Bid Writing Tips From Our Tender Consultants Team

Top 10 Bid Writing Skills

John Hudson — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 10:00:18 +0000

Top 10 Bid Writing Skills

First…What is Bid Writing?

Bid writing, also known as tender writing, is the process of creating effective and high-quality content on behalf of a company in order to win a tender/contract or general business opportunity. Typically, bid writers will complete PQQs, ITTs and other aspects of the tender process for the client.

A bid writer is someone responsible for the success of this process.

Expert bid writers must be able to deliver persuasive, well-communicated content to win a tender. Also, they must have knowledge which is transferable across many different industries/sectors.

Our Top 10 Bid Writing Skills

Wondering if you have what it takes to be a bid writer? Here are our top 10 skills you will need!

Written Communication

An invaluable skill when wanting to become a bid writer. You must have experience communicating effectively through your writing. It is not simply about writing clearly, or concisely. You must be able to persuade the buyer that your client is the best possible option. You must also be able to write with considerable detail, to demonstrate your client’s skills and evidence of success through case studies. Striking the balance between being concise and detailed is challenging, however, an expert bid writer should be no stranger to this task.

Verbal Communication

Similarly, being able to communicate verbally is a valuable skill for a bid writer. The assumption that bid writers only need to be able to communicate through the written word is wholly inaccurate. Bid writers will often liaise with clients on the phone, face-to-face and on video meetings. It is, therefore, important that bid writers can update and query their client using their strong verbal skills. This satisfies the client that their bid writer is easily relied upon, accountable and effective in their planning process.

Attention to detail

As aforementioned, a bid writer must have strong attention to detail. This involves both the research and writing process as a bid writer must be able to swiftly pluck relevant information for the tender, write with sufficient detail to persuade the buyer of the client’s suitability and eradicate inconsistencies/errors in their written work.

Time management

Having excellent time management skills is crucial to the success of a bid writer. Not only must a bid writer be able to plan effectively, but also meet all internal and external deadlines they have been set at every stage. Failure to meet internal deadlines will result in a rushed tender which will likely not contain enough detail to meet the buyer’s criteria. Failure to meet the final deadline will absolutely result in a failed tender.

Note: It is always a good idea to leave yourself several days spare in your planning process for any internal/external factors that may occur and delay your bid. Submission portals are notoriously unreliable, so never submit at the last minute!

Strategic Thinking

The ability to think strategically is a valuable asset to have when becoming a bid writer. Before writing, as part of your planning process, you should already have a bid strategy. This means that when it comes to creating responses to the buyer’s questions, you are prepared to answer in a way that shows your client in the best possible light.

IT Software

A good knowledge of various IT software is vital for any bid writer. You will be required to communicate across platforms and have access to tenders as and when they become available. Opportunity tracking platforms are necessary to finding a client new bids.

Research

Bid writers must be able to conduct effective research and collate evidence on behalf of their client in order to develop and provide convincing arguments. They will research the client’s sector extensively to be able to tailor their argument to the client’s cause with confidence and accuracy. Conducting research will be included in their planning process before the actual writing begins.

Teamwork

Although bid writers have a great deal of independent responsibility, there is rarely one bid writer working on one tender at a time. A typical bid team will involve:

Bid management
Bid administration
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
Bid writers
Graphic designers

It is crucial for every bid writer to be able to work collaboratively with other bid writers and those involved at every stage of the tender/bid process. Good teamwork also involves strong planning and time management, to keep all those involved held accountable and knowledgeable of the deadlines met and the ones left to meet.

Adapt under pressure

Being a bid writer can be stressful. The combination of strict deadlines and the potential for juggling multiple bids can be challenging to the most experienced bid writers. This is why it is vital to be able to adapt under pressure and the key to coping is planning! Keeping on top of things but also knowing when to be flexible when a client changes their mind is vital. Plans change!

Independence

While you will work as part of a team as a bid writer, you will be expected to be held accountable for your contributions to the team. It is important that you can prepare, plan and write effectively without prompts from others, as others will also be relying upon you!

Why Be a Bid Writer?

There are several reasons why the career of a bid writer is advantageous. Here’s our top reasons:

Highly transferable skills

The skills required as a bid writer are skills which are needed/desired in most professions. Strong written and verbal communication skills will always be valued, as will organisational skills. Also, adaptability and coping under pressure are necessary for the ever-changing nature of most businesses in various sectors.

Work variety

Every bid/tender that a bid writer undertakes will likely be in a different industry than the previous one. Undertaking research on many different sectors is vital to a bid writer’s success. Therefore, work variety is part of the role and can be an exciting prospect if you enjoy researching and writing on a variety of topics.

Career progression

A bid writer will have great opportunities for career progression within their respective companies. Not only will your skills be transferable, but you can also progress to the role of team leader, senior bid writer or bid manager.

Highly valued

Bid writers are highly intelligent and hard-working individuals, which makes them attractive prospects to many employers. However, many companies simply do not have the means to employ an in-house bid writer and hire the services of a bid writer outside of their normal operations.

What if My First Bid Is Not Successful?

So, you know the top bid writing skills needed for success…but what happens if your first bid is unsuccessful?

Don’t fret, always ask for feedback from the buyer. All submitted tenders have flaws, unsuccessful or otherwise. Therefore, it is vital that you find weaknesses in your argument and improve. When approaching the feedback stage, ensure you are armed with questions to present to the buyer to achieve the best, most detailed review.

Some questions may concern the following topics:

Have you hit the relevant deadlines?
Did you provide all the information needed?
Did you give enough detail in your responses?
Was the client’s business eligible for that bid?

Once I’m a Bid Writer…What’s Next? Our 6 Top Tips!

Read all the documents before you start, including undertaking the relevant research
Plan and document your process – this will keep you and your team members accountable and in the know about deadlines!
Proofread your work before submission
Compliance – follow the buyer’s instructions to a T!
Relevant case studies
Strong written and verbal communication – this is the way to stand out against competitors!

Now you know our top bid writing skills, you may require our various tendering services…

Our services include:

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 own 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:

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 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). 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 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:

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:

The post Top 10 Bid Writing Skills appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Bid and Tender Writing Services: The Secrets to Success!

John Hudson — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 05:00:46 +0000

How can bid and tender writing services benefit your business?

Got questions about bid and tender writing services? We have the answers! We know that bidding for a contract can be a stressful process, especially for those with little to no experience. So, we put together this blog to help people learn how bid and tender writing services can help them. So, keep reading to learn more about the services available to you and how they could be your best option.

What are bid and tender writing services?

If you are completely new to the tendering process, then you may wonder what bid and tender writing services are. Bid and tender writing services are a form of support you can receive from Tender Writing Consultants.

Bid writing can take up a lot of time and resources. So, bid and tender writing services are often chosen for this reason. In short, these experts will handle the process for you. Read our next section to learn the benefits of bid and tender writing services!

How can bid and tender writing services benefit your business?

Now that you know what bid and tender writing services are, you may wonder what the benefits are. Well, there are several. Here are some of the main benefits:

1. Increased chance of success

By relying on a professional Bid Writer, you can rest assured that you’ve increased your chances of success. These experts know what it takes to win. They’ve made mistakes and learnt throughout their career. This means if you are new to tendering, you won’t need to go through this learning curve. They’ve already done it and therefore can apply their expertise to give you the best chance of winning.

2. Takes the pressure off your shoulders

One of the best benefits of bid and tender writing services is that it takes the stress out of the process. You can sit back and relax as the experts do the work on your behalf. They can even submit it for you!

This is certainly a benefit if you are already incredibly busy trying to run a business. The chances are you have little to no time to dedicate to writing a bid. By using bid and tender writing services, you don’t have to sacrifice your time to the bid. You can continue with your usual responsibilities and there is no disruption to your business.

3. Saves you resources

Running on from our last point, by using bid and tender writing services, you are saving yourself resources. You could always hire an inhouse Bid Writer. However, you’d have to be using them constantly for it to be a worthy investment. Plus, the hiring process can take a lot of time. By using bid and tender writing services, you can get instant support. It saves you money and resources in the long run.

4. Bid Writers understand documents

One of the most difficult parts of bidding for work is the number of lengthy tender documents to go through. If you aren’t well versed in these, you’ll likely find them overwhelming. You may also miss key details. Experts know exactly what they are looking for and what needs to be prioritised.

Summary

Now that we have discussed bid and tender writing services, let’s recap so nothing is forgotten!

What are bid and tender writing services?

Bid and tender writing services are available from industry professionals. If you are new to or inexperienced with bidding, they can support you. If you aren’t seeing the success you want, they can also help.

How can bid and tender writing services benefit your business?

1. Increased chance of success

2. Takes the pressure off your shoulders

3. Saves you resources

4. Bid Writers understand tender documents.

Need help searching for tenders?

You may be wondering where you can find a tender for your business. There’s no shortage of websites offering multi-sector tendering opportunities and leads. Ideally, you should be searching for a sector-specific site that posts all unique, public and private sector opportunities.

Our sister company, Hudson Discover, has 11 sector-specific tendering portals. One centralised and easy-to-navigate portal can help you save time, streamlining the process.

Once signed up, you’ll have access to your own dedicated Account Manager. They’ll be able to answer any questions you may have about public sector contracts. You’ll also get an email alert when new and relevant tenders are uploaded to your sector.

A subscription to one of our industry-specific portals will include:

Unlimited portal access. You can browse your industry’s portal to your heart’s content. See the hundreds of opportunities that are available, intuitively categorised, and easily accessible.
A daily email bulletin. When you sign up to a portal, you’ll receive an email alert when new tenders are uploaded.
A dedicated Account Manager. They’ll handle any questions or queries you may have about the portal.
A free 20-minute phone consultation with a Bid Writer. Our expert Bid Consultants will chat with you about anything tender related.

What opportunities can I expect from a tender search on a Hudson Discover portal?

We host all kinds of tenders in both the public and private sectors. These are inclusive of, but aren’t limited to:

Open tenders
Restricted procedure tenders
Competitive dialogues
Negotiated tendering procedures
Innovation partnerships
Single supplier contracts
Framework agreements
Dynamic Purchasing Systems.

What we can do for you

We have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. Whether you’re completely new to tendering or aren’t seeing results – they can help. There are four bid writing packages available:

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found a tender you’d like to go for, send it over to us. One of our Bid Writers will write the tender response for you. They’ll provide a full Tender Writing breakdown and even submit it on your behalf.

Tender Mentor

Tender Mentor can give your tender response a once over before you submit. The Bid Writing Team will analyse your response, notifying you of any errors and opportunities for improvements prior to submission.

Tender Ready

During the Tender Ready service, our team will create professional policies, procedures, and case studies in your company branding. If you already have this content, we will review everything carefully to ensure that nothing is missed. This service also helps businesses who are new to tendering with terminology and industry knowledge.

Tender Improvement

The Tender Improvement package can help those who have tendered before but aren’t seeing results. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous responses and work with you to develop improved content.

Get in touch to find out how we can help your business grow.

Vocal

Our support doesn’t end there! Our creative content agency, Vocal, are on hand to help.

The Vocal Team are not afraid to stand up and be heard. And we make sure our clients aren’t either! From small, micro businesses to large organisations, we are vocal about the things that make your business unique.

Our creative service is dedicated to growing your business through striking and thought-provoking content. Our team specialise in six areas, including:

If you’d like to know more about what we can do for your business, introduce yourself to the team!

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

The post Bid and Tender Writing Services: The Secrets to Success! appeared first on Tender Consultants.

How to Win Contracts: 7 Secrets You NEED to Know

Millie Newbold — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 06:00:50 +0000

Learn how to win contracts from the experts

Do you want to learn how to win contracts for your business? In this blog, we’ll go through our seven tips for success.

Research, research, research

First things first, if you want to learn how to win contracts, you need to do your research. Initially, you should research the buyer and the contract in more detail. The more you know about the buyer, the better your final tender response will be.

Study the tender documents

When you’re learning how to win contracts, understanding the importance of this stage is crucial. Before you begin writing, you need to study the tender documents. Whether it’s one page or 100 pages, you need to digest all the information available to you. Otherwise, you run the risk of missing key details in your tender response.

Prepare your evidence

Next, you need to prepare your case studies. In most cases, you’ll need to include at least two to three contract examples from the past five years. These should be similar in size, scope and complexity to the buyer’s project. If it’s not relevant to the tender, don’t include it in your response.

Show, don’t tell

Now it’s time to put your case studies to work! To learn how to win contracts, you need to do more than tell the buyer what you’re going to do. You need to show them.

The best way to do this is to show the buyer how you’ve delivered for your previous clients. You could also include testimonials that showcase your past successes.

Demonstrate added value

When you’re bidding for public sector contracts, you need to demonstrate added value in your tender response. Added value, also known as social value, is now mandatory in public sector contracts, with a compulsory weighting of 10%. Therefore, you need to show the buyer how you’ll deal with environmental, social and economic factors.

This could include:

Encouraging economic growth
Tackling climate change
Creating new job opportunities
Giving back to the local community.

Review – and then review it again

You might have finished your first draft, but the work doesn’t stop there. When you’re learning how to win contracts, you should be prepared to review your work for errors and inconsistencies. To do this, you should focus on two key areas:

That you’re actually answering the buyer’s questions
That your bid response is free of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

To simplify this process, you could try reviewing your tender response more than once, checking for different things each time.

Submit the bid on time

Finally, you need to make sure that you’re ready to submit your tender response before the deadline. After all, there’s no point in learning how to win contracts if you miss the deadline date and time. So, if the tender is due at 12pm, don’t wait until 11:59am to submit.

In summary

When you’re learning how to win contracts, you need to make sure you do the following:

Do your research
Study the tender documents
Prepare your evidence
Show, don’t tell
Demonstrate added value
Review – and then review it again
Submit the bid on time.

How Hudson Succeed can help

So, are you learning how to win contracts?

Enter Hudson Succeed!

We have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. Whether you’re completely new to tendering or aren’t seeing results – we can help. There are four bid writing packages available:

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found a tender you’d like to go for, send it over to us. One of our Bid Writers will write the tender response for you. We’ll provide a full Tender Writing breakdown and even submit it on your behalf.

Tender Mentor

Tender Mentor can give your tender response a once over before you submit it. Our Bid Writing Team will analyse your response, notifying you of any errors and opportunities for improvements prior to submission.

Tender Ready

During the Tender Ready service, our team will create professional policies, procedures, and case studies in your company branding. If you already have this content, we will review everything carefully to ensure that nothing is missed. Once the programme is complete, you’ll have access to three days’ worth of bid consultancy. This can be used for bid writing, tender reviews, or general advice and guidance.

Tender Improvement

The Tender Improvement package can help those who have tendered before but aren’t seeing results. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous responses and work with you to develop improved content.

Get in touch to find out how we can help your business grow.

Need help with searching for tenders?

Are you curious about finding tenders for your business?

There’s no shortage of websites offering multi-sector tendering opportunities and leads.

Ideally, you should be searching for a sector-specific site that posts all unique, public and private sector opportunities.

Our sister company, Hudson Discover, has 11 sector-specific tendering portals. One centralised and easy-to-navigate portal can help you save time, streamlining the process.

Once signed up, you’ll have access to your own dedicated Account Manager. They’ll be able to answer any questions you may have about public sector contracts. Likewise, you’ll also get an email alert when new and relevant tenders are uploaded to your sector.

A subscription to one of our industry-specific portals will include:

Unlimited portal access. You can browse your industry’s portal to your heart’s content. See all the opportunities that are available, intuitively categorised, and easily accessible.
A daily email bulletin. When you sign up to a portal, you’ll receive an email alert when new tenders are uploaded.
A dedicated Account Manager. They’ll handle any questions or queries you may have about the portal.
A free 20-minute phone consultation with a Bid Writer. Our expert Bid Consultants will chat with you about anything tender related.

What opportunities can I expect from a tender search on a Hudson Discover portal?

Hudson Discover hosts all kinds of tenders in both the public and private sectors. These are inclusive of, but aren’t limited to:

Open tenders
Restricted procedure tenders
Competitive dialogues
Negotiated tendering procedures
Innovation partnerships
Single supplier contracts
Framework agreements
Dynamic Purchasing Systems.

Discover Elite

If you want to streamline the process even further, you can sign up to Discover Elite via your chosen portal. With this service, a dedicated Account Manager will find live bids on your behalf. They’ll speak with you weekly to discuss opportunities that may interest you. This is especially helpful for those with little time to spare due to busy schedules.

Vocal

Our support doesn’t end there! Our creative content agency, Vocal, are on hand to help.

The Vocal Team are not afraid to stand up and be heard. And we make sure our clients aren’t either! From small, micro-businesses to large organisations, we are vocal about the things that make your business unique.

Our creative service is dedicated to growing your business through striking and thought-provoking content. We’ll take your bid and give it a complete makeover. With professionally designed tender documents, you’re sure to make an impression on the buyer!

Our team specialise in six areas, including:

If you’d like to know more about what we can do for your business, introduce yourself to the team!

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

The post How to Win Contracts: 7 Secrets You NEED to Know appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Scenario-Based Questions – 6 Reasons Why Buyers Are Asking These Questions

John Hudson — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 07:00:23 +0000

Senior Bid Writer shares their insights on how to respond to scenario-based questions

If you are familiar with bid proposals, you may have seen that scenario-based questions are making a regular appearance. But are you aware of what the buyer is asking, and how to answer the questions efficiently?

We caught up with one of our Senior Bid Writers, Robyn Crawford, to pick her brain on scenario-based questions.

What are scenario-based questions?

Scenario-based questions are included within a tender and are issued by the buyer. This is so they can learn how you, the supplier, will respond to a hypothetical situation in the future. This is a great way for the buyer to learn about the supplier’s values, ethical standards and thought process.

Scenario-based questions ask for a practical-based application of the supplier’s working practices. This is a good test to see what a supplier’s priorities are. But also, how they will adapt to unfamiliar situations. They’re looking at what processes you have in place and whether they are sufficient for dealing with potential problems.

What type of scenario-based questions can occur during bid proposals?

When issuing scenario-based questions, buyers will pose potential situations that they’re looking for a response to. Here are some examples that Robyn has seen when working on tender responses, across a range of industries:

Scenario 1: Supported Living

Your Support Workers have noted a young person, placed at your service, is regularly making excuses to stay out of the placement. The young person is respectful, polite, and gentle to the Support Workers and to other tenants. The Support Worker has also noted that the young person is bringing expensive gifts back with them when they do come home. For example, new clothes, a smart phone, and they have a lot of excess cash.

What are the identified concerns and how will you safeguard the young person and address the issues?

Scenario 2: Construction

Please explain how you would manage the safety and wellbeing of residents, in the event of a sudden failure of power supply to part of the building whilst carrying out the installation.

Scenario 3: Healthcare

Betty has end-stage dementia and has been cared for a number of years in her own home. She requires all care and is nursed in bed. Betty has an Advance Care Plan and a ‘Do Not Attempt to Resuscitate (DNAR)’ recommendation in place, written and witnessed prior to her losing mental capacity. Betty’s wish is to die in her own home, although her daughters do not agree with this decision. Neither daughter lives with Betty.

Betty’s GP has made a number of anticipatory medications available within the house and there is an associated current drug chart in situ.

Over the past week, your staff have reported that Betty appears a bit more frail but still appears comfortable.

A member of your staff has visited this morning and Betty appears distressed and unsettled, is crying in pain upon movement, and is cold to touch but appears flushed in the face. The night Carer reports that Betty has been like this all night.

What action would your staff take?

These are just a handful of questions that you could find in bid proposals. Scenario-based questions will be unique to each buyer. If you have the right policies and procedures in place, you will be able to answer the questions with ease.

But why do buyers seek answers to scenario-based questions?

There can be many different reasons as to why a buyer would be looking for a response to these questions. From experience, these are the most common reasons why:

Predicting future performance

Scenario-based questions are a great way for the buyer to assess and predict a supplier’s future job performance. Furthermore, it allows the buyer to draw a conclusion about how the supplier will solve problems, handle challenges, etc. They are also used to assess soft skills such as communication, teamwork, leadership, adaptability, and decision making.

Problems in the past

The scenario asked may provide an insight into previous failings by an incumbent provider. Therefore, the buyer will be looking to proactively address these issues. Your answer should therefore provide reassurance to the buyer – how will these problems be mitigated?

This is shown in example three. The buyer will be looking for the supplier to address how they would handle this shortfall in service. Whilst also showing how they will mitigate its reoccurrence.

Common occurrence

In some cases, there will be common occurrence within reactive maintenance. Through your response, you should breed confidence on how you will deal with these day-to-day tasks. E.g., how performance will be monitored/managed, how response times will be maintained, health and safety measures in place, etc.

High–risk occurrence

Example one refers to a young person at risk of Child Sex Exploitation. Which in supported living, is a high-risk occurrence. Here, the buyer will want you to demonstrate how your staff are trained to identify this risk. Along with the steps that you will take to keep this young person safe. The buyer will also be looking for any preventative measures. This is what the supplier is putting forward in order to prevent this from ever occurring whilst delivering the contract.

Easier for the evaluator

This type of question can be easier for panels who aren’t necessarily experienced/skilled at reviewing information or are non-specialists. For example, consider this question:

‘Can you describe how you would react if a service user was found to be under the influence of alcohol?’

This will be more accessible to a Care Assistant on the procurement panel and easier for them to assess.

Getting the best out of bidders

Scenario responses are usually easier to respond to – especially for those who are not specialists in tendering. It ensures the buyer is drawing out the best from bidders.

What are your tips when it comes to answering scenario-based questions?

After seeing scenario-based questions become a regular occurrence within bid proposals, I have become adapt in answering the questions. Here are my tips to help you with your own responses:

Use a step by step, methodical approach. This will demonstrate logic and critical thinking.
Draw on experience. If you have experience with the scenario being presented and have successfully managed this, ensure you make this clear. For example, a response for scenario two could start with:

“COMPANY have dealt with NUMBER of power failures during installation and have successfully resolved this issue by…”

Be factual. Although the question is hypothetical, it is important to think critically and respond as though it is a real occurrence. What exactly would you do?
Add value – feed innovative methods/technologies into your response. For example, training or IT systems. It is important to constantly demonstrate where you can go above and beyond the expectations of the buyer.

In summary

Scenario-based questions are issued by the buyer to establish if you, the supplier, can adapt easily to unpredicted situations.

They will issue questions with hypothetical scenarios, where you’ll be expected to respond with how you will handle the situation. They will be looking at what policies and procedures you have in place when reacting to issues. The six main reasons why buyers will be issuing scenario-based questions are:

Predicting future performance of the supplier
Identifying solutions for problems they have had in the past
Common occurrence
High–risk occurrence
Easier for the evaluator
Getting the best out of bidders.

When responding to these questions, whilst they may be hypothetical, treat them as if they were really happening. Answer in full detail how you would handle the scenario posed to you. To ensure your response is of the highest quality, here are Robyn’s tips to follow:

Use a step by step, methodical approach
Draw on experience
Be factual. As yourself, what exactly would you do?
Add value – feed innovative methods / technologies into your response.

How Hudson Succeed can help

Now you know what scenario questions are, and why the buyer is asking them. You can begin to improve your bid response. However, our Bid Writers have great experience in answering scenario-based questions. If you feel you lack the ability to respond to these questions, let us help.

· Tender Writing

· Tender Mentor

Tender Mentor can give your tender response a once over before you submit. Our Bid Writing Team will analyse your response, notifying you of any errors and opportunities for improvements prior to submission.

· Tender Ready

During the Tender Ready service, our team will create professional policies, procedures, and case studies in your company branding. If you already have this content, we will review everything carefully to ensure that nothing is missed. Once the programme is complete, you’ll have access to three days’ worth of bid consultancy. This can be used for bid writing, tender reviews, or general advice and guidance.

· Tender Improvement

The Tender Improvement package can help those who have tendered before but aren’t seeing results. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous responses and work with you to develop improved content.

Get in touch to find out how we can help your business grow.

Need help with searching for tenders?

Now you know about scenario-based questions, you might be curious about finding tenders for your business.

There’s no shortage of websites offering multi-sector tendering opportunities and leads.

Ideally, you should be searching for a sector-specific site that posts all unique, public and private sector opportunities.

Our sister company, Hudson Discover, has 11 sector-specific tendering portals. One centralised and easy-to-navigate portal can help you save time, streamlining the process.

Once signed up, you’ll have access to your own dedicated Account Manager. They’ll be able to answer any questions you may have about tendering for work. You’ll also get an email alert when new and relevant tenders are uploaded to your sector.

A subscription to one of our industry-specific portals will include:

Unlimited portal access. You can browse your industry’s portal to your heart’s content. See all the opportunities that are available, intuitively categorised, and easily accessible.
A daily email bulletin. When you sign up to a portal, you’ll receive an email alert when new tenders are uploaded.
A dedicated Account Manager. They’ll handle any questions or queries you may have about the portal.
A free 20-minute phone consultation with a Bid Writer. Our expert Bid Consultants will chat with you about anything tender related.

What opportunities can I expect from a tender search on a Hudson Discover portal?

Hudson Discover hosts all kinds of tenders in both the public and private sectors. These are inclusive of, but aren’t limited to:

Open tenders
Restricted procedure tenders
Competitive dialogues
Negotiated tendering procedures
Innovation partnerships
Single supplier contracts
Framework agreements
Dynamic Purchasing Systems.

Discover Elite

Vocal

Our support doesn’t end there! Our creative content agency, Vocal, are on hand to help.

Our team specialise in six areas, including:

If you’d like to know more about what we can do for your business, introduce yourself to the team!

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

The post Scenario-Based Questions – 6 Reasons Why Buyers Are Asking These Questions appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Need Help with Your Tender or Bid? Here’s 5 of the ESSENTIAL Tips for Success

John Hudson — Wed, 11 May 2022 07:00:34 +0000

Here are 5 of the MOST IMPORTANT tips for when you’re writing a tender or bid

So, you’ve got questions about a tender or bid. Well, Hudson Succeed are here to help! Our Bid Consultants have over 60 years of experience and an 87% bid success rate. So, we are confident in our ability to help you and your business see success. Keep reading to learn more…

How to find a tender or bid

If you are beginning your journey and you’re looking for a tender or bid, there are tools at hand. Most people will simply use a search engine such as Google to find contracts. However, this can bring up countless sites with very little information about the bid. You’ll have to read lengthy documents just to find out if a contract is suitable for you. Our sister company, Hudson Discover, makes it easy to find tenders and bids.

Hudson Discover has 11 sector-specific portals to streamline the process of finding bids and tenders. They have Opportunity Trackers that manually search for bids. They don’t use CPV codes when searching for tenders. So, there is no risk of missing a tender opportunity due to a mistake in the code. They then upload these contracts to the portals daily. You can also receive daily notifications to keep up to date with the latest opportunities.

Discover Elite

How to win a tender or bid

When it comes to winning a tender or bid, there are a few very important aspects that come into play. They are as follows:

1. Prioritise bid management

Bid management is one of the most essential parts of handling a tender or bid. This is how you can stay organised and on track. By managing the workload and knowing what needs to be done, you will be less stressed. In turn, there won’t be any last-minute rushes that lead to easy mistakes that could cost you the bid.

2. Make sure the tender or bid proposal is clear and well written

The buyer wants to know why you should be awarded the contract. So, it is best to get straight to the point and explain exactly that. Ensure your tender or bid proposal is well written and communicates your ideas clearly. You should focus on what the buyer is asking and avoid waffling. This will also play into your wordcount and bid length.

It is important that you follow the buyer’s instructions and stick to the wordcount. If you can’t do this, the buyer is unlikely to award you the contract as you come across as unprofessional. Why should they trust you with a contract if you can’t follow the instructions in the tender documents?

3. Thoroughly edit your work

Even the best writers can make mistakes. Often it is minor mistakes that can easily be overlooked. However, it is important that you correct these. The buyer will get the impression that you are not thorough with your work if you fail to catch mistakes.

4. Don’t use technical jargon

As mentioned in point two, your tender or bid proposal must be clear. So, don’t use any technical jargon that the buyer may not understand. This will lead to them feeling confused by your bid and it could cost you the contract. They want to know exactly how you can help them. So, be as clear as possible.

5. Ensure you are eligible for the contract

It may surprise you to know that many businesses will write a tender or bid for a contract they cannot deliver. This is a complete waste of time and resources. So, when you find a contract, make sure you read all the documents. This will help you to understand exactly what is expected. Therefore, you’ll know if you are eligible for the contract.

Summary

To find tenders and bids, you can use an opportunity tracking portal. Hudson Discover has 11 sector-specific portals to streamline the process of finding bids and tenders. You can upgrade to Discover Elite to have a dedicated Account Manager find bids on your behalf.

Here are our five tips for how to win a tender or bid:

Prioritise bid management
Make sure the tender or bid proposal is clear and well written
Thoroughly edit your work
Don’t use technical jargon
Ensure you are eligible for the contract.

We hope we have answered your questions about tenders and bids. If not, don’t hesitate to contact us. Our team are always more than happy to help!

Need help searching for tenders?

Our sister company, Hudson Discover, has 11 sector-specific tendering portals. One centralised and easy-to-navigate portal can help you save time, streamlining the process.

A subscription to one of our industry-specific portals will include:

Unlimited portal access. You can browse your industry’s portal to your heart’s content. See the hundreds of opportunities that are available, intuitively categorised and easily accessible.
A daily email bulletin. When you sign up to a portal, you’ll receive an email alert when new tenders are uploaded.
A dedicated Account Manager. They’ll handle any questions or queries you may have about the portal.
A free 20-minutes phone consultation with a Bid Writer. Our expert Bid Consultants will chat with you about anything tender related.

What opportunities can I expect from a tender search on a Hudson Discover portal?

They host all kinds of tenders in both the public and private sectors. These are inclusive of, but aren’t limited to:

Open tenders
Restricted procedure tenders
Competitive dialogues
Negotiated tendering procedures
Innovation partnerships
Single supplier contracts
Framework agreements
Dynamic Purchasing Systems.

Now you know how to accurately perform a tender search, you may be wondering how to write a bid. Well, luckily for you, Hudson Succeed, are experts in bid writing.

Tender Writing

Tender Mentor

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

The Tender Improvement package can help those who have tendered before but aren’t seeing results. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous responses and work with you to develop improved content.

Get in touch to find out how we can help your business grow.

Vocal

Our support doesn’t end there! Our creative content agency, Vocal, are on hand to help.

Our creative service is dedicated to growing your business through striking and thought-provoking content. Our team specialise in six areas, including:

If you’d like to know more about what we can do for your business, introduce yourself to the team!

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

The post Need Help with Your Tender or Bid? Here’s 5 of the ESSENTIAL Tips for Success appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Capture Management Expert Reveals All: Q&A With a Senior Bid Writer

Millie Newbold — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 06:00:43 +0000

Learn about capture management with our Senior Bid Writer, Robyn Crawford

Are you ready to learn about capture management? Here at Hudson Succeed, our Bid Writers utilise this process day in, day out. It’s safe to say, it’s an important part of the tendering process!

If you don’t know what it means just yet, then you’re in luck! We sat down with Robyn Crawford, our Senior Bid Writer, to ask some questions about the capture management process. Here’s what she had to say…

What is capture management?

Capture management gives the client an advantage when they tender for work. Through this process, we capture key information about the buyer, including their objectives and requirements.

We’ll also look at the client’s experience. We extract information from our clients about their organisational experience and any previous or current contracts they’re working on. Once we have this information, we develop three case studies that are specific to the opportunity they’re bidding for.

A key part of capture management is competitor analysis. For example, at Hudson, we support our clients by identifying competitors within their industry. This is helpful, as they’re most likely to be tendering for the same contracts. With this information, we complete a SWOT analysis. We look at the competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

After evaluating the potential competition, we work with our clients to develop at least three win themes and their USPs.

What do you do with this information?

Once we have this information from our clients, we start to develop a written solution. This can involve, but certainly isn’t limited to:

The end-to-end service they’ll provide
Supply chain experience
Skillsets of any key personnel
Training
Service delivery
Benefits
Risk management
Quality assurance
KPIs and performance measures
Social value
Innovation.

Alongside this, we also identify and explain any risks that our clients might face if they proceed with the tender. This could be areas that require improvement in order to see success.

Does it have a purpose?

Capture management is designed to help the client prepare for bid release and enhance the quality of the submission. Ultimately, we want to do everything we can to improve their chances of success.

What are the main benefits of capture management?

First and foremost, capture management will raise the overall win probability. It allows us to enhance the quality of our client’s tender responses, giving them the best chance of success.

However, there are certain benefits that are often overlooked, but they’re just as important for our clients. Capture management allows for clear opportunity clarification. With this process, our clients can assess whether a tender opportunity is right for them. For example, we can use the information gathered during capture management and evaluate it against the tender specifications.

The pressure of working on a live bid reduces by using this process to prepare for the bid. This is because we already have everything in place to produce a high-quality submission.

Not only that, but it provides an opportunity to develop high-level solutions, including supply chains and sub-contract agreements. The extra time is also useful for submitting any questions within the clarification window.

Finally, capture management is a great opportunity to build strong, long-lasting relationships with the client. By learning about their business experience, they can rest assured that we’re fully prepared to produce a winning tender response. As a result, they’re more likely to trust us with future bidding opportunities.

What is a Capture Manager?

A Capture Manager is the person responsible for the research, analysis and strategy involved in the capture management process. However, this role will look different in every company, and generally depends on the size of the organisation. Some businesses might have a dedicated Capture Manager that works on every project. On the other hand, in some companies, Bid Writers or Bid Managers will be responsible for this process.

Generally, a Capture Manager’s responsibilities could include:

Researching the tender opportunity
Researching the contracting authority
Competitor analysis
SWOT assessments
Solution planning
Risk analysis
Capture and Bid Team coordination
Overseeing the bid strategy, pricing and review process
Creating and executing a capture plan
Reviewing the final tender proposal.

When should capture management start?

Ideally, capture management will start as soon as the client identifies an opportunity they’d like to go for. It’s important for making the bid or no-bid decision and can streamline the entire tendering process.

Capture management is a long and detailed process and should be used for complex and must-win opportunities. It’s particularly common for government and public sector contracts.

That being said, capture management is still a useful tool for smaller, routine tendering opportunities. Generally, for these contracts, we can adopt an abbreviated capture management process, if that’s what the client requires. However, we spend as much or as little time on the process as is necessary to increase the client’s chances of success.

It’s recommended to start the process as early as possible, as this gives the client the best chance of winning. Starting the process too late could mean there isn’t enough time to capture all the necessary information. So, wherever possible, it’s important to get ahead.

What steps are involved in the capture management process?

Generally, the capture management process can be broken down into five steps. These include:

Identifying the opportunity

The process begins with the client approaching us about a tender opportunity they’re interested in.

Exploring the client’s needs

Next, we evaluate the client’s needs and goals. It’s important to do this early in the process, as this will inform the next step.

Determining if the opportunity is suitable

After we’ve assessed the client’s requirements and goals, we’ll look at the opportunity in more detail. This will involve researching the buyer, reading through the tender documents, and evaluating the client against the criteria. We’ll also perform a competitor analysis to see which other businesses are likely to be bidding for the tender. With this information, we can inform the client about whether we believe the opportunity is suitable or not.

Win themes, USPs and case studies

Next, we’ll work with the client to identify at least three win themes and their USPs. Basically, at this stage, we use the information gathered during capture management to assess why they’re better than their competition.

Using the client’s contract examples, we’ll also produce relevant case studies that will demonstrate their experience.

Produce a tender response

Finally, using all this information and with the client’s technical input, we can produce a winning tender response.

What do you think is the most important part of the capture management process?

The most important part of the process is the beginning stage, when the client identifies an opportunity. After all, this decision influences the rest of the process. It defines what the client needs to capture, audits what they already have, and helps design the capture remit.

In summary

Capture management gives suppliers an advantage when they tender for work. Ultimately, it gives them the best chance of achieving success with their tendering efforts. During capture management, our Bid Writers look at:

Buyer objectives and requirements
Client experience
Competitor analysis
USPs
Win themes
Solutions
Risks.

The main benefits of capture management are:

Increases win probability
Enhances tender responses
Reduced pressure
More time
High-level solutions.

Ideally, successful capture management will start as soon as the client identifies an opportunity. The earlier you can get into the process, the better!

How Hudson Succeed can help increase your chances of success

Still have questions about the capture management process? Why not call our Bid Writing Consultants? We’re always happy to help!

Tender Writing

Tender Mentor

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

The Tender Improvement package can help those who have tendered before but aren’t seeing results. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous responses and work with you to develop improved content.

Get in touch to find out how we can help your business grow.

Need help searching for tenders?

Now it’s time to find a contract opportunity for your company!

You may be wondering where you can find a tender for your business. There’s no shortage of websites offering multi-sector tendering opportunities and leads.

Ideally, you should be searching for a sector-specific site that posts all unique, public and private sector opportunities.

Our sister company, Hudson Discover, has 11 sector-specific tendering portals. One centralised and easy-to-navigate portal can help you save time, streamlining the process.

A subscription to one of our industry-specific portals will include:

Unlimited portal access. You can browse your industry’s portal to your heart’s content. See the hundreds of opportunities that are available, intuitively categorised and easily accessible.
A daily email bulletin. When you sign up to a portal, you’ll receive an email alert when new tenders are uploaded.
A dedicated Account Manager. They’ll handle any questions or queries you may have about the portal.
A free 20-minute phone consultation with a Bid Writer. Our expert bid consultants will chat with you about anything tender related.

What opportunities can I expect from a tender search on a Hudson Discover portal?

We host all kinds of tenders in both the public and private sectors. These are inclusive of, but aren’t limited to:

Open tenders
Restricted procedure tenders
Competitive dialogues
Negotiated tendering procedures
Innovation partnerships
Single supplier contracts
Framework agreements
Dynamic Purchasing Systems.

Discover Elite

Vocal

Our support doesn’t end there! Our creative content agency, Vocal, are on hand to help.

Our team specialise in six areas, including:

If you’d like to know more about what we can do for your business, introduce yourself to the team!

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

The post Capture Management Expert Reveals All: Q&A With a Senior Bid Writer appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Win Tenders: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed

John Hudson — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 08:00:46 +0000

Want to win tenders? Here’s how you can increase your chances of success!

If you’re wondering how to win tenders, then you’ve come to the right place. Here at Hudson Succeed, we have over 60 years of experience with writing tenders and proposals. We also have an 87% bid success rate, so we are confident in our ability to help you.

A lot of work can go into writing a bid proposal. If you are new to tendering and unsure of the bid process, it can seem overwhelming. Don’t worry! It isn’t as bad as it first appears. Continue reading to learn the various ways in which you can increase your chances to win tenders.

What are tenders?

If you are completely new to the tendering process, you may want to know more about what tenders are. This is a key part of how to win tenders . You need to know what you’re in for! In short, a tender (also known as a ‘bid’) is a document submitted for a contract.

This contract will be for goods or services that are required by the contracting authority. For example, a company may require a new logo and branding. So, they’ll likely put out a contract for a suitable creative agency to deliver these services. Since they’ll receive several bids, they will need to find the most suitable through a vigorous evaluation process.

A lot must be considered during this process. If you are bidding for a public sector contract, the process is a lot more transparent. The buyer must go with the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT). This is so that there are no buyers choosing suppliers for personal reasons that put other suppliers at a disadvantage.

Where can you find tenders?

If you are wondering where to find a tender, then we have some solutions. Afterall, before you can win tenders, you need to have suitable contracts to bid for.

Most people will begin a tender search by using a search engine such as Google. This is understandable, as we rely on the internet for a lot of information in recent times. This helpful tool can give you results instantly. For example, if you search ‘nursing tenders’, you’ll see plenty of results. The issue is how long it takes to go through these results.

Many sites will not feature breakdowns of the contract. You’ll have to read through these lengthy tender documents to even see if you are suitable for the work. This can take hours of your time. Running a business is hard enough, and you likely won’t have the time to dedicate fully to this. So, what solutions are available to help with this issue?

Tender tracking portals

There are many sites out there that track tenders, making it easier to find them as they’re in one place. In turn, this makes the process quicker so that you can move on to how to win tenders. This saves you having to scour through endless sites in an effort to find remotely suitable contracts for your business. Our sister company, Hudson Discover, has 11 sector-specific tendering portals. One centralised and easy-to-navigate portal can help you save time, streamlining the process.

They are:

What makes Hudson Discover unique?

There’s no shortage of websites offering multi-sector tendering opportunities and leads. Ideally, you should be searching for a sector-specific site that posts all unique, public and private sector opportunities. Our sites are unique as we don’t use CPV codes when we source our opportunities. This means there is no risk of missing a tender due to a coding error.

Our Opportunity Trackers manually upload new tenders daily and send out a tender notification. This way, our users can stay updated with the day’s most recent additions.

These portals are specifically designed for industry users to easily find suitable contracts. We use a filter system so that users can easily find what they’re looking for. So, users can search by keyword, dates, locations, and budgets. This way, you can easily narrow down your search!

A subscription to one of our industry-specific portals will include:

Unlimited portal access.You can browse your industry’s portal to your heart’s content. See the hundreds of opportunities that are available, intuitively categorised and easily accessible.
A daily email bulletin.When you sign up to a portal, you’ll receive an email alert when new tenders are uploaded.
A dedicated Account Manager. They’ll handle any questions or queries you may have about the portal.
A free 20-minutes phone consultation with a Bid Writer. Our expert bid consultants will chat with you about anything tender related.

Want to save even more time looking for tenders? Try Discover Elite

Sign up to Discover Elite via your chosen portal where a dedicated Account Manager finds live bids on your behalf. They’ll speak with you weekly to discuss opportunities that may interest you. This is especially helpful for those with little time to spare due to busy schedules.

Upgrading to Discover Elite will ensure you never miss a tendering opportunity even when you’re busy!

The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool offers your business:

An annual subscription to a maximum of two Discover portals of your choice.
Up to five bid breakdowns per month to help you make your bid or no-bid decisions
Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable leads and tendering opportunities.
Award and pre-market engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
Public and private buyer portal management including registering, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid strategy.

What opportunities can I expect from a tender search on a Hudson Discover portal?

We host all kinds of tenders in both the public and private sectors. These are inclusive of, but aren’t limited to:

Open tenders
Restricted procedure tenders
Competitive dialogues
Negotiated tendering procedures
Innovation partnerships
Single supplier contracts
Framework agreements
Dynamic Purchasing Systems.

How to win tenders

To win tenders, you need certain skills. Here are a few that can boost your chances of writing a winning tender.

1. Professional writing and communication skills

As you may have guessed, writing and communication skills are critical for writing a winning bid. To win tenders, you need to persuade the buyer that you are the right fit for the job. You need to communicate your skills, experience, ideas, and concepts clearly. The last thing you want to do is confuse the buyer. This will make them a lot less likely to award you the contract. They won’t want to have to stop and research something if you haven’t explained it clearly.

Our Bid Writers recommend that you don’t use industry jargon when writing your bid proposal. This is because the buyer is unlikely to be an expert in your industry. Therefore, they won’t know what you are referring to. To win tenders, you need to be as clear and concise as possible.

Writing skills are important for ensuring the quality of the bid proposal. You want your bid to be as professional as possible. Check out our third point for more information on the importance of proofing your proposal!

2. Bid management abilities

Being able to win tenders means you need excellent organisation skills. By staying organised and prepared, there is less risk of missing important information. This is why a pre-bid plan can also be highly beneficial as well.

It is important to conduct bid management as tenders usually have a lot of documents. The workload needs to be organised to ensure it is completed in time. This is especially the case if you have a short deadline. The last thing you want is to be rushing at the last minute. This panic can lead to making mistakes and forgetting certain information. Plus, if you miss the deadline, even by a minute, your bid will not be accepted.

3. Editing and proofreading skills

As promised, now we will cover the importance of editing your proposal before submission. Even if you have excellent writing skills, you still need to proofread your proposal. Little mistakes can always find a way to hide. Often times, you won’t even notice them at first. This is why we suggest you have different people proofread the proposal to be sure nothing is missed.

If you have various mistakes within your proposal, the buyer may not choose to award you the contract. This is because it gives the impression you are not thorough with your work. So, the work isn’t of the highest standard that it has the potential to be. It makes you seem unprofessional, and this is not the impression you want to give!

Bid reviews

If you want to win tenders, then Bid Writers can certainly help but conducting bid reviews. This should be done by your team, even if you don’t hire an expert. This is also different from proofreading. You need to ensure that all tender responses meet requirements. Check that you are fully answering the question, and so on.

It isn’t essential, but it will definitely be a benefit for the review to be conducted by someone externally. This way, they are more likely to see the response more critically. They can identify areas where you might ramble or not answer the question fully. This review allows you to see which areas you can improve, and in turn, you can increase your chances of success.

We have a Tender Mentor service to help you if you’re seeking to outsource your bid review. Our Bid Writers will go over your bid, ensuring that the bid you’ve produced is of the highest quality. This is an external guide and review service. Our service allows you to eliminate any mistakes and generally improve your final response before submission.

What if you don’t have these skills or the time? Who can help you win tenders?

If you are worried that you don’t have the time or skills to complete a bid, then help is available! You can turn to the experts for bid writing help. Professional Bid Writers have these skills and the experience needed to take on any tender. Here’s why it can be more beneficial to hire a Bid Writer to win tenders:

They have the experience to win tenders – Having experience is a huge benefit as Bid Writers know what works and what doesn’t.
They have the skills – Bid writing professionals have all of the skills mentioned above. So, they know how to write a high-quality proposal.
Bid Writers save you time – They take the project off your hands so you can focus on your usual responsibilities.

Summary

So, now you should know a few of the key skills needed to win tenders. Let’s recap what we covered!

What are tenders?

When an organisation require certain goods or services, they’ll likely rely on a supplier. They will send out a contract to deliver these goods/services, and suitable suppliers can bid. The best suited supplier will be awarded the contract to carry out the work.

Where can you find tenders?

To find a tender, we suggest using a tender tracking portal. Our sister company have 11 sector-specific portals, they are:

Our portals are unique as we don’t use CPV codes to find opportunities. This means we never miss a tender due to an error in the code. You can rest assured that we can provide all the most up-to-date contracts available for you to bid for.

How to win tenders:

Professional writing and communication skills – These are crucial for getting your ideas across to the buyer.
Bid management abilities – You need to be organised to ensure you get the proposal completed on time.
Editing and proofreading skills – Your bid needs to be of exceptional quality, so it must be proofread.
Bid reviews – As well as being proofread, your bid should also be reviewed. This is a process specifically to assess how successful the bid is likely to be.

Who can help you win tenders?

If you don’t have the time to complete a bid, you can turn to expert Bid Writers. These professionals have years of experience and know what it takes to win tenders.

If you still have questions about how to win tenders, then don’t hesitate to contact us. We are always happy to help!

Our services

Tender Writing

Tender Mentor

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

The Tender Improvement package can help those who have tendered before but aren’t seeing results. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous responses and work with you to develop improved content.

Get in touch to find out how we can help your business grow.

Vocal

Our support doesn’t end there! Our creative content agency, Vocal, are on hand to help.

Our creative service is dedicated to growing your business through striking and thought-provoking content. Our team specialise in six areas, including:

If you’d like to know more about what we can do for your business, introduce yourself to the team!

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

The post Win Tenders: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Bid Tender Writer: 3 Interesting Ways They Can Improve Your Chances of Success

Kathryn Wright — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 13:15:11 +0000

Looking for a Bid or Tender Writer? Here’s what you should know

Are you wondering how a Bid or Tender Writer can help your business? There’s plenty of ways they can win you contracts. You may assume they can simply write the bid for you. That is true, but it isn’t all they can do. Our Bid and Tender Writers are proficient in several skills. We also have a variety of expertly crafted services available to support you. At Hudson Succeed, we want to help educate and support anyone we can. So, continue reading to find out more on how Bid or Tender Writers can help you.

What is a Bid Writer?

To begin with, we want to address what a Bid or Tender Writer is. They are experts in the world of tendering and are there to support businesses with their bids. They can do this in a multitude of ways, but primarily they write compelling bids for their clients.

Why do businesses hire Bid Writers?

Many businesses will turn to a Bid or Tender Writer for several reasons. However, the most common is that it saves time. By hiring a Tender Writing Consultant, you can continue your usual work whilst they handle the tendering process for you.

Businesses prefer this as it means they are not wasting time and resources. Many of them would have to sacrifice their usual responsibilities to dedicate time to completing a bid. If you don’t have the time and resources to do this, it can be risky trying to complete a bid.

A Bid or Tender Writer can handle the entire process for you, and even submit it on your behalf. Therefore, there’s no stress involved and any last-minute panicking to get things done.

How will a Bid Writer improve your chances of success?

A Bid or Tender Writer can improve your chances of success in many ways. Here are just a few:

They have expert knowledge and experience

One of the greatest benefits of hiring a Bid or Tender Writer is that they are experts at what they do. So, they know exactly what is expected and how to write your bid responses to a high standard.

A Bid Writer has mastered writing and communication skills

These bid writing skills are essential for producing a winning bid. The aim of a tender is to showcase why your business should be awarded a contract. So, it is imperative that the bid is clear, concise, and communicates ideas to a high standard. If the buyer doesn’t understand your points, they will probably not award you the bid.

A bid also needs to be thoroughly checked for errors. You don’t want to give the impression you are lazy and rush your work without checking it.

Bid Writers understand the importance of bid management

Many people may believe a good bid is simply down to writing skills. This is not the case! Bid management is essential for ensuring the quality of your bid. A Bid or Tender Writer will use their bid management skills to breakdown buyer documents and make the workload manageable. It is key for ensuring nothing is missed and everything is done in time.

Summary

So, in summary, a Bid or Tender Writer is a professional that can provide services to help you win contracts.

Businesses turn to them for several reasons, but mainly because they save time and are experts at what they do.

They can help you in many ways, but some of those include the following:

They have expert knowledge and experience
A professional Tender Writer has mastered writing and communication skills
Tender Writing experts understand the importance of bid management.

Still got questions about Bid and Tender Writers? Why not contact us, and see how we can help you? We are always here to help!

Need help searching for tenders?

Our sister company, Hudson Discover, has 11 sector-specific tendering portals. One centralised and easy-to-navigate portal can help you save time, streamlining the process.

A subscription to one of our industry-specific portals will include:

Unlimited portal access. You can browse your industry’s portal to your heart’s content. See the hundreds of opportunities that are available, intuitively categorised and easily accessible.
A daily email bulletin. When you sign up to a portal, you’ll receive an email alert when new tenders are uploaded.
A dedicated Account Manager. They’ll handle any questions or queries you may have about the portal.
A free 20-minutes phone consultation with a Bid Writer. Our expert bid consultants will chat with you about anything tender related.

What opportunities can I expect from a tender search on a Hudson Discover portal?

We host all kinds of tenders in both the public and private sectors. These are inclusive of, but aren’t limited to:

Open tenders
Restricted procedure tenders
Competitive dialogues
Negotiated tendering procedures
Innovation partnerships
Single supplier contracts
Framework agreements
Dynamic Purchasing Systems.

Now you know how to accurately perform a tender search, you may be wondering how to write a bid. Well, luckily for you, our sister company, Hudson Succeed, are experts in bid writing.

They have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. Whether you’re completely new to tendering or aren’t seeing results – they can help. There are four bid writing packages available:

Tender Writing

Tender Mentor

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

The Tender Improvement package can help those who have tendered before but aren’t seeing results. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous responses and work with you to develop improved content.

Get in touch to find out how we can help your business grow.

Vocal

Our support doesn’t end there! Our creative content agency, Vocal, are on hand to help.

Our creative service is dedicated to growing your business through striking and thought-provoking content. Our team specialise in six areas, including:

If you’d like to know more about what we can do for your business, introduce yourself to the team!

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

The post Bid Tender Writer: 3 Interesting Ways They Can Improve Your Chances of Success appeared first on Tender Consultants.

RFP Tenders: Everything You Need to Know

Kathryn Wright — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 11:27:42 +0000

Here’s everything you need to know about RFP tenders

Do you have questions about RFP tenders? Perhaps you are wondering where to find them, or how to win them. Maybe you simply want to know what they are. Here at Hudson Succeed, we strive to support and educate anyone who wants to learn more about tendering.

Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about RFP tenders…

What is an RFP tender?

Starting at the beginning, what are RFP tenders? Well, RFP stands for request for proposal. This is a type of tender where buyers request any suitable suppliers to bid for their contract via a proposal. This proposal is often complex and in-depth. This is because the supplier must go into detail about how they will carry out the work. They must also show why they are the best choice.

There are a few different types of requests, including RFIs and RFQs. You may also have heard the term invitation to tender (ITT). This usually comes after suppliers have completed a PQQ (pre-qualification questionnaire). We wrote a blog dedicated to addressing the differences between them which you can read here.

How to find RFP tenders

To find an RFP tender, you can simply use search engines such as Google. Opportunities will be available on various websites. This can take hours of scouring a lot of sites, however. To streamline the process, you may prefer to use a tender portal. Our sister company, Hudson Discover, have 11 sector specific portals. They are:

By using a tender portal, you can save hours of your time which can be used more productively. What is great about our portals is that we don’t use algorithms or CPV codes. This means the opportunities on our portals are all legitimate and categorised correctly. You can use filters to see contracts based on keywords, location, budget, and deadline.

How to win RFP tenders

There are two options for winning an RFP tender. You can choose to write the bid yourself or turn to a professional Bid Writer. If you opt for writing it yourself, there’s certain skills you will need to ensure the highest chance of success.

1. You’ll need expert writing and communication skills

As you might expect, to write a bid you’ll need excellent writing skills. You’ll also need to be able to communicate ideas and concepts clearly. You don’t want the reader to be confused when reviewing your bid. So, these skills are essential for getting your case across.

2. Bid management is essential

Bids are often complex and require a lot of work. If you aren’t sure how to approach one, it can even feel overwhelming. It is important to read the buyer’s documents clearly and to note down important information and key dates. Bid management is one of the most important parts of tendering. Without it, you’re likely to miss key details and this will easily lose you the bid.

Here at Hudson Succeed, our bid management consultancy services can help you every step of the way.

3. Editing abilities

Similarly with writing skills, you need to have a keen eye for detail to spot errors in your bid. This is a really important stage that our own Bid Writers take very seriously. If your bid is littered with mistakes, it gives the impression you are unprofessional and not thorough. You want to submit a bid of the absolute highest standard, so you need to check it for mistakes. Our Bid Writers proofread bids multiple times with peers to ensure any mistakes are rectified.

Why you should choose a Bid Writer for your RFP tenders

Many businesses choose to hire Bid Writers to handle their RFPs. This is for several reasons, including:

· Bid Writers save you time

By turning to a Bid Writer, they handle the entire bid for you. This means you can spend your time more productively and continue with your usual responsibilities. Some businesses choose to write their bid themselves, but this can put a massive strain on their workforce.

· Bid Writers have the experience needed

As you can imagine, Bid Writers are experts at what they do. This means they have the years of experience needed to know exactly how to approach bids. They know how to break down tenders into manageable chunks. This means they can get everything done with plenty of time to spare for the submission stage. It also ensures no details are missed.

Summary

Now let’s summarise everything we have covered.

An RFP tender is a type of bid where suppliers can submit bid proposals for a particular contract.

To find an RFP tender, you can use search engines. However, you will save more time by using a tender portal such as one of our 11 sector specific portals:

To win an RFP tender, you can write the bid yourself or turn to a Bid Writer. To win an RFP tender yourself, you’ll need the following skills:

You’ll need expert writing and communication skills
Bid management is essential
Editing abilities.

If you are considering hiring a Bid Writer, there are many benefits. Two of the main reasons for hiring a Bid Writer are as follows:

Bid Writers save you time
Bid Writers have the experience needed.

It is important to also note that Bid Writers have all the skills listed above for winning an RFP tender.

Still have questions about RFP tenders? Our Bid Writing Consultants are always at hand to help. Feel free to contact us with any queries you have.

Our services

Tender Writing

Tender Ready

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

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own 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. This can help you formulate a winning submission.

Additional support

If you only need assistance with PQQs or SQs we can help. Send the information over to us and we can provide you with a quote for the work involved.

Discover Elite

Upgrading to Discover Elite can help optimise your tendering efforts – even when you’re busy. Our two new time-saving tools can improve your competitor awareness and success rate when bidding for a contract.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Healthcare and Technology, for example.
Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

All of the above.
Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

The post RFP Tenders: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Tender Consultants.

How to Tender for Building Work: Tips from the Experts

John Hudson — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 07:00:58 +0000

Have you got questions on how to tender for building work? We have the answers…

When you’re looking for how to tender for building work, you may have several questions. The more you learn, the more questions may arise. Luckily, we aim to offer as much advise in our blogs as we can. If you have questions, we will use decades of experience and our 87% success rate to offer support.

Let’s get into how to tender for building work.

Finding building work opportunities

When you want to search for tendering opportunities, the easiest and best way is through portals. This is the first stage of how to tender for building work. There are several sites, ours included, that offer streamlined experiences to help make finding contracts easy. The UK has a contract finder, for example, that allows users to use filters. These filters can be selected to show results that are suitable for SMEs or from certain periods of time. You can also discover awarded contracts. It is a great tool for finding contracts.

As mentioned, there are lots of sites that host portals for tender opportunities. These portals make it much easier to find contracts. So, instead of going through dozens of websites and painstakingly searching, you can easily find the information you need. One aspect that sets our portals apart from the rest is that we don’t use CPV codes. This means we check all opportunities as we upload them to our portal, so no contracts will be missed.

Since we are focused on how to tender for building work, we recommend our Construction Tenders portal.

It is important when searching for opportunities that you check your eligibility. Many businesses will tender for work they cannot actually deliver. This is a huge waste of time, money, and resources. If you hire bid writing services, these experts will be able to help you breakdown a bid, checking your eligibility.

Writing the bid

Once you have selected the opportunity you wish to pursue, you can begin to write your bid. A lot of people may worry at this stage. A lot goes into bid writing, so it can be better to hire an expert. Professional Bid Writers can take the stress out of the process for you by handling the entire thing. They may even submit the bid on your behalf. Whether you choose to write it yourself, or hire an expert, here’s what needs to be implemented to ensure success.

Break down the documents

The first stage of writing your bid is to break down the buyer’s tender documents. This is important so you know exactly what is required. This is often done when checking for eligibility as you can see whether you can deliver the required work.

Use excellent writing and communication skills

Writing a bid does require excellent writing and communication skills. This is why so many businesses outsource to Bid Writers. It is their job to do it well. Your bid needs to be well written and communicate clearly your ideas and concepts.

Proofreading abilities

Your bid is your opportunity to stand out and impress the buyer. You won’t do this if your bid is full of errors. It gives the impression you are not thorough with your work. So, it is important to proof and edit your work, so it is as close to perfect as possible.

Time and project management

Since tenders often have several deadlines, it is important to be organised. This is why it is important to break down the tender. This way you can work out exactly what needs to be done, and when to do it by.

Summary

In summary, the process of how to tender for building work is broken into two parts:

Finding the opportunities
Writing the bid.

These are some of the skills needed to increase your chances of success:

Breaking down the documents
Using excellent writing and communication skills
Proofreading abilities
Time and project management.

If you still have questions on how to tender for building work, don’t hesitate to contact us. We aim to help however we can, and we are confident we can support you.

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

Our services

Tender Writing

Tender Ready

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

Tender Mentor

Additional support

If you only need the assistance with PQQs or SQs we can help. Send the information over to us and we can provide you with a quote for the work involved.

Discover Elite

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Healthcare and Technology, for example.
Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

All of the above.
Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

The post How to Tender for Building Work: Tips from the Experts appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Bid Writing Tips From Our Tender Consultants Team

Top 10 Bid Writing Skills

Top 10 Bid Writing Skills

First…What is Bid Writing?

Our Top 10 Bid Writing Skills

Written Communication

Verbal Communication

Attention to detail

Time management

Strategic Thinking

IT Software

Research

Teamwork

Adapt under pressure

Independence

Why Be a Bid Writer?

Highly transferable skills

Work variety

Career progression

Highly valued

What if My First Bid Is Not Successful?

Once I’m a Bid Writer…What’s Next? Our 6 Top Tips!

Our services include:

Tender Writing

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

Tender Mentor

Contact us:

Additional support:

Discover Elite

Our other divisions:

Vocal

Alpha

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

Bid and Tender Writing Services: The Secrets to Success!

How can bid and tender writing services benefit your business?

What are bid and tender writing services?

How can bid and tender writing services benefit your business?

1. Increased chance of success

2. Takes the pressure off your shoulders

3. Saves you resources

4. Bid Writers understand documents

Summary

What are bid and tender writing services?

How can bid and tender writing services benefit your business?

1. Increased chance of success

2. Takes the pressure off your shoulders

3. Saves you resources

4. Bid Writers understand tender documents.

Need help searching for tenders?

A subscription to one of our industry-specific portals will include:

What opportunities can I expect from a tender search on a Hudson Discover portal?

What we can do for you

Vocal

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

How to Win Contracts: 7 Secrets You NEED to Know

Learn how to win contracts from the experts

Research, research, research

Study the tender documents

Prepare your evidence

Show, don’t tell

Demonstrate added value

Review – and then review it again

Submit the bid on time

In summary

How Hudson Succeed can help

Tender Writing

Tender Mentor

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

Need help with searching for tenders?

A subscription to one of our industry-specific portals will include:

What opportunities can I expect from a tender search on a Hudson Discover portal?

Discover Elite

Vocal

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

Scenario-Based Questions – 6 Reasons Why Buyers Are Asking These Questions

Senior Bid Writer shares their insights on how to respond to scenario-based questions

What are scenario-based questions?

What type of scenario-based questions can occur during bid proposals?