The social value aspect of procurement is a team effort. You have the final say on who wins the contract. But you’re still relying on suppliers to produce high-quality bids to get you over the line. Their ability to craft a meaningful response to your requirements is what enables you to have the greatest impact.
To squeeze the most social value out of every contract you award, you need your suppliers to be at the top of their game, too. But you also don’t want to spend days or weeks going back and forth with potential suppliers individually. Which is why ‘meet the buyer’ events can be brilliant for levelling up your impact.
They get all your potential suppliers into one place, allowing you to clearly communicate your goals and expectations. You can ensure everyone is on the same page and empower bidding organisations to put their best foot forward at tender. And today, we’re sharing three direct benefits you can expect from including these types of events in your pre-procurement process.
Increase the quality of bids
Meet the buyer events help raise the calibre of bids you receive across the board. They build a better understanding amongst suppliers about what you want and need from their responses. It gives you time to explain exactly what social value means to your council, what your priorities are, and the specific outcomes you hope to achieve.
You can share insight into how you evaluate and compare bids. And giving suppliers the answers in this way allows them to produce more relevant, winning bids. They can spend less time wondering what you want and more time giving you even more of it. And by sharing all this information upfront, you can expect less back and forth during the actual tender process.
With a better understanding of what your council requires, suppliers can produce more specific, targeted bids. Which means every project will have a higher amount of social value promised and, ultimately, delivered.
These events can also raise bid quality by increasing your pool of potential suppliers. They are, in some sense, also an opportunity to network. And can be a way for both buyers and suppliers to meet new organisations who might otherwise not have been on their radar.
Manage expectations from the get-go
Under-delivery of social value is usually a result of miscommunication or misunderstood expectations. Suppliers don’t know how they’re supposed to track the social value delivered or how often they’re supposed to provide data. Or even that their commitments are a binding part of the contract.
Meet the buyer events allow you to reduce these issues right away. They’ll give you the chance to share your complete social value process, from pre-procurement to final delivery.
It’s a chance for you to communicate about the tools you use. This gives suppliers the opportunity to become familiar with them ahead of time and tailor their bids. And it ensures a seamless transition when projects get underway. This then ties nicely into the data you need, as well as how often you expect updates. You might also outline what will happen in the case of under-delivery.
If you set out how seriously your council takes social value obligations from the onset, you reduce the likelihood of attracting bids from suppliers who don’t match this commitment.
Level the playing field for SMEs and VCSEs
Meet the buyer events allow you to provide extra social value support and guidance for whoever needs it, giving all suppliers an equal opportunity to win your contracts. A national construction firm will likely have spent the last few years improving their social value process in line with PPN 06/20. But it might be the first time an SME or VCSE is competing for a public contract.
These events are a perfect opportunity to lay the foundations of a potential relationship. Understanding social value can be tricky, so offering a chance to learn more can be a great boon for these smaller contractors. Going back to our previous point, it also allows them to become familiar with tools that they otherwise wouldn’t have heard of.
Rather than picking from the organisations who are most experienced with social value, you can find those who show greater commitment and understanding.
What smaller suppliers might lack in reporting capabilities they make up in terms of tangible impact and connections to local communities. So why not build up their knowledge and give them a better shot at winning your contracts?
It’s in your council’s best interest to have the most prepared and empowered suppliers possible. Higher-quality bids during tender mean more value delivered over a contract’s duration. And by making meet the buyer events a staple part of your procurement process, you can achieve exactly this.
Impact is an easy-to-use platform that puts the social value side of procurement on autopilot. With decentralised data capture, automated conversions, and ongoing contract management, it’s never been easier to tender for contracts, track your projects, and help local businesses level-up their social value. To find out more, schedule a demo or get in touch with the team on 0161 532 4752.