Smart Procurement Programme

The Smarter Procurement Programme is an innovative programme aimed at helping small businesses and social enterprises identify and take advantage of new sales opportunities in the public and private sectors.

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Help your business stand out from the rest.

About the programme

The Smarter Procurement Programme is an innovative programme aimed at helping small businesses and social enterprises identify and take advantage of new sales opportunities in the public and private sectors.

It will 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 combines 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 minimum of 15 hours of mentoring to support your business practically improve your approach to procurement opportunities.
Specialist tender prospecting support: A minimum of three tailored sales meetings will be scheduled for each participant following in-depth 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.

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

How much does it cost?

We are investing heavily in this programme to support participating businesses to maximise growth opportunities. The cost is only £100 + VAT (per participant).
Find out more about this programme

Apply

To request an application form, or discuss any aspect of this programme, contact:

Ruth Rea
Telephone: 028 9050 0518
Email: rearuth@belfastcity.gov.uk

Closing date for applications is Friday 26 August 2011.
The programme is funded by Belfast City Council and the European Regional Development Fund under the European Sustainable Competitiveness Programme for Northern Ireland 2007-2013.

Wednesday 10 August 2011