Ready to Pitch? : Proposal and vendor attractiveness as mediators of vendor success ini competitive tenders

Since organizational customers seek to enhance transparency and comparability among vendors' solutions, tenders have become important elements of their purchasing strategies. Vendors face a high risk of failure, and given the involved resources, tender participation is now a key challenge. Despite its relevance, the literature lacks a conceptualization of vendor success in tenders. We show that the attractiveness of proposal and vendor determines the achievement of tender-related objectives. Our findings indicate that salespeople may influence vendor attractiveness by engaging in several activities during the buying process. However, opportunities to increase a specific proposal's attractiveness aside from price setting are limited.