How we can support you to promote your place on a CCS agreement – Supplier Specifics

Being awarded a place as a supplier on a CCS agreement is a great opportunity to promote your organisation to new and existing public sector customers.

By issuing effective communications on your new supplier status you can make public sector customers aware of what you offer through our agreements, helping you to win new contracts, increase your revenue, enhance your reputation and grow your organisation.

How can CCS help with your supplier communications?

CCS is here to help you promote your position as a CCS supplier. We can support you in a number of ways.

We have created a dedicated marketing toolkit for you to use when crafting your communications, which provides useful resources to help you correctly communicate what being a CCS supplier means and the products and services you can offer. This toolkit may be provided to you as part of your agreement award documentation but is otherwise available via the CCS website, and contains advice on how to use our supplier logos and what information to include within your press release.

When you promote yourself as a CCS supplier, you are also promoting the CCS agreement through which you are supplying. With that in mind, we ask that any press releases, social media posts, website publications or other communications you produce that reference CCS or your place on a CCS agreement are reviewed by our press team prior to distribution or publication.

Supplier communications can be sent directly to the CCS press team at at pressoffice@crowncommercial.gov.uk. We ask that you please allow a minimum of 48 hours for approval on communications materials once submitted for review.

Do you have a success story that you’d like to tell?

The toolkit also contains advice on how you can produce useful case studies that highlight your success stories, demonstrate the services you offer and your experience in your market, as this can help secure new and repeat business for your organisation.

Any case studies you produce should be shared with CCS through your account manager in the draft stage, and they will work with you to finalise this for publication. You can find examples of previous case studies on our website.

Top tips for your supplier communications

Here are our 5 top tips to help you position your messaging correctly and get the most out of your communications.

Don’t be afraid to promote yourself

It sounds obvious, but as an organisation that has been awarded a place on a CCS agreement, you now have a chance to use your communication channels to shout about what you’ve achieved and to win public sector business.

We encourage you and will support you to make the most of the opportunity to put yourself in front of potential customers. Simply being a supplier on an agreement does not guarantee you will win contracts – it is important to capitalise on the chance to demonstrate your expertise to the public sector.

Include our descriptive paragraph in your materials

As part of the toolkit, we provide a paragraph explaining who CCS is and how we operate. We ask that all suppliers include this paragraph in the main body of their marketing materials.

We ask this because it raises awareness of the commercial benefits we achieve for the public sector through our agreements.

We also include a set of contact details to be included in the ‘Notes to Editors’ section of any press releases issued by suppliers.

Avoid common pitfalls

When we receive communications materials from suppliers, there are a number of common errors that occur regularly. These are easy to avoid, and can save the need for changes to be made during the review process which avoids holding the process up for you.

The common mistakes you can avoid include:

• referring to us as ‘the Crown Commercial Service’ or ‘Crown Commercial Services’, rather than our official title of ‘Crown Commercial Service’
• not including the full title of the agreement you have been awarded to and its RM reference code – customers need to know how to find the right agreement to buy from
• not specifying the Lot(s) you have been awarded to – if you make clear which Lots you are on, it is easier for buyers to find you
• saying you have been ‘selected’, ‘endorsed’ or ‘chosen’ as a supplier or referencing scores in the tender process – this implies you have been chosen above other potential suppliers due to competitive factors. Once awarded, all CCS suppliers are considered equal

A fuller list of ‘dos and don’ts’ when communicating as a CCS supplier is available within the toolkit.

Don’t forget to use our supplier logo

We have produced a logo specifically for use by our suppliers to advertise their supplier status.

This logo can be used on a variety of physical and digital materials, including (but not limited to) business cards, webpages, email signatures and event stands.

Our marketing toolkit provides clear guidance around the correct use of our branding and logos, as well as a number of versions of the logo in different sizes and resolutions for you to use.

Find out more

Further information and resources created specifically for suppliers can be found through our dedicated webpage.

We always welcome feedback, suggestions or queries. These can be submitted to smefeedback@crowncommercial.gov.uk.