUSMC8541]

Quality of years rather than quantity of years.

[Andy Taylor]

Be honest. You can say something like "the reason I (we?) started our company was because we saw these problems in the way many security companies operate." (list common issues) I (We) wanted to do this about it. Tell how you are different. Do not mention competitors by name. Emphisize the quality of your work, not how long you've been at it. You can also go into how long the senior staff has been doing security work, even if it is for others. How else would you have seen the problems that you fixed.

[hrdickinson]

Be honest. You can say something like "the reason I (we?) started our company was because we saw these problems in the way many security companies operate." (list common issues) I (We) wanted to do this about it. Tell how you are different. Do not mention competitors by name. Emphisize the quality of your work, not how long you've been at it. You can also go into how long the senior staff has been doing security work, even if it is for others. How else would you have seen the problems that you fixed.This is great advice. I want to reiterate what Andy advised regarding the names of your competitors. Don't "talk down" your competitors, rather talk yourself up! You can draw favorable comparisons of your service veruses the competition in general.

Since you have not been in business very long, then I will assume the company is still small. If that's the case, point out how important a client they will be to you and how much attention and focus they will receive as opposed what they might expect from a branch manager of a national firm.

If you need some help with the pricing or a proposal, PM me. Good Luck!

[Bill Warnock]

From what we have all read, is there any doubt in your mind concerning the importance of this site to the security profession and all of us.
For those gentlemen, true professionals all, who have responded to the inquiry, you have brought credit upon the profession and yourselves.
Well done, home and tea!
Bill

[UtahProtectionForce]

Like said above, dont talk down your competitors, talk about what you can do, talk about how your company is diffiernet, also point out important things like my company is the only company to offer such and such special services in the city if that be true(I.E. k-9 drug detection dogs, special education classes) if you have a good raport with the police department mention that too. bring up how your officers look professional and how your uniforms are outstanding compared to others in the industry where your at....... and such.

[Bill Warnock]

Like said above, dont talk down your competitors, talk about what you can do, talk about how your company is diffiernet, also point out important things like my company is the only company to offer such and such special services in the city if that be true(I.E. k-9 drug detection dogs, special education classes) if you have a good raport with the police department mention that too. bring up how your officers look professional and how your uniforms are outstanding compared to others in the industry where your at....... and such.
I must now append my previous comment to include "young lady." She has also has offered sage advice.
Enjoy the day,
Bill

[hrdickinson]

...also point out important things like my company is the only company to offer such and such special services in the city if that be true(I.E. k-9 drug detection dogs, special education classes)Great point, Utah! Whenever you can add value over the competition, you gain an edge. In addition to Utah's suggestions, consider including a guard tour system, GPS tracking system (i.e. GuradTrax) or an online incident reporting system. Depending on the weekly hours, you can often recover the cost of these items over the first year of the contract by adding only $0.10 or $0.20 to the hourly bill rate.

[ptbeast]

Wow, after reading the question I was going to reply, but you have already gotten all the advice I would have given you and more. Andy really hit the nail on the head. Focus on what you do right and the experience your team has in the field and you should do just fine.

Dave

[GordonSecurity]

I would like to thank all of you for responding to my questions. All of your comments were very helpful. I made my presentation. Now, I am waiting for them to call me with the good news!

[Bill Warnock]

I would like to thank all of you for responding to my questions. All of your comments were very helpful. I made my presentation. Now, I am waiting for them to call me with the good news!
GordonSecurity we all wish you the best of luck and luck favors the prepared.
Enjoy the day,
Bill

[hrdickinson]

I would like to thank all of you for responding to my questions. All of your comments were very helpful. I made my presentation. Now, I am waiting for them to call me with the good news!Good Luck! Let us all know how it works out!

[Andy Taylor]

Good Luck.

[UtahProtectionForce]

Dont forget to tell us if you were able to aquire that contract or not.

[integrator97]

Never bash the competition. Don't be afraid to mention there name in a factual comparison, but don't bash them. Nothing turns me off more than when a potential vendor talks down a competitor. I won't do business with them after that.

[mad_malk]

I am resurrecting this thread because It is a very key piece of information that should be noted and remembered. It also ties in with sectrainers pieces about brand.

[SecTrainer]

Sorry I missed this thread. Good advice from one and all.

One thing I might have suggested would have been to do some research on the company and the industry it works in.

1. Know as much as you can about what a prospective client does and the industry environment. Visit the website and glean everything you can there. Read any "white papers" they've published on the site about what they do. You might even find a bio for the person interviewing you! See if you can identify competitors and visit a few of their sites as well.

Professional journals abound in every industry and any decent research librarian should be able to help you here if online research isn't sufficient. Encyclopedia articles are also great "gateways" to initiate you into an industry that you might not know much about.

2. What types of security, labor and safety problems this prospective client has had over the last 2-3 years. Various incidents might have made the local news media (papers, TV and radio - check all) and, depending on policy and law in your jurisdiction, police/sheriff reports might also be public information. Security topics involving the company might also have been mentioned in various security journals as well as their own industry journals (see #1).

3. In conjunction with #2, you might bone up on any discussion you can find regarding similar problems that other companies have successfully used to deal with them.

4. Pay attention to any prominent security-related regulatory or DHS-related issues in the industry.

5. If I were really doing a business intelligence project (and a lot can be done very quickly), I would have also wanted to know whether the company has been mentioned in government hearings, etc., and whether the company has filed any plans with local authorities to expand the plant, had any complaints for safety hazards filed against it, etc. Most of these things are absolutely public record if you know where to look.

I realize that I'm talking about some leg- and keyboard-work, but you can never know too much. You do what you can in the available time and call it good.

Every industry has its own peculiar security environment and the fact that you know even a few things about that will likely separate you from most of the competition. Your client, remember, is totally fixated on HIMSELF and HIS COMPANY. He honestly only cares about YOUR company in one essential matter, and that is what he thinks you can do for him. The more answers you can give about your company that relate to HIS company, HIS situation, HIS boss who's breathing down his back, etc., the better.

So, with a little background as noted above, you can then also do the second thing I would have suggested: Ask questions of your own. I've turned such interviews completely around until I was interviewing the interviewer - not obnoxiously, of course, but I knew that intelligent questions are just as impressive to an interviewer in their own way as intelligent answers to his questions!

In the case of a chemical company, I had boned up on some vulnerabilities to theft because some of their products were attractive to terrorists. I also knew that another company had taken certain measures regarding this, so I was able to ask: "Do you think that Company X's tank isolation protocol is the right way to approach this problem from your perspective?" I'll never know whether that necessarily closed the deal, of course, but from the look of amazement on the guy's face I'd bet it had something to do with it and I'd double the bet that no one else asked him any such questions.

A great book on this general topic, incidentally, is Dare to Prepare: How to Win Before You Begin by Ronald Shapiro. He also wrote The Power of Nice. Both books address the folly of walking into situations like this without knowing who and what is sitting on the other side of the table.