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Creative Tenders Team Profiles – Kathryn Johansen

Posted on by John Hudson

Kathryn Johansen

When did you start working in the creative sector?

Just after finishing my Master’s degree in Media Production, in 2009.

What is the biggest change you’ve seen in the sector in the last ten years?

Probably the shift from print media to digital, I know everyone says this but name another sector which can literally change every single day with new technical advancements and developments.

What made you stay in the creative sector?

The variety of the work, it’s always changing so therefore never gets dull.

What is your biggest achievement in the sector?

I’d probably have to say working with this team on the creation of Creative Tenders, it’s such a great tool and I think it’s going to be a wonderful asset in helping businesses within the industry to grow.  I have been a part of it since day one, from initial planning to product launch and the whole team are 110% behind it, believe in it and are passionate about it which you don’t often see nowadays.

If you could describe the sector in 3 words what would you say?

Exciting, prosperous and fun.

If you could predict anything in the creative sector, what would it be?

The sector is strong here in the UK but in the coming years I would really like to see it grow and thrive, with more opportunities for us from abroad and to really show the strength we have as a digital and creative cluster.

If you didn’t work at in the creative industries what would you do?

It was after my A-levels that I really chose to go down the creative path so it would involve choosing my education differently but I would have got into archaeology.

What 3 skills do you think you need to be successful in this sector?

Ingenuity, imagination and drive

 

Creative Tenders Team Profiles – John Hudson

Posted on by John Hudson

Creative Tenders Team Profiles – John Hudson

When did you start working in the creative sector?

12 years whilst I was still at University.

What is the biggest change you’ve seen in the sector in the last ten years?

Everything moving digital and online, social media becoming more and more important for businesses, and online communities becoming more popular than offline events.

What made you stay in the creative sector?

The diversity and fast paced environment, I’m the type of person that needs to be kept on my toes, and the creative sector does that every day.

What is your biggest achievement in the sector?

Building a leading B2C videography business with 50% year on year growth.  For future achievements I am hoping Creative Tenders will become THE leading tender portal used worldwide by creative businesses and purchasing managers.

If you could describe the sector in 3 words what would you say?

Fast, dynamic and fulfilling (unlike my current diet).

If you could see anything happen in the creative sector, what would it be?

For smaller agencies to realise the potential in exporting.  Geography shouldn’t be an issue now when we do business with one another.

If you didn’t work at in the creative industries what would you do?

Probably a PE teacher, I like working with people and helping people realise what they are capable of.

What 3 skills do you think you need to be successful in this sector?

Approachable, open-minded, a good work ethic. If you have those 3 three things, drop me a line or send me your CV.

WE SOURCE CREATIVE CONTRACT OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow. 

How much time do you spend weekly searching tender websites?

Posted on by John Hudson

How much time do you spend weekly searching tender websites?  

Although no one has actually said £12 per week is too expensive, we thought we would look at the time saving cost of our system, allowing us to put into context how useful Creative Tenders will be to your agency.

£12 per week works out at an annual cost of only £624 per year. This gives you full system access and access to all UK and European tenders.

If the average sales professional UK wide earns £25,000 in salary we are saying that, that person would only spend 2.5% of their time on searching for marketing tenders and website tenders generating proactive leads per year to cover the cost of signing up.

New tendering opportunities

Obviously this is not the case. A sales’ professional should be constantly looking for new tendering opportunities and new business opportunities in order to achieve their financial target.

Add on the cost of the telephone bill generating cold leads, payments to other tendering systems which don’t gibe you 100% of the creative sector leads and the wasted time looking through hundreds of tenders that are not relevant to your sector or your agency then the cost saving is huge.

People have asked us why it’s so cheap when so much work goes into making it useful to agencies, and the answer is simple! We have an honest approach to making money, we can make good money from £12 per week, we can invest in product development and we can encourage the best possible lead generators to join us with good basic salaries and good bonuses. Our system is popular in the industry so as long as you keep loving us we can keep the costs of joining down.

Be a part of something fantastic and join Creative Tenders today!

 

 

Do you think you miss tendering opportunities because you didn’t see them in time?

Posted on by John Hudson

Do you think you miss tendering opportunities because you didn’t see them in time?  Or the deadline had just passed?

My biggest bugbear over the last 16 years in the industry is finding the perfect tender at 9am only to find out the deadline is 12noon – THE SAME DAY. Very annoying, but it used to happen all the time.

Do you ever find this in your agency?

This was one of the main reasons for launching this system, and developing it specifically for creative businesses. In the early days of the business we were asked by an investor why we are minimising our potential client base by only populating it with creative opportunities? That’s simple, creating something as fantastic as Creative Tenders, takes sector commitment, sector knowledge and more importantly a desire to grow the sector.

We know we are fantastic at generating creative sector opportunities so we created a system that allows us to take that online. That doesn’t mean to say we won’t create a Professional Tenders, or an Engineering Tenders, we might, but it will still be sector specific to those industries so they get the same value you do from Creative Tenders.

Our core goal is to make sure you don’t experience the same bugbears we have over the years and ensure you are made aware of opportunities the same day they are published. If we see you haven’t logged into the system, your dedicated account manager will give you a personal call to ensure you’ve not missed it. We are not a technical product with zero face. We build relationships, the better we know your agency the better we can support you and help you to grow.

Don’t be that Company who see’s their life changing tender 2 hours before submission, give yourself the best possible chances of success by giving yourself time to produce a winning bid submission.

 

 

Are you a sales professional in the creative sector?

Posted on by John Hudson

Are you a sales professional working in the creative sector?  Need help sourcing quality leads?

Calling all creative sector sales professionals!

Are you sick and tired of searching hundreds of tender sites trying to find suitable opportunities for your business to bid for? Are you fighting against a huge target and struggling to see straight? Do you hate cold calling and wish someone were doing it for you?

We understand the bugbears that sales professionals in our sector face. So many people tell us they hate cold calling. Hey we built a strong business from the fact that sales professionals in the creative sector hated cold calling. It takes a specific type of person who loves cold calling, but managing this team also take strong and coordinated management. Not a skill that many creative sector owners have from their own admission.

Our system doesn’t compete with sales professionals it supports sales professionals. Your sales professionals should focus on what they do best and let us do the leg work. We work with sales professionals not against them, we aim to fill their inbox with lead after lead for them to respond to and submit a winning bid.

Sales professionals shouldn’t see us as a threat, if anything we are an extension of their team and your dedicated account manager from Creative Tenders will be working with you to understand the types of clients you are looking to win so that they can brief our calling teams to run targeted campaigns aimed at populating the system with relevant tender opportunities.

Sounds fantastic right? You can sign up today!

Look forward to working with you!

 

Struggling with creativity? Our suppliers can help!

Posted on by John Hudson

Struggling with creativity?  Our suppliers can help! – Marketing Tenders

We all hit a brick wall sometimes and this doesn’t have to mean that creativity has to stop. We just need to know where to look for support and guidance with marketing tenders.

No one person can know everything, but collectively as a group we can make a difference to UK based businesses looking for growth. Sometimes UK marketing isn’t a problem, but moving from UK to international sales can be daunting and sometimes we need professional help to move us and handhold us into the unknown.

Creative Tenders Suppliers

Our suppliers can help! Creative Tenders has suppliers UK wide who have experience in UK and international marketing, from app developers, to design agencies, web development companies to content marketers. Think of a creative requirement, and you will be able to find suppliers on our system.

Since we’ve launched the portal we have new suppliers joining weekly, meaning the breath of knowledge we can offer non-creative businesses is immense.

We say to businesses that need help with creativity to tell us what they want to achieve. We can then help them write a specification for this and help them find the ideal provider to drive forward their business. Sounds simple enough right? Best thing, it’s FREE.

Did you know there are approximately 180,000 creative agencies in the whole of the UK of varying sizes and capabilities? How could you possibly know which one is right for your business? Let us help find you that perfect relationship that will make a positive impact on your business growth.

WE SOURCE CREATIVE CONTRACT OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow. 

Have you had a demo of the Creative Tender business development portal yet? Creative Tenders Reviews

Posted on by John Hudson

Have you had a demo of the Creative Tender business development portal yet?  What do you think? Creative Tenders reviews

We are so keen to hear people’s thoughts on the Creative Tenders portal. Have you had your demo yet? We are so pleased at how well the take up has been since we launched the product. It’s very exciting that people also see the value in our product from what has been a year’s worth of planning and development.

Our promise to our clients is that we will constantly develop this system to be the best tendering product on the market for creative businesses, but in order to do that we need your feedback.

Creative Tenders reviews

Feedback we have had so far has all been positive and includes the following reviews

“Amazing product, a good mix of public and private tendering opportunities”

—

“We have the confidence that you are finding 100% of the public tenders we want to bid for, something we have not had from other systems we have used in the past”

—

“Totally worth £12 per week, it helps our sales team dramatically and save’s so much time searching for opportunities”

—

“So good we want to go for more tenders ”

 —

So basically we want to know the good, the bad and the ugly. If you have seen a demo but don’t think it’s for you, we definitely want to hear from you so we can create a product you want to use. If you’re a current client and think the product is fantastic, let us know why, we don’t want to change any features that work for you.

Please send any product feedback and to enquire more about tender writing support to John at john@creativetenders.co.uk.

Sign up for a free demo of Creative Tenders and review the following opportunities:

Event Tenders

Website Tenders

Printing Tenders

Video Production Tenders & many more.

 

 

Are you looking for a new creative agency to work with? Creative Agency Tenders

Posted on by John Hudson

Are you looking for a new creative agency to work with?  Look no further 

Businesses work with creative agencies for different reasons, and you don’t have to be a multi million pound business to benefit from an agency relationship. Branding in a business is so important and people follow brands sometimes without realising due to their creative marketing campaigns and strong communications.

This should be the same for all businesses, no matter of size, sector or service offering. Everything consistent, from the use of colour, how you use your logo on printed and digital materials, the type of imagery you use, even the messages you put down on paper.

What’s the best way to do this? Find someone to look after your brand.

A proactive agency will present new ideas and concepts to you to support with the growth of your business. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune but you should consider putting a dedicated budget in place, no matter how small for the consistent management of your brand.

We have a pool of hundreds of UK based agencies

We have a pool of hundreds of UK based agencies and freelancers on our books. These agencies and freelancers work with businesses to help them grow, support with creative ideas and engage new customers.

Creative Finder works with marketing managers, business owners and senior business professionals with the responsibility of marketing. These businesses work with us to ensure they find the right agency relationship for their business, the wrong relationship can be costly and brand damaging.

The businesses post opportunities on our system and agencies will showcase their experience, their ideas, and any sector specific case studies they may have suitable to your bespoke requirements. Everything is managed on our system from uploading the ITT to organising shortlisted presentations. Meaning you won’t be bombarded with emails from the agencies that use our system.

The support doesn’t end there. Our experienced marketing team works with businesses to help specify their needs or help them identify what type of agency would be best to support their specific needs.

If you are interested in finding out more about Creative Finder, and how we have helped other businesses to find suitable suppliers, contact Jill on jill@creativetenders.co.uk.

Can we have your feedback on how you currently tender for new business?

Posted on by John Hudson

Can we have your feedback on how you currently tender for new business?

Before we started developing our product we took a selection of creative agencies feedback on the systems they use and how they tender for work. This ranged quite a bit but a few usual culprits appeared. Usually the ones that people knew about were from their local authorities, but there are so many opportunities out there, you just need to be able to find them.

If we understand how people currently tender, we will be able to improve our tendering system. We believe Creative Tenders should be a constantly evolving product and we believe with more ideas up our sleeve that we can change the way business is done globally – a big statement to live up to, right?

So which tendering websites do you use? Do you pay for tendering access or do you only use the free websites that you have found by accident as and when they appear?

What do you like about these tendering sites? Do you find any of them particularly easy or hard to use? If so we need to know, we need to make sure that our system is the best on the market. As we only have sector relevant tenders and we are industry experts, we know with the right feedback from our clients we can create a system that will have huge impact on the sector, and a huge impact on each and every one of our clients businesses.

If you want to send us your feedback so that we can shape a system that is right for you and your business, email Jill on jill@creativetenders.co.uk.

What percentage of your work comes from tendering?

Posted on by John Hudson

What percentage of your work comes from tendering?  Do you think you maximise this sales channel?

After me moaning last week about what people find difficult about tendering for the creative sector, I thought I best discuss something a little more lighthearted. Success rates!

As I have worked in all size agencies in my career, tendering success rates have been different. Mainly because there was no standard format in place, they were usually rushed due to studio time not being available and sometimes winging it a little with the hope that we might be in with a chance.

If I look at the most recent agency I supported, we can see that around 50% of the overall business we won came from public tendering, which for an agency of only 5 people is quite high.

Design is a very personal thing

Obviously it helped that I know how to write bids and more importantly how to write a winning tender so our success rate stood at about 80% for those projects we did bid for, but we never included creative artwork. This is a bugbear of mine. How can we actually develop creative material when we haven’t even met the client, haven’t discussed the brief properly, don’t really understand their client base or even their core objectives. Design is a very personal thing and we don’t believe that a tender should be put to one side based on a tiny fraction of the information provided.

Many people probably don’t maximise tendering as a channel to winning new business because of the studio time needed to produce the tender. I am pleased to say though that fewer tenders these days actually ask for artwork to be created, something we will also advise for those clients we work with on Creative Finder.

We’ve all sorts of standard templates to help our clients be more successful with tendering, one being a tender checklist, if you don’t tick all the boxes, don’t waste the time submitting the tender. Be ruthless.

If you want to access the standard documents we have in place, or even want me to take a look at one of your tenders, send it over, we are happy to help.

Sign up for a free demo of Creative Tenders and review the following opportunities:

Event Tenders

Website Tenders

Printing Tenders

Video Production Tenders & many more.

 

 

Struggling to find the right supplier for your marketing project?

Posted on by John Hudson

Struggling to find the right creative supplier for your marketing project? 

Finding the right creative supplier for your business is extremely important. From research into the businesses that use Creative Finder we have been informed that they use our service for multiple reasons:

  1. They wouldn’t know who to contact, or who the best in their region are?
  2. They don’t know how to approach agencies or if they are getting a good price?
  3. They don’t know how to specify what they are looking for and don’t want agencies to take them in a direction they don’t think they need / want
  4. They want to obtain competitive quotations with the right advice and guidance
  5. They have used the same agency for years and want to see if they are getting the best deal, the best creative ideas or the best marketing approach

Creative Finder

Businesses who use Creative Finder each have their own reasons for using the service. Those who use it is either business owners, marketing managers, or senior business representatives looking for help. It is a great way to get competitive quotes and find the best agencies.

Using our system is so easy and it is 100% FREE. There is also different levels of support available:

  1. You may already have a brief and just want to upload your opportunities and start marketing it suitable agencies
  2. Or, you may be struggling to set out your exact requirements and need help writing a specification

Whatever category you fall into, we can help and its 100% free. Our marketing experts have 15 years experience in the industry so helping you specify your needs is second nature to us, giving you the confidence that we know what we are doing and you will be asking for your exact needs, allowing you to get like for like quotations.

If you wan to chat further about Creative Finder, contact Jill by email at jill@creativetenders.co.uk and she will call at a convenient time to discuss your needs further.

 

What do you find difficult about creative sector tendering?

Posted on by John Hudson

Creative sector tendering, what do you find difficult about it?

As you’ve probably guessed by now we want to see the creative sector in the UK grow, and we believe we can help. Each week we will launch an open discussion and your feedback counts. The more feedback we get from these discussions, the better our system becomes. Simple!

So. Today we are asking what you find difficult about creative sector tendering.

I have worked in the sector for 16 years now and the tendering process has changed somewhat, but the basic principles have remained the same. The hardest thing I have found is the sheer volume of different websites I have to check weekly just to ensure I have not missed any opportunities. How many do I actually check, you may ask? Currently it stands at 1,017. Yep you heard it right. Over 1,000 sites weekly and boy is it boring and time consuming, and definitely a task which needs to be done on an evening in front of the TV as I don’t actually have time during my working day.

Creative sector tendering

The worst thing, over 50% may not even have a single tender on the site, but I have to check them just in case anything is missed. Seriously, who actually has time to do this? Yes I could give it to a junior to do but I would be worried they wouldn’t pick up on all of the opportunities and the search functions can’t be relied on, as they don’t always work. It doesn’t help by the fact that around 75% of public tenders have been categorised incorrectly.

So, help us please understand what it is you don’t like about creative sector tendering and we will ensure our system provides you with a much improved system, a one that will take away your bug bears and make your life easier.

Sign up for a free demo of Creative Tenders and review the following opportunities:

Event Tenders

Website Tenders

Printing Tenders

Video Production Tenders & many more.

 

 

Struggling to win website tenders?

Posted on by John Hudson

Struggling to win website tenders?  Would you like us to provide feedback on your website tender submission?

Are you struggling to win public tenders, or even be shortlisted when submitting proposals? Isn’t it annoying?

We have produced a blog previously about the importance of gathering feedback, but some feedback isn’t actually that helpful. For example, the client may say – cost. Well that’s helpful isn’t it?

Tender writing is an art form.

Tender writing is an art form. Once you’ve got a formula that works for you, you’re onto a winner. No, that doesn’t mean you will win everything you go for, but it does mean that you are presenting your business in the best possible light, answering the questions that are asked of you, rather than telling them information you believe to be important and sometimes realising that less is more.

For those of you struggling to win bids, it’s sometimes good to get an outside perspective. This is what we launched Creative Growth. We work with creative agencies to help them become bid ready. We can usually see from an initial tender review where you might be going wrong and we can help you to reduce the number of common mistakes you ate making.

Free tender review service.

Throughout the next 12 weeks, Creative Growth is offering member companies of Creative Tenders access to a free tender review service. We will critique one of your recent tenders that has not been successful and provider pointers for improved success. What’s not to love about this?

If you would like us to critique one of your tenders, you need to send us the ITT in full (including all of the supporting documents) and your response (in full, including appendices). Once we have this we will get our review complete with 14 days and offer a telephone advice session about what you need to be to be 100% tender ready.

Please send all documents including the reference GROWTH21 to jill@creativetenders.co.uk.

 

Sign up for a free demo of Creative Tenders and review the following opportunities:

Event Tenders

Website Tenders

Printing Tenders

Video Production Tenders & many more.