THE HBS SCHEME: MARKETING & SALES PLAYBOOK

Move from Supplier to Strategic Partner

This HBS Scheme playbook is a quick-step way for sales and marketing teams to take an early-entry position of founding member ahead of the main roll-out of the HBS Scheme; the scheme is creating a new brand differentiator by moving suppliers from a static vendor to an always-on, mission-critical strategic partner:

(1) THE "EARLY-ENTRY" EDGE

Getting in now to the HBS Scheme, you are establishing your brand to a marketplace and engine built with and for public procurement and currently supporting social value within £2.1 billion of public contracting. IN addition, during 2026, your founding status is linked to how we're expanding this support to more public buyers and taking buying support to over £8 billion of supplier contracting.

The HBS Scheme makes the new difference between a "supplier" and a "Strategic Partner". Early entry "founding member status" puts your brand at the vanguard of fast-evolving buyer focus and activity within this free UK resource.

From 29th April 2026, early-entry supporters of the HBS Scheme will be visible to all public buyers, as the innovators leading the new way suppliers become marketplace and impact enablers.

Connecting Marketing and Sales Teams:

Early-entry HBS Scheme status positions a Unique Sales Proposition (USP); driven by marketing and leveraged by sales/bid teams.

Bid and account management changes, your founding HBS Scheme supporter status and "always-on" channel sits stands-out to public procurement agencies and authorities, as one of the first businesses to strategically support high-value strategic objectives by providing the environment communities can utilise.

(2) THE STRATEGIC PIVOT: LIFTING YOUR BRAND

(3) THE "DICM ENGINE" NARRATIVE (FOR MARKETING DIRECTORS)

As a founding brand member of the HBS Scheme your marketing narrative talks directly to this taxpayer-free UK marketplace as a force-for-good solution.

The Pluggin Marketplace (the strategic vehicle) gives your brand position, in direct support of the Dual Impact Collaboration Model (DICM) engine connected into public buying within regions; the engine co-created by senior public procurement leaders who are now driving social value into UK community safety and resilience with their wider executive agency and public authority counterparts.

Innovation Beyond Product/Service:

With early-entry, you have undeniable evidence of how your business capacity for strategic social impact innovation is extending beyond your core sales, into efforts scaling social value through the very buying processes you engage with.

Your very own HBS Scheme "always-on" marketing channel is your buyer-relevant stall, and 100% of your your brand sponsorship is directly underpinning the very marketplace areas your public buyers are using to drive community safety and resilience.

The Differentiation:

"We don't just win contracts; we've aligned ourselves at the beginning of the HBS Scheme to underpin areas and impact objectives; we're helping pioneer how public buying now meets Home Office and Ministry of Justice objectives."

The Authority:

"As an official early-entry HBS Scheme supporter, we're underpinning the marketplace and the engine co-designed by the very procurement leaders who are now steering the future of contract social value through UK policing - in collaboration with their council, NHS and criminal justice service buying counterparts."

(4) THE SALES "SILVER BULLET": THE EYE OF MORDOR

The DICM engine is the marketplace's "Eye of Mordor" and represents the new scrutiny senior buyers now apply to contract social value in line with recent legislation. They are looking for early evidence of innovation and social value delivery within the marketplace during the marketplace expansion in 2026.

The Bid Hook:

When your team submits social value in bids, founding brand supporter of the HBS Scheme, with an "always-on" marketplace channel, is the clear proof that your early-entry involvement as a strategic ally is underpinning the very marketplace buyers are now using to deliver their community safety and resilience missions.

"We didn't wait for a tender; our "always-on" early-entry support of the marketplace was in recognition of the need to underpin the way this key delivery environment helps the public sector transform community safety and resilience."

(5) TIERED BRAND FOOTPRINT: SCALING YOUR AUTHORITY

As a founding brand supporter of the HBS Scheme, you not only lock in your brand sponsorship for life, but you can grow-into a regional focus and footprint ahead of the competition:

🥉 BRONZE (1 Area): The "Local Specialist." Dominate your primary territory and be seen as the go-to partner for a specific council or blue-light authority.

🥈 SILVER (7 Areas): The "Regional Powerhouse." Establish a footprint that signals to senior buyers you have the capacity to deliver across multiple complex jurisdictions.

🥇 GOLD (20 Areas): The "National Enabler." Secure a seat on the Regional Steering Group (RSG). You are now part of the leadership cohort influencing how social value is operationalised across regions of the UK.