What is a bid specialist?

A bid specialist, also known as a bid writer, is an expert in the world of bids. Bid specialists are responsible for planning and writing bid responses — they may also be responsible for submitting bids. However, this responsibility usually lies with a bid manager. A bid writer will complete tenders in order to help a client secure contracts or funding — ultimately helping the success of the client’s business in the long run.

Some companies may employ an in-house bid writer to take care of all their bidding needs, however now many companies are looking to outsource this service. This is where we come in!

Bidding or tendering?

Many companies use the terms bid and tender interchangeably. This is because they mean the same thing! The term tender is used most commonly in the UK, whereas bid is used in the US.

Tendering Process

Tendering is a formal process whereby select businesses are invited to bid for contracts from public or private sector organisations, in need of specific skills for a project, goods or services on an ongoing basis.

How do bid specialists work?

Bid specialists often work alongside other bid writers as part of a bid writing team. Depending on areas of expertise, certain bid writers may be called upon to lead a project or to provide the more technical writing required. A bid manager will oversee each bid and mentor their team of bid writers, ensuring the best possible work is achieved. They will also quality-check the work before submission and often lead communications with the client throughout the process.

Depending on the client’s requirements, the bid manager will either submit the bid on their behalf or send over the work for the client to submit themselves.

Advantages of hiring a bid specialist:

There are many advantages to hiring a bid specialist. Here are just a few of them!

Exceptional writing skills

Our bid writers are trained to a high level to ensure that they always provide the best service for our clients. Every bid writer has honed their craft, as strong written communication skills are paramount when it comes to being a bid writer. As always, bid writing is a specific skill that not everyone has the time or resources to learn. This is why outsourcing to a bid writing company can be extremely beneficial and worth every penny!

Organisation

It should come as no surprise that you must have strong organisational skills to be a bid writer. Bid writing can be stressful, however, creating a plan with strict internal deadlines helps you to stick to that all-important final deadline for the client. A bid writer/specialist can, therefore, organise and focus solely on your bid while you divert your time and resources elsewhere.

No more stress!

Bid writing can be stressful at the best of times, even for professionals! The bidding process can be made even more stressful if you are already having to dedicate time and resources elsewhere in your company. Not to mention, costly! Outsourcing the bidding process to a bid specialist can take away the stress of the process.

Where to find a bid specialist?

At Hudson, we are home to many bid writing specialists who are highly experienced and successful. We are currently operating with an 87% success rate and have clients in over 40 countries across the world. Our bid writers are used to providing exceptional content for a variety of businesses in different sectors.

So, look no further and see our services listed below!

How we can help!

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect bid for your business, send it our way. Our Bid Writers can take care of the whole thing for you they’ll even submit it on your behalf. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready 4-week programme is perfect for businesses that have never tendered before. A Bid Writer will work with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully. Tender Ready offers your business:

• A 12-month subscription to one Hudson Discover
• Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding Professionals.
• An Organisation-wide Bid library, including 3 case studies, 5 CVs and policies.
• Additional flexible benefits. 

Tender Improvement

If you’ve been tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts, our Tender Improvement package can help. Our Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents. They will work with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to a Hudson Discover portal and additional tendering development services. 

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your tender response and need it double-checked for errors, Tender Mentor can help. A Bid Writer will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar, or spelling mistakes. They will also ensure it’s in line with the specification before you submit it. This is a great way of improving your skills and understanding of how to polish your tender.

Contact us:

Contact us to find out how we can help your business SUCCEED!

Additional support:

Do you only require assistance with PQQs or SQs? We can help!

Submit the relevant information regarding the work you need, and we will provide a quote for the work agreed upon.

We provide support at all levels of the bid writing process, so if you simply need it proofread before you submit it, we can also help with that!

Discover Elite

Upgrading to Discover Elite can optimise your tendering efforts!

Our two new time-saving tools can improve competitor awareness and success rate when bidding for a contract:

The Ultimate Time Save Package (for those on the go!)

• Five tender breakdowns per month.
• Annual subscription to two sector-specific portals.
• Dedicated account manager.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package

• All of the above.
• Seven tender breakdowns per month.
• Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager (minimum five years experience). Our Global Bid Director will manage the bid strategy.

Our other divisions:

Vocal

Wanting to impress a buyer? Our creative content agency Vocal is always on hand to help!

Our Vocal team are never afraid to be heard – we’re a loud bunch!

From micro-businesses to large organisations, we provide ways to make your business stand out from the crowd. We can transform your bid into a professionally designed tender document!

Vocal specialises in:

• Copywriting
• Marketing
• Branding
• Websites
• Design
• Illustration

Alpha

Our online virtual learning environment for Education, Enterprise and Home Learners is currently being used to power our platforms – Tender VLE and Procure VLE (Coming soon).

We believe in learning at your own pace, wherever you are!

Find more helpful tips and advice in our blogs. We cover topics including:

• How to win a tender
• Tender Compliance: What does it mean to be non-compliant?
• What is a Bid Writer?
• Writing winning bids
• 7 tips for tendering for contracts
• Tips for bid management
• Bid writing services
• The types of tendering procedures
• Writing bids
• Bid Writing Consultants
• Submitting a tender response

The post Bid Writing Specialists appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Wondering where to find award-winning bid writing services in the North-East?

At Hudson Succeed, we take care of the entire tendering process – from sourcing the tenders to submitting a winning bid on your behalf.

Keep reading to find out why you should work with a North-East based bid management company!

We are a Durham-based business development consultancy with offices in London, Manchester and Orlando (US Head Office).

Our success:

With over 60 years of experience in providing bid writing services and an 87% success rate, Hudson Outsourcing can greatly increase your business’ chance of success. You can focus on the running of your business, while our expert Bid Writers do what they do best – write winning bids.

Based in the North-East of England, we enjoy supporting local businesses. For example, Imagine You Can UK (leading provider of the National Citizen Service (NCS) enquired about our bid writing services and through our expert services, we were able to secure 4-years’ income.

Why work with a North-East bid management company?

• Outsourcing bid writing services can give you a significant edge over your competitors during the tendering for contracts process.
• Particularly, North-East based Bid Writers offer a significant advantage to your business rather than local bid writers near you.
• Instead of hiring an in-house writer, a full remote team of expert Bid Writers at Hudson Outsourcing can provide a wider range of tender services and complete the bid more efficiently while keeping costs down.
• In-house writers often require desk space which can become expensive, especially in London. Our writers can work just as efficiently, while bringing you savings!
• We are always accessible! Regardless of your business’ location, we can work with you via phone, Skype, Zoom and email. For example, we have supported clients in over 23 countries, including the Caribbean, US and Russia.
• We also have offices across the UK where clients may meet: Durham, Manchester, London and Orlando (US). Therefore, we are accessible physically and virtually at all times.
• At Hudson Outsourcing, we understand a company’s change in priorities – as such, we can adapt and continue flexible meetings while a client is away from the office or abroad. Other consultancies may be limited to face-to-face contact and meetings in their offices.
• Utilising a North-East based bid writing consultancy can save your company money, rather than using a consultancy in London, for example. This is because London-based consultancies charge a significantly higher rate to keep up with companies in London increasing their pricing.
• Ultimately, our services are award-winning and at a fraction of the cost demanded by other companies or in-house writers. 

What do we offer?

We provide support at all levels of the bid writing process to give you the results you need! Our four bid writing packages on offer are tailored to provide different levels of support for everyone – whether you have tender experience and are not seeing results or you are a beginner, we can provide the service you need!

Our four bid writing packages:

– Tender Writing

Once you have identified a tender you’d like support with, send it to us and one of our expert Bid Writers will write the tender response for you. We provide full transparency regarding the writing process and once complete, we can also submit it on your behalf.

– Tender Mentor

Our Mentor service will ensure the bid you have produced is the best it can possibly be. As part of our external guide and review service, we can critique the document while improving your business’ content to ensure it meets buyer requirements.

– Tender Ready

We will provide professional policies, procedures and case studies in your branding. You will also have access to three days’ worth of bid consultancy – whether you need assistance with bid writing, tender reviews or simply general guidance, we can provide you with anything that is missing from your content needs.

– Tender Improvement

Our Improvement service can help those with tendering experience without seeing results. Our Bid Writers can assess your previous responses and identify ways to improve your content. We will work with you throughout this process.

Top four ways that our outsourcing services can benefit your business:

1. Save time and money

Outsourcing services means you receive all the benefits of extra help, without having to hire another employee. This can help you conserve your business’ resources such as training and benefits. It also relieves pressure on yourself and your staff so you can concentrate on the efficient running of your business.

2. Promotes business growth

Securing new business contracts can allow you to grow your business by offering a significant ROI (Return on Investment). Successful tendering for contracts increases experience which means access to bigger tendering contracts. This leads to ultimate business growth.

3. Better risk management

Outsourcing bid writing services means hiring an expert. Attempting to solve a bid writing concern internally can have financial consequences and potentially months distracted from the regular running of your business. Avoid financial risk by outsourcing a Bid Writing professional.

4. Increase chances of success

Ultimately, increase your business’s chance for success by utilising our outsourcing content services here.

Our process:

1. What are your business needs?

Perhaps you would like to improve an existing process within your business, reduce costs or endeavour to create a new project. Whatever your business needs are, we have the answer!

2. Is it right for YOU?

A professional bid writer will be far more efficient and experienced in crafting a winning bid. So, do you have the time and resources to conduct the bid writing process in-house?

Outsourcing the work will allow for you to focus on other aspects of running your business.

3. Scope of Work

How much work needs to be outsourced? This will affect the entire process in terms of costing and time needed to complete a winning bid!

4. Outsourcing Businesses

Client testimonials and reviews are a reliable way of assessing a consultancy’s reputation and success. At Hudson Outsourcing, we have an 87% success rate and clients in over 23 countries.

5. Contract

Before conducting the bid writing process, the services needed and the terms of the contract between both parties need to be agreed upon. A transparent process should include the scope of work detailed, pricing and a timeframe of completed stages.

6. Delivery

As aforementioned, transparency throughout the process is key. Therefore, the client should be happy at every stage of the process. However, if necessary, changes can still be made upon delivery.

Let’s sum up!

Companies often turn to North-East based bid writing consultancies for a number of reasons:

• Lower costs to use than services provided by other consultancies based in London, for example.
• Improved efficiency – remote does not mean less productivity!
• Access to experts and professionals in bid writing.
• Wide range of services provided to increase bid and overall business success – for example, design, marketing and branding as provided by our Vocal

Contact us:

Contact us to find out how we can help your business SUCCEED!

Additional support:

Do you only require assistance with PQQs or SQs? We can help!

Simply submit the relevant information regarding the work you need and we will provide a quote for the work agreed.

We provide support at all levels of the bid writing process, so if you simply need it proofread before you submit, we can also help with that!

Discover Elite

Upgrading to Discover Elite can optimise your tendering efforts!

Our two new time-saving tools can improve competitor awareness and success rate when bidding for a contract:

The Ultimate Time Save Package (for those on the go!)

• Five tender breakdowns per month.
• Annual subscription to two sector-specific portals.
• Dedicated account manager.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package

• All of the above.
• Seven tender breakdowns per month.
• Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager (minimum five years experience). Also, the bid strategy will be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Our other divisions:

Vocal

Wanting to impress a buyer? Our creative content agency Vocal are always on hand to help!

Our Vocal team are never afraid to be heard – we’re a loud bunch!

From micro-businesses to large organisations, we provide ways to make your business stand out from the crowd. We can transform your bid into a professionally designed tender document!

Vocal specialises in:

• Copywriting
• Marketing
• Branding
• Websites
• Design
• Illustration

Alpha

Our online virtual learning environment for Education, Enterprise and Home Learners is currently being used to power our own platforms – Tender VLE and Procure VLE (Coming soon).

We believe in learning at your own pace, wherever you are!

Find more helpful tips and advice in our blogs. We cover topics including:   

• How to win a tender
• What is a Bid Writer?
• The tendering process
• Writing winning bids
• 7 tips for tendering for contracts
• Tips for bid management
• Bid writing services
• The types of tendering procedures
• Writing bids
• Bid Writing Consultants
• Submitting a tender response
• And many more.

The post Bid Writing North East appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Last updated: Jun 7, 2022 @ 4:15 pm

The Importance of Tendering.

Tendering helps prevent economic restrictions, whether directly/government imposed, or arising from a general lack of means, ultimately contribute to conflict. As individuals and states find themselves more financially restricted, they stop buying from one another, sales and demand drop, prosperity slows and growth decreases, further compounding the vicious cycle of economic restriction and poverty.

Naturally, tensions rise, relations deteriorate and alliances crumble.

Procurement is essential.

In short, as any bid specialist will tell you, procurement is essential. Having a structured tender process in place for purchasing goods/services with clear rules, fair evaluations and open procedures are vital to prevent this from happening again.

These processes are designed to ensure equality of opportunity for suppliers, as well as efficient spending and the best value for money for buyers.

Overall, the logic is that this will help bring about a smooth system of trade, promote good financial relationships, help businesses grow, and boost prosperity.

And that’s exactly what the tendering and procurement procedure is designed to do.

What is tendering? 

Tendering is the process of bidding for a contract to deliver work or goods. Purchasing organisations – typically in the public sector, when looking to procure goods or services, will publish a contract notice.

This will contain amongst other things, a specification detailing the list of goods/services they require, along with specific price-related and technical questions for potential suppliers to answer.

This allows the buyer to do a fair and objective assessment of suppliers tendering for contracts, to understand which of them will be able to provide the best balance between quality and cost – or as bid specialists say – the “most economically advantageous tender”, or MEAT.

This process helps to ensure that buyers procure services in an objective way that:

• Precludes discrimination, nepotism and favouritism.
• Ensures efficiency in the spending of public money.
• Allows even small suppliers the chance to prove their worth, win work and expand.
• Ensures they get the most they possibly can for their money.

 How can tendering help a buyer’s business grow?

As any Bid Specialist will tell you, tendering is now the most common way for large organisations (especially those in the public sector) to spend money on goods and services. It allows purchasing organisations to organise and understand their outgoings for potentially the next decade.

With their future outgoings largely structured, managed and organised in a viable way, purchasing organisations are then free to organise their growth and expansion plans around this, facilitating a sustainable development/increase of their activities.

In short, engaging in procurement and tendering gives buyers an overview of structured, precise and sustainable future outgoings in order to better plan strategic moves and decisions, increasing their ability to grow, create employment and increase turnover.

Moreover, the tendering process also provides buyers with the opportunity to ask potential suppliers about their ability to add the following values to their organisation.

• Social Value
• Economic Value
• Environmental Value.

Indeed, in many public sector bids, there will be an added value section for suppliers to complete, and as bid specialists, we know that this is a vital part.

Added value is what a supplier will offer to go over and above the core requirements of the buyer. These include:

• The goods
• The people
• The services
• The procedures

In short, this adds a further element of competition to a bid, where suppliers need to showcase their ability to bring something extra to the table in order to win the work.

This will help purchasing organisations to ensure they get suppliers who will go above and beyond to provide the best service, will spend their money most effectively and will add real value, thereby facilitating the growth and development of the purchasing organisation.

How can tendering help suppliers’ businesses grow?

The criticism that the UK is dominated by a collective of large corporations who place a monopoly on the market, force out competition and increase prices, is often heard. Below is a list of points on how the tendering process helps businesses grow.

•  To all intents and purposes, it does away with the potential advantage that large companies may have when bidding for work.
• Tendering provides a neutral, structured and objective set of criteria for the evaluation of potential suppliers, precluding the potential advantage larger companies may have in terms of reputation or turnover. Rather, suppliers are assessed purely on their responses to the technical and financial criteria of each bid.
• Bigger suppliers do not necessarily have the advantage you might automatically think they do, in the tendering process.
• Many smaller suppliers have fewer overheads and are able to quote less for each job. We have seen many smaller suppliers with regular, loyal customers, established relationships, solid local connections and good references thanks to their size and scope.
• Smaller suppliers are able to pay closer attention to the requirements of a bid and craft a good response, rather than the generic responses to tenders that are often churned out by larger corporations.

Often, this proves to be a winning combination.

Meeting thresholds.

In short, tendering provides a structured, fair and neutral way of assessing supplier responses that don’t leave room in the assessment for the consideration that anything that might traditionally have been thought of as a commercial advantage for large companies i.e. their size and reputation.

Whilst smaller suppliers will often still have to meet minimum thresholds: This can include the following:

• Insurance
• Capacity
• Turnover

Tendering provides an objective framework and neutral criteria whereby smaller suppliers are assessed on a completely level playing field with their larger competitors, whose perceived “advantages” count for little in the evaluation. This helps small business grow, expand and prosper.

Winning work through tendering, as with buyers, helps give suppliers a definitive overview of their future outgoings, required manpower, and income. This helps the organisation manage their cash flow better, make more informed strategic decisions and gives them the security of regular income for the length of a contract.

This allows them to increase their capacity, expand, reach new markets and benefit from an influx of skills and experience by creating jobs, which in turn creates further business and prosperity. In short, tendering helps to create and perpetuate a vital cycle of growth and prosperity.

Bid Specialist Support:

If you’re confused about the tendering process and would like to understand more, check out Tender VLE, our, free, online, virtual learning environment for all things tendering and procurement related. If you’d like to understand even more about the process, about the value tendering can add to your organisation, about how you might win more work or procure more effectively, speak to our Bid Writers today.

Find more helpful tips and advice in our blogs. We cover topics including:

• How to win a tender
• What is a Bid Writer?
• The tendering process
• Writing winning bids
• 7 tips for tendering for contracts
• Tips for bid management
• Bid writing services
• The types of tendering procedures
• Writing bids
• Bid writing consultants
• Submitting a tender response
• And many more.

The post Bid Specialists – Helping to Grow Your Business Through Tendering appeared first on Tender Consultants.