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Smarter Procurement Programme

This business programme is now closed to applications..

About the programme

Our Smarter Procurement Programme is an innovative programme to help small businesses and social enterprises identify and take advantage of new sales opportunities in the public and private sectors.

It aims to provide participants with the knowledge to identify procurement opportunities and develop the skills required to construct bids to enable them to tender for contracts more effectively.

What will the programme do for you?

The programme will start in September 2011 and will combine five elements:

• Tender audit
  At the beginning of the programme you'll complete a self assessment of your tendering skills to evaluate your readiness to enter into the procurement process.

• Tender workshops
  The programme will provide five half day procurement workshops focusing upon developing your knowledge of and ability to respond to procurement opportunities.

• Tender selling skills workshop
  This workshop will focus on developing participants selling skills required at each stage of the tendering process including electronic tendering, tele-prospecting, presentation skills, direct selling skills and negotiation skills.

• Individual business mentoring
  You will be allocated an experienced business mentor at the start of the programme for a minimum of 15 hours of mentoring. Your mentor will then work with you to provide you with practical support as you begin to:
  • identify procurement opportunities
  • respond to tenders and quotations
  • identify and address the business's constraints to taking on new business.

• Specialist tender prospecting support
  A minimum of three tailored sales meetings will be scheduled for each participant following indepth tender prospecting delivered by expert sales mentors.

Who should take part?

We will be recruiting 10 participants to take part on the programme. To be eligible you must:

• be a small business or social enterprise based in the Belfast City Council area with less than 20 employees
• have limited or no experience of public sector procurement.

You must also demonstrate that you have the time and resources to commit to this programme. We will assess this based on information provided in a brief application form.

Please note that Invest NI client companies and retail businesses may not be eligible for this programme.

Applicants to our business development programmes must meet our good relations and equality criteria.

Cost

We are investing heavily in this programme to support participating businesses to maximise growth opportunities.

The cost to you is only £100 + VAT (per participant).

This includes:

• five half-day tender workshops
• one full day selling skills workshop
• three consultancy days providing mentoring and sales prospecting for participants.

Contact us

Ruth Rea
Economic Development
Belfast City Council
Development Department
Cecil Ward Building
4-10 Linenhall Street
Belfast
BT2 8BP

Email: rearuth@belfastcity.gov.uk
Telephone: 028 9050 0518
Fax: 028 9027 0325

The programme is funded by Belfast City Council and the European Regional Development Fund under the European Sustainable Competitveness Programme for Northern Ireland 2007-2013