Economic and Financial Standing | Tender Consultants

How to Become a Government Supplier in the UK

Charlotte Jarvis — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 07:00:21 +0000

How to become a government supplier in the UK…if you’re an SME

Many SMEs wonder how to become a government supplier. They recognise the advantages and prospects of listing government bodies as clients and climbing the contract ladder.

It’s true that listing previous contract experience with government clients will help you to secure larger contracts. However, this is a bit of a chicken and egg situation, isn’t it? How can you win a contract in the first place to gain the experience you need? We all remember struggling to land our first job straight out of education, without that all-important experience. Well, this is similar.

In this blog, we’ll explain how to become a government supplier if you’re a small business. We’ll cover:

How to find the opportunities.
How to prepare and ensure you’re tender ready.
3 ways to make sure you meet the brief and have a good chance of winning.
How the government helps small businesses bid for work.
Social value – what is it and how to prepare in advance.
Our top 9 tips for how to become a government supplier.

Firstly, how do you find opportunities in the first place?

We’re not going to get very far without identifying an opportunity, are we! In the UK, there are hundreds of websites that publish new tendering opportunities, including the government’s own website, Contracts Finder. The problem is that these websites are not that easy to navigate and they’re not efficient to use.

Why? The main culprit is CPV codes (common procurement vocabulary). An eight-digit code, used for categorising opportunities into ‘subject matter’…in theory.

CPV codes are often used incorrectly by buyers due to the vast number of codes available. A study by the European Commission sampled 405 contract notices. They found that 23% had the wrong code associated with the scope of work tendered. This results in an inefficient sourcing process for you, the prospective supplier.

That’s why we created our own tendering portals, housed under Hudson Discover. We removed the use of CPV codes or algorithms and replaced them with manual opportunity tracking. Not only that, but the portals are also sector-specific, making them even more tailored to the user. More information about our portals can be found here:

How to make sure you’re tender ready before you begin

If tendering is new to you, becoming tender ready is an important step. In any tender, you will be required to provide certain documents and evidence. The savvier tenderers will spot that the same, or similar, documents are required by each buyer. Therefore, you can get a step ahead by preparing these documents in advance.

From our experience, the most commonly requested documents are:

Company CVs
Case studies – usually three from the last five years
Policies and procedures
Methodologies.

For help with getting tender ready, visit our dedicated Tender Ready service page.

3 ways to make sure you meet the brief

Before you jump into writing your tender responses and working out your pricing, we recommend:

Checking your economic financial standing

As a general rule of thumb, we advise against bidding for contracts with a value greater than half your turnover. This is your economic financial standing. For example, if a contract has a value of £50,000, you should be turning over at least £100,000. This is because you may struggle to prove that your resources meet the requirements. Often, buyers will ask to see your financial accounts during the tendering process.

Making sure you can evidence your experience

As we mentioned above, government buyers will often ask to see three case studies. They should be from contracts you have delivered within the last five years, in a similar field to this scope. If you can get testimonials from your previous clients, this will help to further demonstrate your capabilities.

Thinking about how you can evidence value for money

Government buyers are accountable for their spending. They have to demonstrate how they have delivered the best value for money because they’re spending public purse. This means that to become a government supplier, you need to evidence added value. It’s not just pricing that buyers consider to be good value. It’s a combination of quality and price throughout the life of the contract. So, make sure you highlight how and why your approach is cost-effective and helps the government make savings.

How to become a government supplier if you’re an SME…will the government help?

Becoming a government supplier is beneficial for both you and the government. The UK government is targeted with spending £1 in every £3 with small businesses. So, how are they helping small businesses secure contracts?

Lower value contracts

Since leaving the EU, there is more flexibility for lower value government contracts to be reserved for SME bidders. There is also more flexibility for Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSEs).

Introducing the prompt payment code

The prompt payment code offers suppliers peace of mind. It states that public sector buyers must include 30-day payment terms in their contracts. They also need to ensure that this is passed down the supply chain. If this is not happening, businesses are encouraged to raise this directly with the Public Procurement Review Service.

If this was the case, interest becomes liable as set out in the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. This means that businesses can claim interest on any late invoices.

The Small Business Commissioner

The Small Business Commissioner is a free service that ensures fair payment practices for all small businesses in Britain. The body supports businesses to resolve payment disputes with larger businesses.

Social value – what is it and how can you prepare?

When SMEs research how to become a government supplier, they sometimes overlook social value. The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 became law on 8^th March 2012. It requires public sector organisations to consider the supplier’s potential to deliver services that benefit the local area and people.

In January 2021, new measures came into effect. Any public sector organisation procuring goods/services with a value of over £180,000 is obliged to ask bidders about social value. A 10% weighting has been placed on these questions in tenders and PQQs. Therefore, it’s worth considering how your business aligns with the aims of the social value measures, which are:

Creating new jobs and promoting skills
Encouraging economic growth
Supporting Covid-19 recovery
Tackling climate change
Levelling up the UK.

Our top 9 tips when tendering for work

If you’re wondering how to become a government supplier, read our top 10 tips:

Invest in the sourcing process

Allocate someone in your team to keep on top of new tendering opportunities. If you’re using the government’s website, they should allocate at least 15-30minutes per day to check for new tenders. If you’re using our Hudson Discover tendering portals, they’ll just need to keep an eye on their inbox. Either way, they need to take action immediately when they identify an opportunity. The rest of your team needs plenty of time to read the documents and write the responses.

Don’t rush in, weigh up the opportunity

Check our top three tips above and answer those questions before diving in. You should also assess the competition and how the new business would impact your current workload. Make sure that you have experience, and that the bid is realistic for you to win.

Familiarise yourself with the buyer’s portal

The portal will be used to:

Register your interest and download the tender documents
Ask clarification questions
Submit the final bid.

Make sure you know your way around and don’t leave it until the last minute to submit your bid. If you miss the deadline, the buyer doesn’t have to grant you an extension or even look at your bid. Even if you missed it because of technical difficulties – the buyer doesn’t have to make allowances. Don’t take the risk!

Make a bid plan

Break down the bid requirements and assign people in your team to take charge. This could be collating your policies, answering specific questions, or keeping your time management in line. Give each team member a clear role and deadlines for any input they will have.

Research the buying organisation

To make an impression on the buyer, it’s important that you understand them and their core values. This will help you demonstrate how your values align with theirs in your responses. If there is an incumbent supplier, you can try to find out who they are and how they are performing. Then, structure your responses around what the buyer is looking for.

Always refer back to the question and provide evidence

When you start writing your responses, always refer back to the question and make sure you’ve answered it. Use the buyer’s exact wording from the question to directly address their requirements.

Avoid empty or cliché statements such as ‘our people are at the heart of everything we do’. Fluffy statements like this are fine for marketing, but not bidding! Make sure you have evidence to back up every claim you make and demonstrate added value throughout.

Avoid jargon

The evaluator is most likely not an expert in your field. Using overly complicated jargon will only make your bid difficult to understand, and in turn, to evaluate. Keep the language simple and the sentences short – around 20 words per sentence is enough.

Don’t skip the proofing! Check for grammatical and spelling errors – they raise red flags with buyers for a lack of attention to detail.

Use clear formatting and design (where appropriate)

Some bids will follow a more rigid approach. The buyer will stipulate the font and point size for your responses and/or provide boxes for you to fill in. Others will follow a free-flowing proposal layout where you are given creative freedom to present the information. If this is the case, we always recommend having your bid professionally designed. It’s a great way to stand out amongst your competitors and make your bid easy to follow.

For help with Bid Design, see our sister company, Vocal.

Get feedback and carry on!

Unfortunately, you won’t always be successful in every tender. It’s important to not be too disheartened and use this as a learning opportunity. Ask the buyer for feedback if it hasn’t been provided and review it with your team.

If you’re losing multiple bids, it might be time to bring in a professional to assess how you could improve. See our Tender Improvement service for more information.

Summary

We’ve reached the end of our blog on how to become a government supplier. We hope our information was helpful. If you need a quick recap, here you go:

Choose an easy-to-use platform to help you identify opportunities quickly and make sure you never miss out.
Spend some time getting ready to tender for work before you dive straight in. Get your company CVs, case studies and policies in order and file them away so they’re ready to go.
Make sure you meet the brief. Check your economic financial standing, ensure you have evidence and that you can offer value for money.
The government needs to work with smaller businesses to meet their targets. They offer support through:

The prompt payment code
Making interest liable if the terms aren’t met
Offering free support through The Small Business Commissioner.

Do your social value research and make sure you can provide examples of how you meet the aims.
Review our top 9 tips for how to become a government supplier:

Invest in the sourcing process
Don’t rush in
Familiarise yourself with the buyer’s portal
Make a bid plan
Research the buying organisation
Refer back to the question and provide evidence to back up your claims
Avoid jargon
Make your bid easy to read through formatting and design
Get feedback and carry on!

Need help with becoming a government supplier?

Our team of consultants are here to help you.

They have a thorough understanding of the tender process and government contracts, knowing exactly how to respond.

By outsourcing to professionals, you could improve your chances of winning contracts.

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 government 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 the bid 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?

A subscription to one of our sector-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 free 20-minute phone consultation with a Bid Writer every month. Our expert Bid Consultants will chat with you about anything tender related.

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.

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

The post How to Become a Government Supplier in the UK appeared first on Tender Consultants.

How to Respond to Government Contracts for Bid

Georgie Morgan — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 07:00:18 +0000

Where to find government contracts up for bid

Last updated: Dec 17, 2021 @ 9:44 am

You may be wondering how to respond to government contracts for bid, and you wouldn’t be the only one. The public sector spends roughly £290 billion annually through public procurement. From schools to hospitals, and from universities to the police force there are plenty of opportunities to tender. It’s not surprising that as an SME you’re wanting to get in on the action.

However, if you’re new to the game, government contracts up for bid can be a confusing field to navigate. Luckily for you, we’ve contained some helpful tips on how to succeed. We’ll also detail where you can find government contracts for bid.

Advantages of tendering for government contracts

There are many advantages when responding to government contracts for bid. If you’re unsure about whether it’s worth investing the time and effort, here are some points to consider:

Guaranteed pay

One of the most significant advantages of securing a government contract for bid is you are guaranteed payment. This is because the public sector is bound by rules and regulations to ensure a fair and transparent procurement process.

Upon winning a contract, you are guaranteed payment within 60 days of invoicing. This is because the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has to comply with the Prompt Payment Code. This can give suppliers piece of mind when tendering for work in the public sector. The same can’t be said for tendering for the private sector. This is because they aren’t bound by the same rule and regulations.

Secure a pipeline of work for your business

Responding to government contracts for bid can help you secure a pipeline of work for your business. Particularly if you secure a place on a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) or framework agreement. A benefit of this is that they can run for years at a time with the possibility of extensions. It’s not unheard of some DPS’ running for 10+ years. These are two types of tender processes that are frequently used by public sector organisation. They are especially used within construction and healthcare.

Gain experience

Having a bank of experience is essential in order to secure government contracts for bid. This is because the buyer will usually ask you to prove 2 – 3 case studies of previous contracts you’ve fulfilled. They should be similar in scope and complexity to the contract you’re going for. The more case studies and experience you have, the bigger contracts you can go for. The bigger contracts you can go for, the more your business will grow. Securing a place on a DPS or framework for a government contract is a great place to start.

A third of all contracts must be awarded to SMEs

The government has a target to spend £1 in £3 with smaller businesses. This means they’re actively looking to award 23% of all government contracts for bid with SMEs. You may have thought that only bigger businesses could secure government contracts, but you’d be wrong. The government wants to invest in SMEs and secure a more local supply chain that can be relied upon.

Where to find government contracts up for bid

So, now you know some of the advantages of tendering for contracts. You now may be wondering where you can find them. There’s no shortage of websites offering multi-sector opportunities and lead. Ideally, you should be searching for a sector-specific portal.

If you’re just relying on CPV codes, you could be missing out on up to the third of relevant opportunities. This is because CPV codes are often mislabelled. Our sister company, Hudson Discover, hosts 11 sector-specific tendering portals. You are able to filter the search results by keyword, budget, location and more. This streamlines the process, making it easier to find government contracts for bid.

These sectors consist of;

3 Tips for winning government contracts for bid

So, now you know where to find government contracts for bid and the advantages of securing one. Now, you might be wondering how to win a tender:

Make it easy to read

Put yourself in the buyer shoes, if you have 50 tender responses to read through which would you favour: the one that’s clearly laid out and broken into subheadings with bullet points? Or a 30-page document of block text?

I think we can agree that you’d pick the nicely formatted, clearly laid out response. When writing bids clearly formatting your response will earn you bonus points with the reviewer. Break the question down into subheadings. This can allow you to ensure that you’ve answered every aspect of the question. Including bullet points can allow you to include more points without going over the word count.

An example question may state: “Please provide your strategy for sourcing and recruiting subcontractors and for ensuring that you can effectively monitor, measure, and exercise executive control.”

For this, you would break the question down and respond by providing your strategy for:

Sourcing subcontractors
Recruiting subcontractors
Ensuring effective monitoring
Ensuring effective measuring
Exercising executive control

Stick to the word count

Word, page, or character counts are there for a reason. It levels out the playing field to all competitors. It also demonstrates the level of detail the buyer wants you to go into. If they are expecting a 1,000-word response, simply putting a couple of bullet points won’t suffice. They are there for a reason and it’s best to try and get as close to them as possible. Going over will not reflect well on you as you will be ignoring instructions.

Avoid rambling and overly technical jargon

A strong response to government contracts for bid will avoid rambling and overly technical jargon. You shouldn’t assume that the buyer knows anything. Leaving room for assumptions and lead to the wrong assumptions being made. This could jeopardise your response as a buyer may not understand what you’re talking about leading to a misunderstanding. However, you should be persuasive in your bid response, demonstrating your business’ capabilities.

Need assistance with writing your next government contract bid response?

It can be daunting applying for government contracts; however, we can help. We understand that writing isn’t everyone’s strong suit. But this doesn’t mean you should miss out on work because of it.

Here at Hudson Succeed, we pride ourselves on being bid writing experts. We have over 60 years of bid writing experience and proudly hold an 87% success rate for our clients. We have four bid writing support packages to suit your needs. Whether you’re completely new to tendering, or simply need a response proofread – we can help. 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.

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.

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

The post How to Respond to Government Contracts for Bid appeared first on Tender Consultants.

A Beginner’s Guide to Bids and Tenders

Georgie Morgan — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 07:00:51 +0000

Everything you need to know about bids and tenders

[last-modified: February 2022]

Are you interested in procurement and wondering what bids and tenders are? Well, you’ve come to the right place! This blog contains a beginner’s guide to bids and tenders. It will answer all of the frequently asked questions you may have. So, let’s get into it!

What are bids and tenders?

So, let’s start with the basics, what are bids and tenders? Well, bids and tenders mean the same thing and are used interchangeably.

They are documents that are a written request that is sent out to potential suppliers. A buyer will release an invitation to tender (ITT) when they are looking to procure a good, service or product. They are essentially looking to outsource a solution to a supplier.

A tender document is the basis of a tendering process that details certain contract criteria. This allows qualified and interested suppliers to compete for the contract. A buyer will then evaluate the responses and award the contract to their chosen supplier.

Think of them as job applications. The supplier submits a proposal as to why they are the best candidate for the contract. The buyer will review the proposals and find the best fit for the job.

What is the benefit of winning bids and tenders?

There are many advantages of securing bids and tenders, for example:

· Securing a pipeline of work

Bidding for work can help you secure a pipeline of work for your business. Particularly if you secure a place on a framework agreement or Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). These systems are frequently used in an array of sectors including healthcare and construction. The benefit of these is that they can run for years at a time, with the possibility of extension.

For example, we helped one of our clients secure a £200million contract. We also helped another increase their annual turnover by 20%! These are only two examples of what tendering can do for your business. There’s plenty more for you to discover on our tender writing testimonials page.

· Guaranteed pay (in the public sector)

If you’re responding to bids and tenders in the public sector, you will be guaranteed pay upon winning a contract. This is because public sector organisations are bound by their contractual agreements. The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has to pay suppliers within 60 days of invoice. This is to comply with the Prompt Payment Code. This can give suppliers piece of mind when delivering contracts. The same can’t be said for the private sector. They aren’t bound by the same rules and regulations as the public sector. It’s something to bear in mind when tendering for private sector organisations.

· The government wants to award contracts to SMEs

If you’re a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), we’ve got good news. If you think that only the big corporations can secure public sector contracts, you’d be wrong. The British government actually has a target to spend £1 in every £3 with SMEs. This means they are actively looking to award contracts to smaller businesses. Therefore, you’re in with a good chance when applying for public sector contracts.

· Gain experience

Bids and tenders will often require you to include 2 – 3 case studies of past contracts you have delivered. Securing smaller contracts can help you build up that experience. The more case studies and experience, the bigger contracts you can go for. The bigger contracts you can go for, the bigger your business will grow. Securing a place on a framework or a DPS is a great place to start.

On top of that, this experience will help you to develop skills. Perhaps you will learn something from one contract and apply that to your next one. Learning is so important, and this is an excellent way of doing just that. The more experience you have, the more you learn, and the better you’ll perform.

· Build relationships

Another great benefit from bidding is that you can build relationships through your work. Winning a tender and impressing the buyer means they are more likely to want to work with you again. They will also likely suggest your services to other businesses they know. They may even give you a glowing testimonial to help you secure future work. These successful contracts and testimonials can be used in future bids, as mentioned in our previous point. So, you will stand out to other buyers if you have a record of getting businesses the results they want.

What is the tendering procedure?

The two most common tendering procedures are the open tendering procedure and the restricted tendering procedure.

Open tendering procedure

This is essentially the simplest tendering process. An ITT is released by the buyer and any prospective supplier can submit a response. The responses are then reviewed and evaluated, and the contract is awarded. If tendering in the public sector, the contracts will be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT).

Restricted tendering procedure

A restricted procedure will likely be used for the procurement of more complex goods or services. They are usually used for contracts with a higher budget too. For this, a buyer will want to shortlist the bidders ensuring that they’ll be able to deliver the contract. This procedure is a two-stage process:

PQQ/SQ

A pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) or selection questionnaire (SQ) is released. Prospective suppliers will have to meet certain eligibility criteria in order to progress. You can expect to be asked about your business:

Turnover
Insurance
Non-collusion
Qualifications and accreditations
Contact information
Relevant policies and procedures
Case studies/testimonials.

ITT

Once the buyer has assessed questionnaire responses, they will shortlist eligible businesses. These businesses will then be sent an ITT. These companies will then go onto submitting their ITT response and the contract will be awarded.

Before you begin, you should consider the following:

· How long have you been trading for?

It is common for buyers to ask to see at least two years’ worth of accounts when tendering for work. Although this is not always the case with smaller contracts, sometimes strong case studies can be used instead. In our experience, three years of trading is a strong base to start tendering for work.

· The minimum economic financial standing

When applying for bids and tenders, your economic financial standing will be assessed. This will be determined by the following:

Annual turnover
Financial ratios
Insurance[s]

· Do you have the necessary experience?

Bids and tenders will require you to include up to three case studies of past contracts you have delivered. These must be similar in scope and complexity as the one you’re bidding for. They should be within the last three to five years. A buyer wants to see that you have delivered past contracts successfully and that you’re reliable.

· Can you fulfil the contract?

Before you start writing your response to a bid, you should first ask yourself if you can fulfil the contract. You should read the specification carefully. There may be certain qualifications or accreditations you need in order to be eligible. Once you’ve established that you meet all the criteria, think again. Do you have the resources to actually deliver the contract? Are there multiple locations? Do you have enough staff? These are all things you need to consider before progressing with your bid response.

The last thing you want to do is convince a buyer you can deliver a contract that you can’t.

Where can I find bids and tenders?

So, now you know the processes and procedures of bids and tenders, you may be wondering where to find them. There’s no shortage of websites offering multi-sector tendering opportunities and leads. Ideally, you should be searching for a sector-specific portal that posts unique, private, and public sector opportunities.

If you’re simply relying on CPV codes, you may be missing relevant opportunities. This is because CPV codes are often mislabelled. Our sister company, Hudson Discover, hosts 11 sector-specific tendering portals. You are able to filter results via keyword, budget, location and more – streamlining the process.

These sectors consist of:

Our portals are updated daily by our Opportunity Trackers, and we offer tender notification services. This way, you can keep up to date with all of the opportunities that may be perfect for you! Afterall, the last thing you want is to come across the perfect tender too late.

Need assistance when writing your next bids and tenders?

Now you’re a bit more familiar with what’s required, you may be looking for some writing support. Writing isn’t everyone’s strong suit and that’s ok. Outsourcing a bid you’ve found to a bid consultant can help you secure that next contract.

Here at Hudson Succeed, we pride ourselves on being bid writing experts. We hold an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of collective bid writing experience. We offer four levels of bid writing support to suit every business need. You may not need the whole bid written for you; you may simply need it proofread before you submit. We can help with that. Our services include:

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 is a great way of improving your skills and understanding of how to polish your tender.

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.

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

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Bids and Tenders appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Why the National Procurement Policy Statement is Good News for SMEs

Charlotte Jarvis — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 07:00:16 +0000

The National Procurement Policy Statement in a nutshell

Last updated: Dec 17, 2021 @ 9:46 am

The National Procurement Policy Statement was recently released to the public, following the Queen’s Speech in May 2021. The policies require contracting authorities to follow processes in accordance with the priorities of public procurement.

Why should suppliers care about the new changes?

It might not be the most thrilling read, but the National Procurement Policy Statement is crucial for suppliers. At first glance, you might think the information is only aimed at contracting authorities. You would be partially correct. However, suppliers need to also understand the procedures that buyers must adhere to. Understanding how buyers operate and what they want to see will help suppliers formulate winning tender responses.

Any business that is already tendering or looking to grow through tendering should read and understand the policy.

Tendering prior to the National Procurement Policy Statement

In the past, many businesses didn’t embark on the tendering process. They believed that they wouldn’t stand a chance against the larger businesses competing. This is a fair assumption and there are many myths surrounding tendering. But this has caused many organisations to miss out on growth opportunities.

While many tenders require a minimum financial threshold, there are also ways for SMEs to get in on the action. For example, framework agreements, DPS opportunities or even seeking smaller contracts are all methods to beginning your tender journey.

Additionally, the UK Government has a target to spend £1 in every £3 with SMEs. This means they are actively seeking to award contracts to smaller businesses. This is just one of the main advantages of tendering. There are many other reasons why organisations implement tendering in their new business strategy.

Even before the new National Procurement Policy Statement was released, buyers were encouraged to award contracts to the MEAT. The MEAT stands for the Most Economically Advantageous Tender. To decipher which supplier offered the MEAT, buyers would evaluate more than just their quote alone.

Social value and tendering

In recent years, we have seen social value become more prevalent in tendering. In 2020, the pandemic sparked new evaluation criteria which placed a 10% (or higher) weighting on social value responses.

Simply stating that your organisation complies with mandatory environmental and employment policies would no longer be sufficient. Now, public sector buyers need to look for suppliers who go above and beyond. This ensures the maximum value for money for the taxpayer.

An overview of the National Procurement Policy Statement

Who does it apply to?

All contracting authorities as defined in section 39(3) and (4) of the Small Business Enterprise and Employment Act 2015. This includes:

Central government departments
Executive agencies
Non-departmental public bodies
Local authorities
NHS bodies and the wider public sector.

What will public sector bodies need to consider?

In their procurement activities, public sector contracting authorities will need to consider the following:

Creating new businesses, jobs and skills
Tackling climate change and reducing waste
Improving supplier diversity, innovation and resilience.

This is again another step to ensure that public sector buyers consider more than just pricing in their evaluation process. This helps to level the playing field between large, more established organisations and SMEs competing for contracts.

Has Brexit impacted procurement?

Public sector procurement after Brexit was a point of discussion long before the UK left the EU. After the transition period, the UK now has the opportunity to overhaul how public money is spent. To do this, the previous public procurement regulations have been revisited to create a simpler process.

Lord Agnew, Cabinet Officer Minister, said:

The public sector across the UK, from hospitals and schools to central government, police force and universities spends about £290 billion a year through public procurement.

The huge power of that expenditure must support us in tackling some of the most important issues we face today, from generating economic growth and helping out communities recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, to support the transition to net zero.

With the new statement published today, procurement teams will have to consider those issues as well as making sure they deliver top-quality services that are good value for the taxpayer.”

Need help with responding to a public sector tender?

Whether you’re brand new to tendering or a seasoned expert, we all need additional support now and then. With new regulations and considerations to make, outsourcing your bids to experts can increase your chances of winning.

How can we help?

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is perfect for businesses that have never tendered for contracts before. The package includes:

A 12-month subscription to one Hudson Discover portal.
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 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 Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect public sector contract 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.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own tender response and need it double-checking 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.

Discover Elite

Discover Elite will ensure you never miss a tendering opportunity, even when you’re busy. There are two packages to choose from.

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 Technology and Healthcare, 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.

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

The post Why the National Procurement Policy Statement is Good News for SMEs appeared first on Tender Consultants.

The 5 Steps of Bidding for a Contract

Georgie Morgan — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 07:00:52 +0000

Bidding for a contract: How to succeed in 5 steps

Last updated: Dec 17, 2021 @ 9:52 am

Bidding for a tendering contract can be overwhelming at the best of times, particularly if you’ve never done it before. However, tendering for work is a great way to grow your business.

COVID-19 has changed the way in which company’s do business. Gone are the days of face-to-face meetings and traditional networking events. As we come out of the other side, tendering is a great way to secure a pipeline of work. We have devised five steps that can help you understand what happens when bidding for a contract.

Step 1: Find the right bid for your business

Once you’ve decided to tender for work, you’ll be wondering how you can find the right contract for your business. There’s no shortage of websites that post multi-sector opportunities and leads daily. Ideally, you should be looking for a sector-specific portal that posts unique, public and private sector opportunities.

One centralised and easy-to-navigate portal can help save you time. Simply relying on CPV codes can result in missed opportunities as they are often mislabelled. Finding a portal that uploads and categorises tenders by keywords, location, budget and more can streamline the process. Our sister company, Hudson Discover, hosts 11 sector-specific tendering portals.

These sectors consist of;

Once signed up, you’ll have access to an on-hand Account Manager. They’ll be able to answer any questions you have about contract bidding. You’ll also get an email alert when new and relevant tenders are uploaded.

Book a free live demo of your preferred portal.

Step 2: Planning and research

Planning and research are a couple of the most important aspects when bidding for a contract. You want to make a note of all the important dates and what documents you’ll need. These could include:

Final submission date and time
Clarification questions deadline
Site visits deadline
Documents that need attaching
Format of submission.

When bidding for a contract, you should double-check that you meet the minimum eligibility criteria. You don’t want to waste resources starting a bid only to realise you don’t qualify on financial standing, for example.

Check that your business:

Meets the economic and financial standing
Has enough experience
Meets the minimum turnover threshold
Has the resources to carry out the contract.

When bidding for a contract, you should aim to complete it with plenty of time before final submission. This can help ease the pressure and stress. Tenders can be long and complex at the best of times, so you want to allow for plenty of time. Unexpected delays may pop up and by planning ahead you can help safeguard your response in case this happens. Setting internal deadlines for you and your team can help with this.

Step 3: Price your services right

Pricing your services right is a crucial aspect of contract bidding. You don’t want to price your services too low as it may result in the contractor questioning your legitimacy. The evaluation criteria of every contract is different and depend on the buyer’s needs. The weightings will differ, but generally speaking, you can expect a split between two or three aspects:

Price
Quality
Social value (for public sector contracts).

The private and public sector differ in how they award contracts. The private sector isn’t bound and constrained by the same rules and regulations the public sector is. If a private organisation wants to award a contract on price alone, they can.

However, the public sector has certain rules and regulations they must meet to award a bid to a supplier. Public sector organisations will award bids to the most economically advantageous tender, known as the MEAT. The MEAT seeks to achieve the most value for money from a contract. A buyer will take into account a range of factors that will be specified in the tender documents. They’ll evaluate them both individually and in combination. They might include the following:

Accessibility
Technical ability
Ability to deliver on time
Innovation
Environmental considerations
Sustainability
Customer service
Quality.

Step 4: Write a high-quality bid response

Writing a high-quality bid response is crucial. As mentioned above, even if the weighting on quality is less than cost, buyers care about the quality. You want to be persuasive when bidding for a contract. You want to convince the buyer that you are the best business for the job. When writing bids it’s worth considering:

Format

Clearly format your response with subheadings and bullet points. Often you will be able to break down the question and use these as subheadings. This can help ensure that you are covering and answering every aspect of the question asked. Bullet points can also help keep your response ordered. This will help you get in the buyer’s good books. Put yourself in their shoes. If you’re having to evaluate tens to hundreds of bid responses, you’ll favour those that are clearly laid out. This helps you outshine your competitors as opposed to submitting a chunk of text.

Assumptions

Furthermore, don’t allow the buyer to make assumptions from what you’ve written. Leaving room for assumptions can allow for the wrong assumptions to be made. Clearly explain everything and avoid overly technical jargon. Don’t assume they know anything about you, your business or your bid.

Word count

When bidding for a contract, you should aim for your response to be as close to the word or page counts as possible. They’re there for a reason. If a buyer expects a 1000-word response, simply writing one paragraph won’t do. Keep answers relevant, clear and concise.

Sector-specific contract bidding tips

Before going ahead with any tender, you must analyse your business and determine the contract values you’re eligible for. This helps ensure you can remain competitive while still making a profit.

Often the contract value will be stated in the tender specification. If it’s not, there’s a simple way you can figure it out. As a general rule of thumb, you shouldn’t be bidding for contracts that are more than half your annual turnover. For example, if your turnover is £100,000, you shouldn’t tender for contracts that are more than £50,000.

Contract bidding in the creative sector

The creative industry can cover many different services such as:

Marketing and PR
Design
Digital works
Event management
Videography.

Tender proposals in the sector are usually a lot more free-flowing, allowing suppliers to demonstrate their creativity. If successful, a buyer will likely require a supplier to do a presentation before the contract is awarded.

Contract bidding in the facilities management industry

Contract bidding in the facilities management industry is booming, with the cleaning sector, in particular, being flooded with opportunities. SMEs can tender for contracts that have values ranging from anything from £2,000 to upwards of £100,000.

The cleaning sector covers areas such as:

Commercial
Corporate
Education
Private and/or domestic
Local government
Industrial.

The contract bidding process is typically a two-stage process:

A contractor will release a selection questionnaire (SQ) or pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ).
Once completed, successful suppliers will be sent an invitation to tender (ITT).

This is when an interested supplier will submit their tender response. Each has the aim of convincing the buyer that they are the best company for the job.

In our experience, cleaning contracts are typically evaluated with a larger weight being placed on price. For example, 60% price and 40% quality. However, in the public sector, it’s worth bearing in mind the 10% minimum weighting on social value. Therefore, although it’s important to remain competitively priced, it isn’t the only thing to think about when contract bidding.

Contract bidding in the construction sector

The construction industry is one of the biggest industries that tender for work. Billions of pounds are being invested in the construction industry by both the UK government and the private sector.

Within construction, although you do find open tendering procedures begin used, you will more likely come across a two-stage process. Similar to the facilities industry, as mentioned above, suppliers will likely have to complete a PQQ for larger contracts. A fairly recent type of PQQ, used within the construction industry, is the PAS91.

PAS91

The PAS91 was developed by the British Standards Institute to save construction companies from filling out multiple PQQs. Although a PAS91 is slightly longer than a PQQ or SQ, it has the same ‘what have you done’ mentality. The main benefits are that once completed, you are:

Exempt from completing some core sections if you possess certain accreditations
Able to develop a standardised response to the standardised questions
Save you time the in long run.

If you’re a member of Constructionline you will automatically be exempt from completing the most time-consuming parts of the PAS91. The PAS91 demonstrates to the contracting authority that you meet the necessary requirements. Construction PQQs and PAS91s usually require the following:

Supplier and identity contract information
Financial standing
Business and professional standing
Health and safety
Equal opportunity and diversity policy
Environmental management policy
Quality management

After completing the PAS91, and the minimum eligibility criteria is met, the supplier will receive an ITT.

Contract bidding in the healthcare industry

Understandably, the healthcare industry has boomed over the last two years. The global pandemic and an ageing population have led to billions being invested in healthcare services.

There are two things to consider when undertaking contract bidding within the healthcare sector:

Experience

Providing evidence of contract experience is one of the most important aspects when tendering in the healthcare sector. This is because buyers want to be reassured that they have the experience to carry out the contract. They want to see evidence you have the resources to provide the good, service or works you are applying for.

You may be required to demonstrate up to three previous case studies within the last five years. These must be similar in scope, scale and complexity to the contracts you’re bidding for. Remember to keep the case studies relevant.

The more experience you have, the bigger contracts you can go for. The bigger contracts you go for as a business, the more income you’ll get, the bigger your business will grow.

Qualifications

Having the relevant qualifications is vital for contract bidding in the healthcare sector. Having relevant qualifications and accreditations can strengthen your tender response. Internationally recognised certifications will convey that you are experienced and safety competent. Relevant qualification could include:

CQC registered
ISO 9001; 13485; 14001; 23001; 27001
NVQs (level 3 and above)
CyberEssentials
RMADS

3 trends within procurement

Innovation

Innovation is seemingly a new trend throughout multiple industries in procurement. Buyers are wanting to see the latest innovative solutions when procuring goods, works or services. This may be innovative environmental solutions or innovative and collaborative working. Research, technology, healthcare, construction and creative are just some of the sectors that look for innovation in tendering responses.

Sustainability and environmental considerations

Sustainability and environmental considerations are taken a lot more seriously within procurement. Contractors like to see how your organisation is tackling carbon emissions, reducing waste and encouraging recycling to name a few.

This is evident within the public sector with their mandatory social value weighting. However, the private sector is also looking at the way they do business. Moreover, how they can be more environmentally friendly and sustainable. Reflecting on how they can sustainably cut emissions without comprising on quality or service is becoming a priority for many.

Local supply chains

Buyers, particularly in the public sector are seeking to establish and maintain a local supply chain. They are hoping to establish this supply chain closer to home. The pandemic has led to businesses reflecting on how they do business. Moreover, what happens when the global supply chain is disrupted. Brexit has also been a contributing factor. More and more, businesses are looking to work with local SMEs in order to secure their supply chain.

Establishing a local supply chain will enable companies to build resilience for the future. It also helps them manage risk. A lot more businesses will be forward planning. Many will now have procedures in place in order to safeguard their business from future disruptions to business.

Need help bidding for a contract?

Not everyone has the time, resources and experience to sit through the tendering process and write a winning response.. Outsourcing to bid writing experts can help you get on the path to success, helping you win your next tender.

We proudly have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you when bidding for a contract. Whether you’re completely new to contract bidding or just need your response proofread – we can help.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect contract for your business, why not send it our way? Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. The Bid Team will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit.

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 make sure you have everything in place to tender successfully. Tender Ready offers your business:

A 12-month subscription to one Hudson Discover portal.
Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding Professionals.
An Organisation-wide Bid library, including 3 case studies, 5 CVs and 8 policies.
Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

Step 5: Submit your bid

Before you submit your tender response, you should proofread it. Leaving a day or two from completion before you submit can help with this. Additionally, having someone else read over it can help spot any spelling or grammar mistakes or inconsistencies.

Once this has all been completed, you should submit your response and wait to hear back from the buyer. This can take a while, try not to fret if you haven’t heard. Some tenders can get hundreds of responses, so reviewing these can take time. Either way, the buyer will always notify you once they have reviewed all bids. They can either do this via the tender portal or email depending on the method of submission.

You may not be successful with every tender you submit and that’s ok. Ask for feedback from the buyer if unsuccessful. This can help you see which aspects you can improve on for future bids.

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
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.

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

The post The 5 Steps of Bidding for a Contract appeared first on Tender Consultants.

9 Things You’ll Wish You Knew Earlier About Writing Tenders

Georgie Morgan — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 07:00:33 +0000

Top Tips for Writing Tenders

[Last modified: July 2021]

Writing tenders can be a great way to grow your business. However, it can be time-consuming and a rather daunting process if you’re new to it. This blog is here to remind you about some key things to take into consideration before you start writing bids.

Here’s our writing tips when it comes to tendering for contracts:

Time Management

When writing a tender, it’s important to take into account time management. It’s one that’s not to be underestimated. Tenders can range in size depending on the industry or sector. Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS) and framework agreements, in particular, can be considerably lengthy. So, you want to make sure you’ve planned enough time.

Deadlines are final and there are no exceptions or extensions – so managing your time is key. You will want to note down the time and date of the submission and plan accordingly. Set yourself realistic time constraints. Plan the work and allow plenty of time to go into detailed responses, hitting the word counts required.

Before you even begin writing the tender, you need to consider if you can actually deliver the contract. You’d be surprised how often this fundamental question slips the mind of some.

Your trading length matters

In our experience, of over 40 years of bid writing, we have noticed that three is the magic number. Three years of trading is often the minimum amount of time required by buyers if applying for tenders. Buyers can sometimes ask to see at least three years of accounts. The accounts will usually need to be presented in the name that your business is currently trading under.

However, this doesn’t always apply to every tender and is a generalisation. It’s worth considering, nonetheless. Subcontracting opportunities often don’t require the same trading length or period of accounts. Moreover, the care industry, for example, has offered younger businesses a chance to start their journey on spot provider frameworks.

Clarification questions

You may come across something you’re unsure of when going over something in the tendering process. If this happens you should ask a clarifying question on the tender portal. You should ask the clarification question(s) sooner rather than later. This is because the clarification deadline may be significantly before the submission deadline.

If a significant error is brought to the buyer’s attention, it may result in them withdrawing the tender all together. They could also delay the submission deadline as a result. If this happens, you don’t want to waste time writing a response for it to then get withdrawn down the line. Therefore, it’s better to ask ASAP.

It’s also helpful to read the clarification questions from other bidders in case someone else has noted something of stature. If you do have a clarification question you want to ask, it’s probably best that you keep it anonymous.

The relevant industry-specific policies, qualifications and accreditations

Each industry is different, and when your writing tenders you may be asked for industry-specific policies, qualifications or accreditations. The policies asked for in care tenders will be different to policies asked for in construction. You want to make sure that you have the required qualifications, policies and accreditations before you apply.

It’s worth noting that public and private tenders may have different requirements for policies or accreditations. Look at the social care industry for example. 60% of public sector tenders we have worked with required suppliers to have an ISO 9001 prior to contract commencement.

Below are some examples of industry-specific policies, qualifications and accreditations that you may need when writing tenders.

Construction

Construction tenders cover a range of subsections from painting to architecture and masonry to demolition. There are some industry-specific qualifications and accreditations that are needed before you start writing your construction tenders. These could include:

PAS91
ISO 9001; 14001; 27001;
CPCS Cards (Construction Plant Competence Scheme)
Constructionline
CHAS (Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme)
SAFEcontractor
OSHCR (Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register)
RICs (Royal Institution of Charted Surveyors)
BIFM (British Institute of Facilities Management)
PMP (Project Management Professional)
RIDDOR

Security

Security tenders can range from manned guarding to key holding and from CCTV to cybersecurity. The qualifications needed could be specific to the various jobs at hand which could be:

SIA (Security Industry Authority) licences
CyberEssentials
ISO 9001; 14001; 18001; 27001; 45001
CHAS
SMAS
NSI
NASDU

You will need to consider the mobilisation and service delivery aspects of a security tender. This could be formatted via Gantt Chart. What systems do you have in place to actually deliver the service? Do you have any innovative solutions that aren’t simply paper logs?

Healthcare

Depending on the area of healthcare, there are some accreditations that are needed when writing tenders. Some subsectors of healthcare range from domiciliary care to social care and medical supplies to supported living. The accreditations and qualifications that could be required within a healthcare tender are:

ISO 9001; 27001
NVQs (usually level 3 or above)
CyberEssentials

Healthcare tenders are usually in the form of framework agreements or DPS. These systems and frameworks are used to appoint multiple organisations to provide healthcare goods/services. They can run the course of several years and you can join any time they’re open. Securing a framework contract or DPS can be lucrative, placing your business in good stead for the future.

Most economically advantageous tender (MEAT)

When applying for public sector tenders, you will need to remember to be the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT). You need to bear in mind that this does not mean the cheapest bid. The MEAT allows the buyer to award the contract based on aspects on the tender submission other than just price. These can include:

Technical Ability
Accessibility
Proposed design
Innovation
Customer service
Ability to deliver on time
Quality
Environmental benefits

Each aspect can be looked at by the client independently or in a mix with other considerations.

Economic Financial Standing

Your organisations economic financial standing is typically assessed on a PQQ. Buyers will do this to assess the suitability of the supplier. It reflects the multiple financial aspects of your business. These are:

Annual turnover

You typically need to attach your most recent audited and unaudited accounts.

Financial ratios

This is usually found in your full financial accounts and can include the ratio of your assets to liabilities. For example: acid-tests or quick ratios.

Insurance

You often need to attach your insurance documents. You may also need to commit to potentially increasing your insurance before the contract commencement.

It’s worth bearing the 2014 Public Procurement Directive in mind when choosing which tender to apply for. You want to aim for opportunities thar are half of your turnover or lower. For example, if you’re turning over £100,000, the most you can bid for will be £50,000. Unless there are specific circumstances that may justify it, going over this amount is extremely rare.

Case studies

Case studies are usually asked more in the PQQ stage. You will be required to include two to three past contracts of a similar nature to the job at hand. These examples must have been carried out within the last five years.

Buyers want to know that you have done work of a similar calibre and know what you’re doing. You want to make sure you’re keeping the examples relevant. For example, imagine you are writing a tender for social housing in Wolverhampton. If your only experience is a Nuclear powerplant in Japan, it’s unlikely that you’re suitable for the job at hand. Buyers want to see you demonstrate how you’ve handled similar past projects. Take geographical location into account, too.

Word counts vary but are typically around 500 words for this section. You may want to consider the following:

Do you have experience with a project of a similar scale? What is the scale of the contract?
Your management and subcontractors if applicable.
How did you mobilise and deliver the contract?
What challenges did you encounter and how did you overcome them?
Did you finish on time and within budget?

Social value

Social value is an ever-important consideration that you do not want to overlook when writing tenders. These social value responses now carry a mandatory 10% weighting within the quality section for government contracts. In some tenders, it could hold the weighting of 30%. This section will need to focus on the wider, positive impact businesses will provide when delivering the contract. Including the economic, social and environmental impact of the project and how your organisation plans to address these. Businesses could be assessed on:

How you are creating new jobs or skills to tackle economic equality.
How you are supporting COVID-19 recovery.
The environmental considerations such as reducing waste and how your organisation is tackling climate change.
The equal opportunity policies you implement within your business.

Buyers care about the quality of your writing

The quality of your writing is important no matter the sector you’re in when you’re writing bids. As mentioned above, the weightings can vary and is split between price and quality. You obviously will want to score highly on the quality response. There are a few things to bear in mind when writing tenders:

Make sure your answers are comprehensive.
Be persuasive, not descriptive.
Have attention to detail whilst being clear and concise.
Don’t allow the buyer to make assumptions.
Try and write responses that are as close to the word or page count as possible.

If you’re struggling with writing tenders and need a bit of help – we offer four tender writing services.

Call or email us for a free quote and find out how we can help your business grow.

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

The post 9 Things You’ll Wish You Knew Earlier About Writing Tenders appeared first on Tender Consultants.

A Guide to Pre-Qualification Questionnaires for Subcontractors

Charlotte Jarvis — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 10:20:18 +0000

Understanding pre-qualification questionnaires for subcontractors

[Last modified; July 2021]

Pre-qualification questionnaires for subcontractors will be issued if the contract allows for subcontracting. Especially with larger projects, buyers will permit the main supplier to recruit smaller businesses for support. This is different from a framework as the main contractor themselves are in charge of enlisting the subcontractors.

In this blog, we highlight how pre-qualification questionnaires for subcontractors work, depending on which side of the table you’re sitting.

Subcontracting work on your contract

Let’s start by looking at the PQQ process for the supplier who will be the main contractor. A business will be eligible to respond to this size of tender if meet certain criteria. These conditions could include:

Meeting a financial threshold

With larger contracts, buyers will often require that participating suppliers meet their financial threshold. This could be referred to as your economic and financial standing. You can predict whether or not you meet the threshold. As a general rule, you probably won’t be eligible for contracts with a value of more than half your turnover.

Demonstrating relevant experience

You wouldn’t apply for a job that you don’t have any experience in. Tendering for contracts is the same. Buyers want to see how you have delivered similar contracts and overcame challenges. Typically, most buyers will ask to see at least three recent, relevant contract examples when writing bids. Therefore, preparing case studies in advance is recommended.

Case studies should:

Be relevant
Demonstrate how you mobilised and delivered the contract
Detail your experience of a project of a similar scale and scope
Note whether you completed the contract on time and within budget
Include challenges you encountered and overcame, demonstrating flexibility and problem-solving skills.

Depending on the word count, you could include positive testimonials from previous satisfied clients. Some buyers may require concrete evidence of past works. These could include before, during and after photos of work that you have carried out on past contracts. It’s best to keep documentation while carrying out work for clients. These can help you save time when it comes to your tender response. They can help you stand out from your competitors, giving the contractor confidence in your experience.

Providing evidence of accreditations and qualifications

In order to win a large contract with subcontracting opportunities, it’s likely that buyers will require relevant qualifications and accreditations. When it comes to tendering for work, you’re essentially selling your services. Treat this like any other sales pitch and fill it with facts and evidence that distinguishes you from the rest.

Qualifications and accreditations that may be relevant include:

ISO 9001; 14001
OHSAS 18001
SMAS
CIS
Managing Contractors.

Keeping up to date with Health and Safety

Health and safety are important aspects of any contracting work. Contractors want to be reassured that your business upholds best practice when it comes to health and safety. They want to ensure that both employees and members of the public will be safe while fulfilling contracts.

You will likely be asked to supply a copy of your health and safety policy. It should comply with the current legislations and be up to date. Benefits of this include:

Increasing staff morale and leadership within the workplace
Lower insurance costs
Overall reduction of health and safety risks and incidents on a daily basis
Improved staff confidence and retention in the organisation
Developing an organisation’s culture centred around health and safety.

Relevant health and safety management systems, policies and regulations could include:

ISO 45001
RIDDOR
SafeContractor
CHAS
Health and Safety at Work Act 1975
Constructionline
CDM Regulations 2015.

There could be additional criteria that you need to meet but the above represents the most common requirements.

When completing pre-qualification questionnaires for subcontractors, the buyer will be looking for information such as:

How you recruit and select your subcontractors.
What you look for and require from them.
How you ensure that they adhere to your company’s policies and procedures.
How you check that their declarations are accurate.
The KPIs you set to ensure high-quality performance from your subcontractors and how you collect this information.
What is the penalty if your standards are not met?

Having control over your subcontracting procedures is already part of some ISO standards such as Investors in People. If you are already ISO accredited in this way, make sure you quote this information in the PQQ.

Failure to complete the pre-qualification questionnaires for subcontractors, if you plan to use them, could result in penalties later on. You could also risk failing the PQQ stage. The buyer could assume that you intend to deliver the contract alone. If they can’t see supporting evidence indicating that you are capable of this, you could be disqualified.

Traditionally, there are three main types of subcontractor:

Domestic subcontractor – appointed and selected by the main contractor.
Named subcontractor – selected from a list of acceptable subcontractors provided by the client.
Nominated subcontractor – selected by the client to carry out an element of the works.

Subcontracting for the main contractor

Subcontracting on the main contract is an effective way for smaller businesses to grow and gain experience. If your business is too small or new to deliver a contract alone, subcontracting can open doors to tendering.

If you have already agreed to subcontract for the main contractor, you should be prepared to answer some questions. The main contractor will need to provide the required information to ensure they meet the criteria.

Although you are not completing the PQQ yourself, you should respond with the information they require as quickly as possible. By providing the details, you can help them win the contract. If they win, by default, they share their success with you and carry you into new marketplaces.

A few more ways to build your experience as a small business include:

Applying for places on a framework agreement.
In the healthcare industry, spot provider frameworks are a good way for new businesses to leverage themselves into tendering.
Applying to provide goods or services through a dynamic purchasing system (DPS).

Passing the PQQ stage

In the public sector, most buyers will use a prequalifying stage in order to shortlist suppliers. In construction, this could be referred to as a PAS91.

Most PQQs will be tick-box exercises but don’t get complacent. You are selling your services at every stage of the tendering process and the PQQ is just as important. Failing to pass this stage will end your tendering journey. The only way to gain access to the invitation to tender (ITT) is by impressing the buyer with your PQQ.

In order to be successful, you should ensure that:

You have fully read all the text. Sometimes questions can be embedded into the text and you don’t want to submit an incomplete response.
You are adding value. Where more text is allowed, give your answer the edge by adding value to your response. Try and offer that little bit more to really impress the buyer.
Your organisation is represented in the best light. Remember, this is likely to be your first impression on the buyer. Ensure that the required information is provided and that your answers are coherent and professional.

If you have everything in order internally, the PQQ should be a straightforward process. But sometimes, the issue isn’t the questions, it’s the time it takes to respond.

Need help with a PQQ?

If your business is struggling to respond to PQQs due to time constraints or internal resources, Hudson Succeed can help. Our team of expert Bid Writers have over 40 years’ experience with completing pre-qualification questionnaires for subcontractors and assisting with the tendering process.

Simply upload your PQQ documents for a free quote.

What happens after the PQQ?

After successfully completing the pre-qualification questionnaires for subcontractors and being accepted, you will be issued with an ITT. This is called a ‘closed tender’ as the buyer has shortlisted the suppliers of interest. If successful at this stage, you will win the contract and the subcontracting process can begin. (It’s important to note that not every tender will require a PQQ. Some buyers will jump straight to the ITT stage. This is called an ‘open tender’.)

The ITT contains the questions you must respond to. The number of types of questions will vary from tender to tender as each contract will have different requirements.

Sometimes, draft ITTs are provided alongside pre-qualification questionnaires to give you an indication of the specified requirements.

Usually, in the public sector, the ITT documents will provide you with:

A cover letter (or ITT letter).
A scope of procurement detailing the exact requirements and the important contract dates.

Now, it’s time to respond. When writing a bid, your goal is to persuade the buyer that you are the best choice. Our top three tips for successful bid writing are:

Break down the questions

Don’t just rush in and start responding to the questions. It’s likely that your answers will be unstructured and unclear. Make lists as you review the ITT documents and detail which sections need completing. You should also note if you will require any information from other departments or members of your team.

Then, break down the quality questions. Plan how you’re going to respond and structure your answers. The most important thing is to answer the question in detail. If the word count is 500 words, use them all, as long as the content is directly answering the specification.

Demonstrate your capabilities

Use hard evidence to demonstrate to the buyer why you are the most suitable supplier. This can be done through relevant case studies, accreditations, qualifications and awards. You are trying to make a compelling argument, therefore, the more facts and evidence, the better.

Be prepared for social value questions

Starting this year (2021), government bodies will be placing at least a 10% weighting on your social value responses. In most public sector tenders, social value has always been a factor. The authorities want to see how your organisation positively impacts the wider community, not just their contract.

Now, they have gone a step further. In order to ensure the taxpayer’s money goes further, they are specifically assessing these sections. The buyer wants to see how your company will/is contributing to the Covid-19 recovery. For example, are you hiring local employees to contribute to the economic recovery of your community? Are you creating jobs in your local area?

Other factors such as environmental considerations will also be assessed. Consider how you can shine here. Has your company recently gone paperless? Do you place specific emphasis on using green energy? Do you reward employees through a cycle or walk to work scheme?

Can anyone help with your ITT?

Many companies do not have internal bid writing teams. This means that time and resources can prevent them from reactively tendering as they would like to.

Our team at Hudson Succeed offer four levels of bid writing services:

An ad-hoc Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect tender for your business, why not send it our way? Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf.

A Tender Readyprogramme

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

A 12-month subscription to one of our Hudson Discover portals.
Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding Professionals.
An Organisation-wide Bid library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies.
Additional flexible benefit options.

The Tender Improvementpackage

If you’ve been tendering but aren’t seeing the results you want, our Tender Improvement package can help. Our Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to a Discover portal of your choice and additional tendering development services.

A Tender Mentor service

The team proudly holds an 87% success rate, so you can be sure that your bid is in safe hands. Get in touch for a free quote.

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

The post A Guide to Pre-Qualification Questionnaires for Subcontractors appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Is your bid management process up to scratch?

Charlotte Jarvis — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 07:30:18 +0000

Improving your bid management process

[Last modified: July 2021]

Your bid management process and approach are crucial to achieving writing bids When entering into the tendering process, you should first consider how you will manage the work. For many industries, it isn’t simply a case of providing a quick quote and moving on. In the majority of cases, buyers will require:

High-quality written responses.
Case studies.
Evidence of accreditations and/or qualifications.
Company CVs.
Accounts.
Pricing documents.

You must craft, collate and submit the requirements to the highest possible standard. In order to do this, you need an airtight bid management process.

The 6-stage process

1. Sourcing the right opportunities for your business

Finding opportunities can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. There are thousands of websites that publish tendering opportunities across the UK. In order to efficiently source the right tender for your business, you must analyse your goals and eligibility. For example, ask yourself the following:

Which types of contracts do I want to deliver?
What are my service delivery capabilities? This could be geographical. How far can you travel and still make a profit?
Do I have at least three previous contract examples that demonstrate my ability to deliver similar work?
What is my economic and financial standing? Or, in other words, what threshold am I working within?

Answering these questions will help you and your team to efficiently make your bid or no-bid decision.

2. Breaking down the specification

So, you’ve found a tender that you would like to bid for. What comes next in the bid management process?

At this stage, it’s likely that you have scanned the requirements and briefly read the specification. Now, it’s time to take a much more in-depth look at the details. You need to be sure that you are eligible and that you possess the required evidence/information. On page 54 of the specification, there could be a requirement that you cannot meet, such as turnover. Failing to fully read and digest the requirements could result in wasting time in the long run.

Breaking down the specification will also allow you to establish timescales. The word count for the required responses will help you estimate how much time needs to be assigned to each question. A good benchmark would be that the average bid writer can produce around 2,000 words per day.

3. Collating information in advance

If the responses require evidence of financial accounts or case studies, you may need to liaise with other departments. If this is the case, make sure you leave plenty of time to collate the required documents. You don’t want to be rushing at the last minute because you didn’t give Fred from accounts enough time. Always set a slightly earlier deadline for yourself and others to ensure you are ready in time for the submission of bids.

4. Finalising and proofreading

Once your written responses, supporting evidence and pricing are complete, it’s time to proofread. It could be tempting to just submit the work you have done and move onto the next bid. However, you may end up submitting a tender full of errors and ultimately fail. You will then have wasted all the time spent crafting the responses for the sake of a few extra hours.

Check, check and check again. Ask someone unattached to the project to review your work. It’s likely that they will find errors you have missed.

5. Submission

Now, it’s finally time to submit your hard work. This shouldn’t be the first time you have accessed the buyer’s portal. It is good practice to make yourself familiar with the system ahead of the submission. This will eliminate last minute panics when you can’t log in or find the area for the submission.

6. The results

It’s important that your bid management process doesn’t just end with the submission. Learning from the results is crucial to continuously improve your bid writing and overall approach.

Unfortunately, you won’t win every tender that you bid for. But it doesn’t have to be a negative experience. If the buyer doesn’t provide feedback, you can ask for it. We would always recommend asking the buyer to show you where you lost marks. It could be that you won on the quality side but lost out on price. This means that you should provide a more competitive quote next time.

Top tip: In the public sector, buyers will publish details of who won each tender. It is worth reading the award notice because the winning price is normally published also. This will help you to see how much the winner charged so that you can be more competitive in your next bid.

Does your team have the right skills?

To make your bid management process more effective, you can also look at the skills on your team. In order to see successful results, you need access to certain strengths such as:

Time management

In bid management, meeting deadlines is an integral part of the role. If the deadline is missed, buyers do not have to evaluate your bid. Additionally, asking for extra time without a valid reason never looks good. This makes the buyer nervous about your time-keeping skills which will undoubtedly be a key factor on the contract.

In order to effectively manage your time, we recommend developing a bid plan. The plan needs to be standardised but also adaptable to accommodate work that requires a short turnaround.

Of course, you can develop a bid library of documents and responses that are often applicable to most tenders. This will save you time on some questions. However, copy and pasting won’t always work and unforeseen questions will require bespoke responses.

Technical and concise writing capabilities

You don’t need to be a bestselling author to write bids, but you do need a flair for technical, factual writing. The writers on your team must be able to produce short, sharp sentences that concisely convey the important information. It’s great to demonstrate your writing talents but evaluators are reading multiple submissions, don’t make them hunt for the information. They want to see the facts and the direct answers to their questions. If the response requires 500 words, don’t wait to start answering the question in the last 100.

Strategising and planning your moves

When tendering for work in the public sector, you need to think differently than in the private sphere. The best bid managers are able to plan their next move in advance and lay the groundwork. You want to ensure that you are attending site visits and responding to market engagements. This allows you to build a relationship with the buyer and gain further insight. The more information you have about planned procurements, the more room you have for time management.

Working smarter with these tools

Hudson Discover

Hudson Discover houses 11 sector-specific tendering portals, designed to speed up the opportunity tracking process. To effectively track hundreds if not thousands of sites, you would need a full-time employee assigned solely to this task.

As the portals are dedicated to specific industries, this helps to eliminate irrelevant tenders when tendering for contracts. However, the portals can be further tailored to only display tenders of interest to you. For example, you can filter by keywords (the services you offer), region, budget and sector.

Furthermore, each client is assigned an Account Manager to assist you. They will send an email alert when new tenders are uploaded so you don’t have to log in every day.

Visit Hudson Discover.

Bid library

We touched on bid libraries earlier, but let’s take a closer look at maximising this strategy.

Essentially, a bid library is a digital place in which you store everything you might need to bid for work. This could include your:

Policies and procedures.
Accreditations and certificates.
Company CVs.
Case studies that you anticipate will have relevance to the tenders you choose to bid for.
Responses that you frequently use in your previous tenders.

If you don’t have the above documentation, our Tender Ready service can help. Tender Ready is a four-week programme designed to help you prepare to bid for work. Our bid writers will create the documents you will need and professionally brand them. Additionally, you will also receive three days of bid writing consultancy to help you respond to a relevant tender.

The Tender Ready programme.

Tender VLE

It is important to keep learning and expanding your knowledge. Whether you are new to tendering or well-versed, increasing your understanding will only strengthen your capability.

Tender VLE is the UK’s first free, online learning platform for all things tendering related. The masterclasses are led by bid writing and bid design experts. Topics include:

Visit Tender VLE.

5 tips for improving your success rate

1. Hold regular meetings

Holding regular meetings is always a good way to ensure that your team is on track and problems are solved. However, it is especially important currently as most businesses are working remotely. There are many software platforms which host team meetings that we’re sure you’re all familiar with by now.

Many concerns would normally be expressed in general office conversation without realising the importance of the interaction. When working remotely, we have to make a more conscious effort to highlight problems and solve them.

2. Set earlier deadlines

An efficient bid management process will include setting internal deadlines. Try to plan internal deadlines before the final submission date. This will reduce stress and rushed work as the deadline approaches and ensures a smoother submission.

3. Record progress

A simple bid management progress chart will be effective to visually record timescales. Each member of your team should have access to the tracker so that they can see the work coming together. It will also help the bid manager to provide extra support to those who are not meeting the planned schedule.

4. Establish roles and responsibilities

If there are multiple team members working on a bid, it’s important to establish responsibilities from the outset. This means that each person has their assigned role to focus on. Again, this is especially important when working remotely.

5. Ensure contingency by proofreading

When a bid has been written by multiple people, it’s important to ensure contingency. When proofreading, you should already be checking for:

Spelling errors.
Grammatical errors.
Whether or not the response answers the question.
Correctly labelled supporting documents.

However, you should also assess the flow of the bid. Are the facts and statistics the same? Is the font consistent?

Further support

For more information about how Hudson Succeed can help you improve your success rate, please get in touch. We offer four services to ensure that we can support businesses of all sizes with varying levels of tendering experience. Call or email us to arrange a free consultation.

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

The post Is your bid management process up to scratch? appeared first on Tender Consultants.

The Getting Ready Series Part IV: Considering a Critical Friend

Charlotte Jarvis — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 07:00:52 +0000

Have you considered enlisting a critical friend?

[Last modified: July 2021]

A critical friend is typically an external person who will challenge you by asking provocative questions and introducing ideas. Sometimes when you work closely on a project, you can lose sight of the original aims. An external critical friend can take a step back and see the project from a fresh perspective. As they are not an internal employee, they are more able to offer frank and honest feedback.

Sometimes, being a business owner is a lonely occupation. All your employees have a vested interest in the outcome of your decisions. This can make it difficult to ask questions and get impartial answers.

In our world, the world of tendering and procurement, a critical friend can be paramount to submitting winning bids.

How do you know if you need a critical friend?

If you are producing tender responses in-house, it can be difficult to take a step back and evaluate your process. If you are submitting bids but not seeing success, it’s likely that there is room for improvement in your procedure.

Alternatively, if you are new to the tendering process, submitting your first bid can be daunting. You have likely spent hours and hours formulating your responses. It’s easy to doubt yourself when faced with the imposing ‘submit’ button.

By enlisting the help of a critical friend, you will spend less time guessing and more time proactively bidding.

Common mistakes when you don’t ask for help

It is unreasonable to assume that your methods are always perfect without any room for improvement. We are all human and it’s likely that a second pair of eyes would identify issues that you have missed.

In our experience, we have seen the following mistakes in tenders that didn’t undergo a second review;

Inconsistencies

This is especially the case with large bids. If the tender requires a 10,000+ word response, it’s highly likely that you won’t finish the work in one day. Typically, as Bid Writers, we aim to write 2,000 words per day. This means that even for experienced writers, a bid this size will probably take around 5 days to complete. Therefore, some inconsistencies are predictable. Without putting the work through a second proofing stage, these inconsistencies will remain for the buyer to see.

A lack of attention to detail raises red flags with buyers and you will risk losing the bid.

Spelling and grammatical errors

This type of error signals that your bid was probably rushed. Spelling and grammatical errors tell the buyer that your organisation isn’t focussed on producing high-quality work. Regardless of the compelling experience you demonstrate, these errors will raise concerns for the buyer.

500 words of waffle

If a question asks for a 500-word response, it’s normally for a reason. The buyer wants you to go into detail. Therefore, we always advise filling the space with the word count required. However, this doesn’t mean providing one highly detailed sentence and then waffle irrelevantly, never reaching a conclusion. It means crafting 500 words of rich, thorough content that answers the question. Without a second pair of eyes, you risk ‘bid blindness’. In other words, your desire to win the contract blurs your focus on what the buyer is actually asking. A critical friend will be able to identify this and highlight inconsequential sentences.

How can a critical friend help you win bids?

We have briefed over the reasons for working with a critical friend. Now, let’s dive into the benefits in terms of tendering for contracts.

If you are familiar with the tendering process, you will know that it can be challenging. Even the most experienced organisations will come across tenders that they need extra support with. Whether it’s advice or help to assess how they have interpreted the question, a critical friend can provide this support.

Acting as the buyer

A critical friend can act as a practice buyer. You can submit your tender responses and the specification for a practice evaluation. The critical friend will take on the role of the buyer. They will fully digest the specification to understand what the buyer is looking for. With this information, they can then evaluate your responses from the buyers perspective. They will consider;

If you have answered the questions, providing the most detailed responses you possibly can.
Whether you wasted word counts on waffle that could be replaced with high-quality content that scores top marks.
Your sentence and response structure. Does it make sense, or could your points be made clearer?
If you have skimmed over any particularly impressive experience that could be expanded on.
Inconsistencies, spelling or grammatical errors.
If you have misunderstood the buyer’s question.
Whether your bid will stand out, impress the buyer and persuade them to award the contract to you.
If you have properly labelled appendices and supporting documents throughout so that they are easy to refer to.

Advising if this is the right bid for you

Sometimes, businesses simply need a second pair of eyes to help make their bid or no-bid decision. A contract might sound perfect at the surface, but on closer inspection, it could be unsuitable for your business. There are many factors that can determine the viability of winning and delivering a contract. Here are just a few things to consider;

Your eligibility

You won’t always be eligible to bid for every contract you find. In the public sector, the buyer could require a minimum turnover threshold. If this is the case, be sure to assess your suitability before proceeding further with the process. If the threshold isn’t specified but the buyer has provided a budget, you can use this as an eligibility guideline. As a general rule, we only advise tendering for contracts with a budget of half your annual turnover – maximum. This is usually a good indicator of whether you will be able to deliver the contract to the standard required.

In the newly published green paper for reforming the procurement procedure in the UK, one proposal revolves around exclusion. It suggests that government organisations will be able to exclude businesses from bidding if they have underperformed previously. You don’t want to risk future exclusions by bidding too big and underachieving.

Demonstrable experience

When tendering for work in the public sector, buyers will often ask for three relevant case studies. Here, they want to see your previous experience, challenges you have faced and how you overcame them. This will help the buyer to determine your capability. If you don’t have the required experience, we wouldn’t recommend pursuing your bid. It’s likely that you will waste time and resources for an unsuccessful outcome.

Top tip: If you have never tendered for work before, we would recommend developing your case studies in advance. Focus on the services you want to provide and create case studies that demonstrate your competency.

If you need support with creating compelling case studies, we offer support as part of our Tender Ready package.

Your capabilities

Reading the full specification will help you to determine your capability to deliver the contract, should you be successful. For example:

Contract title: Home care support packages

Budget: £500,000

Description: Local authority seeking to establish a contract with a provider of home care services across London, Birmingham and Yorkshire.

Deadline: 01-02-2021

Initial considerations you should make:

Do you turnover at least £250,000?
Do you have at least three case studies to demonstrate your capabilities of delivering home care services?
Can you meet the location requirements? Do you have the infrastructure to deliver services across a range of locations?
Can you compile a compelling, high-quality tender response in this time frame?

Ultimately, the aim is to use your time wisely. Don’t waste time and resources bidding on projects you can’t win or can’t deliver.

Tender Mentor

Our Tender Mentor service is your critical friend. This is our guide and review service, ensuring that you submit an effective, error-free bid.

At Hudson Succeed, our team have sat on both sides of the procurement table. They know what it takes to submit a compelling bid and they are on-hand to help you do just that.

Upload your written responses and the tender specification for a full review.

More bid writing support

If tendering for work is part of your 2021 strategy, we would strongly recommend enlisting a critical friend. However, there are also other avenues of support available to you. Our services are comprised of;

An ad-hoc Tender Writing service, from asking clarification questions, to crafting responses and submission;
Support to become Tender Ready including the creation of important corporate literature and access to tender tracking software;
Our Tender Improvement package to help you increase your bid success rate.

For more information about how we can help your business grow this year, please get in touch.

Thank you for following our Getting Ready Series! We hope you were able to pick up some helpful tips about bid writing to kickstart your tendering strategy next year.

We’ll be back in the new year with more weekly tips and advice.

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

The post The Getting Ready Series Part IV: Considering a Critical Friend appeared first on Tender Consultants.

How to tender for work…and be successful

Charlotte Jarvis — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 07:30:55 +0000

How to tender for work – let’s start from the beginning

Last updated: Dec 17, 2021 @ 10:23 am

“How to tender for work” is a popular Google search – and for good reason. When first tackling the tendering process, you may realise that the procedure is more complex than you imagined.

After almost two decades in the world of tendering for contracts, we have supported numerous businesses. From submitting their first bid to delivering contracts for multiple authorities, we have helped over 700 companies, globally.

In this blog, we will breakdown the nine steps that you will most likely face when tendering for work. This is commonly the process in the public sector. Private sector organisations aren’t bound by the same regulations. Private buyers can simply ask for quotes and base their decision on this alone. With publicly-funded bodies, the process has to be fairer. Public sector tendering opportunities are usually published in the public domain and the process requires a more transparent approach.

Step 1 – Company analysis

Before you even research “how to tender for work”, you need to understand the position of your business. This involves undergoing a brief company analysis. This analysis should look into the following;

The company’s turnover;
Your experience and the experience of your employees;
The goals of the business in the near future, and;
The work you will need to deliver in order to achieve these goals.

Once you have analysed these aspects of your business, you can assess your eligibility. Your economic financial standing will be determined by your turnover.

As a general rule of thumb, we never advise bidding for a contract with a value of more than half your turnover. For example, if your turnover £100,000 we would only advise tendering for contracts with a maximum value of £50,000.

Your experience is also crucial to consider. We always advise that buyers usually ask for three relevant case studies. If you can’t provide these examples, it’s likely that this will hinder your chances of winning the contract. Your competitors will be providing examples that showcase them in the best light – make sure you do the same.

Step 2 – Opportunity tracking

In the UK, buyers can use thousands of sources to publish new tendering opportunities. In order to ensure you never miss an opportunity, daily tracking is required. This is a full-time job. We know because our team of opportunity trackers at Hudson Discover do this daily.

Hudson Discover is where we house our 11 sector-specific tendering portals. These sectors consist of;

Every day, our opportunity trackers manually search for new listings from thousands of sources, both public and private. Once they have identified new tendering opportunities, they upload them to the relevant portal. The tenders are then categorised using industry-led keywords. This allows our clients to simply log in, enter their keywords and instantly find relevant opportunities. We also send an email alert each time relevant tenders are uploaded.

Book a free live demo of your preferred portal.

Step 3 – Registering interest

Once you have identified an opportunity, it’s time to register your interest. This will take place on the buyer’s portal and you will be required to enter a few details. Once completed, you will be able to access the tender documents.

At this stage, you might be confronted with 10+ documents containing 50+ pages. Whilst this might seem daunting, it is important that you fully understand the requirements.

Step 4 – Breaking down the documents and THOROUGHLY digesting the specification

Before making a decision about whether or not to proceed with your bid, you need to digest the specification. This will not only help you understand if you are eligible to bid but also if you want to win the work. You could read a paragraph on page 60 which details a requirement that you can’t or don’t want to deliver.

Whilst analysing the specification, you should also establish how competitively priced you can be. Most public sector tenders will split their evaluations into quality and price. Even if the weighting on price is less than the quality, it is vital that you price your services competitively.

Sometimes buyers will not disclose their contract’s value. This is to encourage competition from suppliers. If this is the case, it is important to analyse the work required and assess how competitive you can be.

Step 5 – Collating the documents

The specification will also detail the required documents. The buyer could ask to see;

Case studies;
Company accounts;
Staff CVs;
Policies and procedures;
Required accreditations or proof of registrations.

Prior to identifying an opportunity, it is recommended to create these documents in advance. This will save time in the future and allow you to be more reactive.

If you are new to tendering and you don’t have these documents, we recommend our Tender Ready package. The package includes the creation of your policies and procedures. Once the content has been created, our Bid Designers will professionally brand the documents to ensure you stand out. The service also includes 12-months access to the Hudson Discover tendering portal of your choice. When you identify an opportunity, our team can either write your first bid or guide you through the process of writing two.

Step 6 – Writing your responses

Once you have established that the tender is right for your business and collated your documents, it’s time to write. Regardless of your industry, there are a few consistent aspects to consider when writing your tender responses.

Be assertive

Demonstrate your confidence in your ability within your tender responses. Swap any hesitant phrasing such as ‘we can’ for the more assertive ‘we will’. This will help the buyer to determine that you are the most competent supplier.

Keep it concise

Remember, the buyer will be reading numerous responses. Don’t make them hunt for the information they need. Keep your answers concise. If a question asks how you will meet their requirements, read the specification and respond to each point directly.

Fill the space and utilise the word count allowance

Often, the buyer will stipulate a word count for each response. If a question allows 1,000 words to respond, the buyer is looking for a detailed response. Ensure that you maximise the word allowance and provide all the information you have at your disposal. However, refer back to the above point and keep your sentences concise. Don’t simply write for the sake of meeting the word count. Ensure that your content is rich in detail that the buyer wants to see.

Step 7 – Proof, proof and then proof again

Your tender responses are complete, but you’re not finished yet. We’re all human and it’s likely that there will be a few errors in your content. We always recommend asking an impartial party to proofread your work before you submit the final bid.

Submitting a tender full of grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and inconsistent content will result in lost marks. It demonstrates a lack of attention to detail – a quality that raises red flags for buyers.

If you need a second pair of eyes, our Tender Mentor service will ensure that you submit an error-free bid. Our bid writers will review your content and check for any errors or responses that don’t answer the specification.

Simply send us your bid for a free quote.

Step 8 – Submit the bid

The final stage and the step that many businesses with dread. With almost two decades of experience in submitting tenders, we know that portals aren’t always easy to navigate. We strongly recommend familiarising yourself with the buyer’s system in advance of the submission. We also advise allowing yourself plenty of time. This will eliminate the stress of frantically trying to submit your response with only minutes to spare.

Step 9 – Awarding and feedback

The specification should give you an indication of timescales and when the contract will be awarded. Sometimes, unforeseen circumstances will delay the awarding, but you should be notified if this is the case.

When you receive your response from the buyer, hopefully, it is a successful result. However, there are many factors that could contribute to your bid being unsuccessful. It’s important to not be disheartened and ask for feedback. The feedback will help you learn from the exercise and implement your new knowledge into your next bid.

If you are currently tendering for work but not seeing success, we recommend our Tender Improvement package. The service was designed to help businesses, such as yours, to increase your bid success rate.

The package includes;

A thorough assessment of your previous tender responses and supporting documents;
The re-development of corporate literature, as required, including support from our Bid Designers to help your documents stand out;
Support and guidance to help you improve your tender responses;
The option of a full bid writing service for your next tender or a guide and review service to help you write your next two bids;
12-months access to the Hudson Discover tendering portal of your choice.

Sector-specific tips

As multi-disciplinary bid writers, we have worked with businesses in many sectors. Although we never claim to be experts in any one industry, we are experts in bid writing. The following advice is based on our experience.

Don’t see your industry? Call our free Hudson Helpline to ask a quick question about tendering for work in your sector.

How to tender for work in the cleaning industry

The cleaning sector is vast, covering areas such as;

Private/Domestic
Commercial
Corporate
Education
Industrial
Local government

There are many large cleaning businesses that dominate the more sizeable contracts, with values of £1million+.

However, there are many opportunities available for SMEs, with contract values of £2,000 – £150,000. Tendering for these opportunities can be a great way of diversifying your client portfolio and gaining further experience.

In this industry, there is usually an SQ stage followed by an ITT, for successful suppliers. In our experience, cleaning tenders are usually evaluated with a heavier emphasis on price. For example, the buyer could set an evaluation weighting of 60% price and 40% quality. For this reason, it is vital that you remain competitively priced.

This takes us back to step four. Before you bid for any contracts, you must analyse your business and determine the contract values that you will be eligible for. This will ensure that you can remain competitive whilst still profiting.

Find cleaning contract opportunities on our Facilities Tenders portal.

How to tender for work in the creative industry

The “creative industry” can cover many services such as;

Digital works (including website development and CRM solutions)
Marketing & PR
Design
Printing services
Videography
Events Management

From government authorities to education to private and commercial businesses, there are vast opportunities for this industry.

We have been supporting businesses in the creative and digital sector for almost 20-years. In our experience, these tenders usually take the form of a free-flowing proposal. Instead of the rigid, question and answer, approach in other sectors, free-flowing proposals allow suppliers to demonstrate their creative prowess. It is likely that after this stage, you will be invited to present before the successful supplier is awarded.

Find tendering opportunities, daily, on our Creative Tenders portal.

How to tender for work in the construction sector

If your business operates in the construction sector, you will be aware of the importance of tendering.

In this industry, tendering usually consists of a two-stage process, known as the PQQ (or PAS91) and the ITT. The first stage is simply an elimination process. The buyer wants to be sure that every supplier who submits a final bid is eligible to deliver the contract. If successful at this stage, you will receive an invitation to tender.

We have worked with numerous construction businesses, helping them to submit successful bids. During this time, we have noticed that construction tenders usually require the following;

Your bid quality responses;
Pricing documents;
Form(s) of tender;
Bid declaration(s);
And supporting information or appendices.

Find new contract opportunities on our Construction Tenders portal.

How to tender for work in the healthcare sector

Healthcare is one of the sectors that we most frequently work with. Due to an ageing population, tendering opportunities are on the rise and show no signs of slowing down. In 2018 alone, public sector authorities awarded £8billion to healthcare suppliers, with at least £7billion going to SMEs.

If you are a new healthcare business, it is possible to win contracts in the public sector. However, if you have been trading for less than three years, we recommend starting with framework agreements.

Contracting authorities in this sector are looking for two main elements.

Evidence

You must be able to demonstrate your experience in delivering relevant contracts and services. This is usually required in the form of case studies.

Qualifications

Some buyers, in the UK, will specify that you must be CQC registered in order to bid. Some may go further and require a specific rating in order to be eligible to deliver the contract.

We advise taking your time and reading the specification thoroughly. Make sure that you are eligible to avoid wasting time compiling and submitting a tender that you can’t win.

Receive daily alerts, when new care opportunities are published, by joining our Healthcare Tenders portal.

Need help writing or preparing your bids?

If you are still unsure about how to tender for work, or you simply don’t have time, please get in touch. We offer a suite of services to help your business grow by tendering. Whether you are new to tendering, looking to improve or simply require support with ad-hoc bids, we can support you.

Call or email the team to arrange a free consultation.

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

The post How to tender for work…and be successful appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Economic and Financial Standing | Tender Consultants

How to Become a Government Supplier in the UK

How to become a government supplier in the UK…if you’re an SME

Firstly, how do you find opportunities in the first place?

How to make sure you’re tender ready before you begin

3 ways to make sure you meet the brief

Checking your economic financial standing

Making sure you can evidence your experience

Thinking about how you can evidence value for money

How to become a government supplier if you’re an SME…will the government help?

Lower value contracts

Introducing the prompt payment code

The Small Business Commissioner

Social value – what is it and how can you prepare?

Our top 9 tips when tendering for work

Invest in the sourcing process

Don’t rush in, weigh up the opportunity

Familiarise yourself with the buyer’s portal

Make a bid plan

Research the buying organisation

Always refer back to the question and provide evidence

Avoid jargon

Use clear formatting and design (where appropriate)

Get feedback and carry on!

Summary

Need help with becoming a government supplier?

Tender Writing

Tender Mentor

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

Need help with searching for tenders?

Discover Elite

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

How to Respond to Government Contracts for Bid

Where to find government contracts up for bid

Advantages of tendering for government contracts

Guaranteed pay

Secure a pipeline of work for your business

Gain experience

A third of all contracts must be awarded to SMEs

Where to find government contracts up for bid

3 Tips for winning government contracts for bid

Make it easy to read

Stick to the word count

Avoid rambling and overly technical jargon

Need assistance with writing your next government contract bid response?

Tender Writing

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

Tender Mentor

Discover Elite

A Beginner’s Guide to Bids and Tenders

Everything you need to know about bids and tenders

What are bids and tenders?

What is the benefit of winning bids and tenders?

· Securing a pipeline of work

· Guaranteed pay (in the public sector)

· The government wants to award contracts to SMEs

· Gain experience

· Build relationships

What is the tendering procedure?

Open tendering procedure

Restricted tendering procedure

Before you begin, you should consider the following:

· How long have you been trading for?

· The minimum economic financial standing

· Do you have the necessary experience?

· Can you fulfil the contract?

Where can I find bids and tenders?

Need assistance when writing your next bids and tenders?

Tender Writing

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

Tender Mentor

Discover Elite

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

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

Why the National Procurement Policy Statement is Good News for SMEs

The National Procurement Policy Statement in a nutshell

Why should suppliers care about the new changes?