John de Forte

John de Forte has over 30 years’ experience of working with legal and other professional services firms on proposals and tenders. This includes advising on and drafting major submissions, helping to develop key messages and maximise the scores from the evaluation. He coaches presentation teams and has developed and conducted a range of training programmes to enable fee-earners to enhance their bidding skills.

His role also includes setting up and reviewing bid departments, carrying out debriefs and gathering intelligence on how bid performance can be improved. In addition to advising firms in the UK, he has worked with bid teams in the US, across Europe and in Asia.

He writes and speaks regularly on tendering and business development. This includes writing a monthly column for Professional Marketing Magazine and contributing to a range of other publications, including the Buying Legal Council’s Legal Procurement Handbook (available on Amazon). John was one of the first consultants to specialise in advising professional firms on proposals, exploring the challenges which many firms were facing for the first time in his book Proposals, Pitches and Beauty Parades, published in 1994 by FT/Pitman.

Outside the legal sector John has worked with a wide range of professionals including global accounting firms and leading providers of actuarial, management consultancy and property management services. He has also helped consortia to win multi-billion pound flagship government contracts in the engineering, construction and other sectors. His role includes acting as editor-in-chief and co-ordinating input from authors in multiple jurisdictions.

www.deforte.com

jdf@deforte.com