Original publication date: February, 2009
I love BidCenter! And I think you will too because it’s a great tool for getting otherwise-hard-to-find bid opportunities into the hands of your clients. I have a couple of easy tips for you to follow when entering bid opportunities in the BidCenter interface:
Your audience is most likely your clients, whom YOU write search profiles for. So how do you typically design a search profile? If you use very descriptive terms in your profiles, then use those same descriptive terms when entering a bid opportunity. If you place a lot of category restrictions into your profiles, then be sure to put a lot of thought into the FSGs you assign to your bid opportunities. The bottom line is that you need to think like yourself (or other search profile writers in your program) to ensure that the right clients see these bid opportunities.
In most contexts, typos are only minor nuisances, but in the world of bid opportunities, they can prevent clients from receiving relevant bid opportunities. For example, it’s unlikely that any of your clients’ profiles contain the word “scalpal,” but there are probably a couple with the word “scalpel.” So don’t be afraid to get that dictionary out of the desk drawer when you’re unsure of a spelling or, better yet, follow the instructions in our spell check FAQ to take advantage of Google’s spell check application.
Another area of the bid opportunity that you should carefully review is contact information. Make sure the phone number or e-mail address you provide is accurate so that clients can follow up on the opportunity.
The more details you include in the text and title fields, the better the responses will be from your clients. Include any mandatory pre-bid meetings or on-site inspections that might be important to your clients and be sure to identify how they may obtain more information such as the complete bid package.
As always, thanks for reading!
Karen