How EPC Firms Secure High-Value Hydrogen Contracts Early with H2 Lead Navigator
Shifting from reactive bidding, the firm’s team leveraged H2LN’s filters and verified data to easily pinpoint and focus solely on high-probability hydrogen projects.
The sales pipeline of one global EPC firm was, ironically, too full — full of low-margin, high-risk bids for hydrogen projects they entered after the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) was complete. Their challenge was simple: how to break free from reactive bidding and engage with promising projects much earlier in their lifecycle. They realized that waiting for public tenders meant losing crucial advantages and that a new approach was essential to find and shape the truly impactful deals.
They didn’t need to chase tenders; they needed to cultivate partnerships.
The Challenge: The High-Stakes and Late-Stage Tender Process
In the high-stakes world of large-scale hydrogen energy infrastructure, Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) firms operate under immense pressure. Projects are massive, engineering is complex, and competition is fierce. For one leading global EPC firm, their biggest challenge wasn’t their ability to deliver, but the very nature of their sales pipeline. Their business development model was almost entirely reactive; they were typically engaged only after a project had completed its Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) and a formal, public tender was issued—meaning they were almost always selected too late. This late engagement model created significant issues.
Here’s what was going wrong:
• Commoditized Bidding: Late engagement led to price-driven tenders, squeezing margins and hindering win predictability.
• Limited Innovation: Expert teams couldn’t offer early, valuable input, missing opportunities to shape project design.
• Unprofitable Pipeline: Despite many leads, opportunities were mostly low-margin, high-risk bids.
Commoditized Bidding
Problem: Reactive, late engagement only after FEED and public tender
Impact: Forced into price-driven tenders, squeezing margins and hindering win predictability
Limited
Innovation
Problem: Inability to involve expert engineering teams early in project lifecycle
Impact: Missed opportunities to offer innovative solutions and shape project design for added value
Unprofitable Pipeline
Problem: Sales funnel primarily filled with high-volume, reactive bids
Impact: Predominantly low-margin, high-risk opportunities, creating an unhealthy sales pipeline
The Shift: A Proactive Strategy Enabled by Sales Intelligence
The firm’s leadership made a strategic decision to transform their business development process, shifting from relying on public announcements to leveraging proactive sales intelligence. Their new goal was to answer a different, more powerful question: how could they find hydrogen projects before Final Investment Decision (FID) approval? This required a fundamental pivot to get ahead of the market and shape opportunities early on. To execute this, they adopted the VNZ Insights’ H2 Lead Navigator, a dynamic platform providing deep insights into the entire European project lifecycle.
Here’s what changed:
• Pre-FID Watch List: Using the Navigator’s filters, they built a proprietary watch list of projects nearing FID, providing a clear view of maturing opportunities.
• Strategic Scale Focus: They targeted large-scale opportunities, specifically filtering for 50-200 MW and 200+ MW segments.
• Commercial Viability Screening: Applying the 3-Pillar Framework, they prioritized projects with strong commercial signals like secured funding and binding offtake agreements.
Pre-FID
Watch List
Navigator filters created a proprietary watch list of projects nearing Final Investment Decision (FID)
Strategic
Scale Focus
Focused prospecting on large-scale hydrogen opportunities, filtering for 50-200 MW and 200+ MW segments
Commercial Viability Screening
Applied 3-Pillar Framework to prioritize projects with strong commercial signals and secured funding
Your sales shouldn’t be a guessing game!
Book A Demo CallThe Outcome: From Competitive Bidder to Trusted Partner
This new, proactive approach, powerfully enabled by the H2 Lead Navigator, fundamentally transformed the EPC firm’s market position and financial outcomes. They successfully shifted from being a competitive bidder to a trusted partner, securing significant advantages by engaging projects much earlier in their lifecycle.
Here’s what improved:
• Crucial Early Advantage: Pre-tender engagement with qualified leads built trust and demonstrated value in a non-competitive environment.
• Opportunity Shaping: Experts collaborated on project design and timelines through early discussions, becoming indispensable strategic partners.
• Landmark Strategic Win: Established themselves as a strategic partner with the asset owner, they effectively circumvented the typical competitive bid process.
Crucial Early Advantage
Engaging developers months pre-tender built trust and demonstrated value in a non-competitive environment
Opportunity Shaping
Early, consultative discussions enabled experts to shape project design, solidifying their role as strategic partners
Landmark Strategic Win
Strategic partnership with the asset owner allowed them to bypass the traditional competitive bid process
Select fields. Get high-probability hydrogen leads. Instantly.
Pick Your Prospect Filters
Choose your desired regions, buyer type, capacity, project size and more to filter relevant prospects.
Get Detailed Project Insights
See funding status, realization probability of project, project stage, offtake info, stakeholders, and more.
Instantly Start Your Pitching
Your qualified, probability-filtered hydrogen leads are ready for sales pitching.
Your sales shouldn’t be a guessing game!
Book A Demo CallFrequently Asked Questions
H2 Lead Navigator is a sales intelligence platform designed to help companies identify high-potential green energy projects. Unlike traditional market research, which relies on static reports and scattered data from news alerts , H2 Lead Navigator is a dynamic tool. It moves beyond simple project lists by using a proprietary analytical framework to qualify prospects, separating high-probability leads from speculative announcements.
H2 Lead Navigator fundamentally shifts an EPC firm’s business development from reactive to proactive. Instead of waiting for public tenders after Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) is complete, the H2 Lead Navigator provides insights to identify high-potential hydrogen projects months earlier. This crucial head start allows the EPC firm to engage developers in a non-competitive environment, build trust, and form strategic partnerships, effectively bypassing the traditional, high-cost tender process.
H2 Lead Navigator offers granular data on project development status, including whether projects are moving from concept to FEED and FID stages. By identifying projects in these early, critical stages that may not yet have selected key partners (like an EPC contractor), firms can proactively position themselves as indispensable strategic partners. The platform also tracks project participants and asset owners, enabling the EPC firm to identify and engage with high-potential developers directly.
The 3-Pillar Framework assesses each project based on:
- Funding Status: Has the project secured grants or financing?
- Project Status: Is it at FEED or Final Investment Decision (FID) stage?
- Offtake Status: Does it have binding customer offtake agreements?
H2 Lead Navigator provides detailed data on over 1500 European green hydrogen projects as of now. Key filters allow EPC firms to identify commercially viable opportunities based on: “Funding Status” (e.g., substantial funding awarded ), “Off-take Status” (e.g., binding agreements ), and “Project size- Segment” (e.g., 50-200 MW or 200+ MW ) to match their construction expertise.
H2 Lead Navigator provides specific filtering capabilities that allow EPC firms to focus their prospecting. It enables users to filter projects by “Project size- Segment,” allowing firms to target opportunities that precisely match their capabilities, such as large-scale projects in the 50-200 MW and 200+ MW segments. This ensures their efforts are concentrated on the most relevant and high-potential deals.
By using H2 Lead Navigator to build a qualified “watch list” of high-probability projects, EPC firms can move away from a sales funnel filled with low-margin, high-risk bids. H2 Lead Navigator’s “Realization Probability” ranking helps focus efforts on convertible leads, reducing time and resources spent on uncertain opportunities. This strategic filtering fundamentally improves pipeline quality, making forecasting more predictable and increasing overall sales efficiency.
H2 Lead Navigator maps key project participants, including asset owners and developers, allowing EPC firms to identify experienced players with a proven track record. While not directly detailing competitive strategy before tender, this granular insight into who is involved in projects helps EPC firms understand the ecosystem, identify potential partners, and strategically approach the market, rather than reacting to public announcements.
Our insights come from proprietary research by VNZ Insights — built on tools like the Electrolyser Delivery Database, expert interviews, and in-house analysis — transforming raw data into strategic intelligence.
Early engagement, driven by H2 Lead Navigator, shifts the EPC firm’s role from a commoditized bidder to an indispensable strategic partner. By collaborating on project design and timelines months before a tender, they can shape the opportunity, reduce direct competition, and secure contracts by value rather than just price. This proactive approach leads to a much healthier and more profitable sales pipeline and significantly improves their win rate for large-scale projects.
You can request a personalized walkthrough by clicking the “Request a Demo” link or booking a slot directly via our calendar link.
