What role does an external consultant have in the bidding process?
Look, the issue of external consultants in public tenders ... is no small thing. Basically, they are the ones that help you not to put the leg in that chaos of rules, papers, and bureaucracy that is to try to sell something to the government. And yes, the process is a roll: laws around here, technicalities over there, and if you don't know where the shots go, you stars for sure. That's where the external consultant enters, that “sorcerer” that has already seen a thousand battles and knows when you have to put the blue seal instead of the red so that the offer does not lie to you.
These people, who sometimes call them advisors in tenders or public procurement specialists (names to bore) can do everything a bit. That is, from looking for the tenders that really interest you, until you throw a cable riding the proposal so that they do not reject it for nonsense. If you have to negotiate the contract, there are. Does any brown come out during the process? Well, you also get the chestnuts out of the fire.
Now, the keyst of all: they know how to move between laws. In each country there is its own legal labyrinth, that if the contract law in Spain, that if the FAR in the United States ... a fuck. If you don't have someone to decipher all that legal jargon, you're going. The good consultant, the one who already has a callus in this, will know how to protect you and not catch your fingers.
Above, and this is not less, they give you another look, colder and more strategic. They help you see the market as it is, not as you think it is. They analyze the competition, they tell you what you are breaking it and what you are lying, and they even release tips taken from what really works, not Chinese stories.
In short: having an external consultant in the bidding process is almost like having a GPS in the middle of the jungle. Is it worth paying them? Man, if you want to win fat contracts and not end up losing pasta or involved in legal trouble, yes. Of course, do not even think of hiring the first one to happen; Look for someone with real experience, who knows laws and has good reputation. If not, better or bother.