Planning is vital to successful bid management. It will allow you to ensure that you spend enough time and effort writing your responses. It will also be good in making sure you have all of the correct boxes ticked and content in place too. Completing tender paperwork can be an exacting process. Not only is it likely to be extensive, it’s structured so that tender applications can be straightforward for the other party to be able to go over and assess who is offering what.
Even if you don’t win the work this time, writing a tender can clarify your aims, strengths and weaknesses and you can learn for next time. Better still, if you hire a specialist for tender writing work you can see where you are and aren’t getting the paperwork correct. In some ways it is like a tick of the box exercise.
Take time to work out if the tender is correct for you
A common issue among would-be tenderers, or bidders, is not adequately checking that they can meet the tender’s requirements. Even if it seems absolutely right for your business the qualification criteria, contract size or accreditation requirements may mean it’s best to wait for one that better matches your capabilities rather than waste time and effort applying for a contract you can’t adequately service.
Don’t forget, all applicants are judged objectively against the tender’s requirements and success could hinge on the slightest of criteria, so this is a crucial decision that could save you a lot of unnecessary time and stress. Bids are generally judged on a points basis, predetermined before the tender is issued and the competition is stiff. There may be dozens or even hundreds of businesses bidding for the work. So if there is any part of the criteria that your business doesn’t meet, there is a good chance that a competing business will meet the criteria and win points above your bid. And, as they say, points make prizes and this is even more the case with tender writing.
This is a sure way to have a better chance of success
Each bid writing business will likely proudly note its success rate. When deciding on which bid writing business you’re going to use, it’s best to take note of this. Then you can have a good idea of your chances of success. If you’ve never tendered for contracts before, using a bid writing business will increase your chances of success. They can increase your chances of success if you are already tendering for work and not seeing results. They can go over your past submissions and help you work on gaps in your content. This can then increase your chances of success going forward. Increasing your chances of success means winning you more work. The more contracts you win, the more experience you will have. The more experience you have, the bigger contracts you can go for. This can enable your business to grow.
What you also need to know about bid writing
As mentioned above, a bid writing business will likely have extensive experience writing for numerous business sectors. Some tenders may require a bit more creativity when it comes to document design. Therefore, making the document look nice in line with the specifications is a given. They can really take the design of your bid to the next level. Evaluators will appreciate the extra effort that goes into a nicely formatted response. Put yourself in their shoes when faced with marking 50+ bid responses. They will favour a clearly formatted tender response over pages of blocks of text. Bullet points, subheadings and tables are a great way to break up the text.
Overall – what it is you need to know about this service
Overall, consider whether you need to take steps to protect yourself. For example, you might want a non-disclosure agreement to protect details of your ideas or pricing. You may also want to negotiate a contract that protects you against unacceptable risks (for example if you cannot accurately predict your costs) or build a safety margin into your pricing. Your submission should be clear and well-presented. If the tender document specifies what format your submission should take and what the deadline is, you must comply. Whatever the outcome, you should follow up to ask why your bid succeeded or failed so that you can improve future tenders.
