Visits to the Client when Tendering for Consulting Contracts: Sourcing Information or Influencing the Client?

Roger Svensson

No 531, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: Consulting firms (CFs) sell services on a project basis to many clients and must therefore continuously tender for new contracts. One frequently used strategy by CFs is to visit the clients in connection to the tenders. The reason to the visits is either: 1) to influence the client in his decision-making in some sense; or 2) to source information about the project so that a better proposal can be submitted. Using a unique database on individual proposals, I examine empirically which of these two reasons is the most important. The estimations suggest that influencing the client dominates as explanation to the visits.

Keywords: Consulting services; Procurement; Visits; Information sourcing; Lobbying; Marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 L14 L84 M31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2000-03-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ind
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