Talk to clients who are on the receiving end of tenders and watch their eyes roll skywards. It is as if this is a process so excruciatingly painful they would rather sing the national anthem naked at the FA Cup Final than be subjected to another round of law firm proposals.
When we conducted a survey among the Ftse 100′s senior in-house counsel last year, we found they were not particularly impressed with tenders as a means of selection. As one senior in-house counsel of a Ftse 100 company told us: “Beauty parades are flawed because a good sales job will not necessarily be supported in the performance of the work.”
