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:

1. How to find the opportunities.
2. How to prepare and ensure you’re tender ready.
3. 3 ways to make sure you meet the brief and have a good chance of winning.
4. How the government helps small businesses bid for work.
5. Social value – what is it and how to prepare in advance.
6. 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:

• Creative Tenders
• Construction Tenders
• Healthcare Tenders
• Facilities Tenders
• Logistics Tenders
• Research Tenders
• Technology Tenders
• Consultancy Tenders
• HR Tenders
• Hospitality Tenders
• Finance Tenders.

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:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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!

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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:

1. The prompt payment code
2. Making interest liable if the terms aren’t met
3. 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:

1. Invest in the sourcing process
2. Don’t rush in
3. Familiarise yourself with the buyer’s portal
4. Make a bid plan
5. Research the buying organisation
6. Refer back to the question and provide evidence to back up your claims
7. Avoid jargon
8. Make your bid easy to read through formatting and design
9. 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:   

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

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

Are you wondering what PQQ tenders are? Perhaps you want to know how to complete them, or who can support you through the process. Luckily, Hudson Succeed are here to help you.

We have over 60 years of experience in tendering and procurement and an 87% success rate. So, we are confident in our ability to help those with questions about bidding. We cover everything from writing tenders, the stages of tendering, and more in-depth information such as the advantages of tendering.

What are PQQ tenders?

For those who are unsure, let’s cover what a PQQ tender is. A PQQ tender is a bid that includes a PQQ as the first stage of the tendering process. A PQQ stands for Pre-Qualification Questionnaire. Before a buyer invites businesses to tender, they will send out a PQQ. This is a way of getting general information from potential suppliers and seeing which ones are suitable.

You may be surprised at how many businesses tender for a contract they cannot actually deliver. This is usually because they do not read the buyer’s documents thoroughly. The PQQ stage essentially filters through suppliers to get rid of the ones that are not suitable.

Not all tenders will have this stage, it all comes down to the buyer’s preference. However, it is common as it is such a good way of narrowing down suppliers. It makes the job easier for the buyer too as they won’t have to review proposals from those suppliers.

How can Bid Writers help with PQQ tenders?

Many business owners may not feel confident in their abilities, or, understandably, they simply don’t have the time. If you need someone else to complete your PQQ tender, you can turn to a technical Bid Writer.

Professional Bid Writers are experts at what they do, so they know what it takes to succeed. There are certain skills that are essential for writing winning bids. Those tendering for work with little to no experience are unlikely to succeed without training.

Some businesses may choose to hire an in-house Bid Writer if they plan to tender for work frequently. One issue with hiring an in-house Bid Writer is that it can cost more money and resources. If you aren’t planning on using this Writer frequently, you’ll likely be losing out.

Outsourcing Bid Management Consultancy can take the stress out of the entire process. All they will need from you will be some basic information about your business and they can handle the rest.

What skills do Bid Writers have?

So, as we established in the section above, Bid Writers can be a benefit to your business. They can take the stress out of the entire process so you can continue with your usual responsibilities. However, you may be wondering what skills they have that makes them so well suited to handle your PQQ tender.

1.     Bid management skills

As experts in their chosen field, they know how to conduct efficient bid management. This involves breaking down the tender documents and managing the workload. It is essential for success as it keeps everything organised. Bid Writers make notes of all the important information, particularly dates, to ensure work is done with time to spare.

2.     Expert writing and communication skills

As you may have guessed, Bid Writers have excellent writing and communication skills. They execute these skills when producing PQQ tenders. They know exactly how to appeal to the reader and persuade them that your company should be awarded the contract.

They also make sure the PQQ tender proposal has been proofread for mistakes. The buyer will not be impressed if they spot errors in your proposal. It gives the impression you are not thorough with your work. So, this can make them question whether they should trust you with their project.

Summary

So, by now you should know all about PQQ tenders. Let’s recap everything we covered so nothing is forgotten.

What are PQQ tenders?

A PQQ (Pre-Qualification Questionnaire) is often the first stage of tendering. Buyers frequently choose to hold PQQs as a way of narrowing down suppliers. It helps them shive out the suppliers that are not suitable for the contract.

How can Bid Writers help with PQQ tenders?

Bid Writers can help you with your PQQ tender writing as they are experts. They know what is expected and can take the stress out of your hands. You can continue with your usual responsibilities whilst they handle the tender.

What skills do Bid Writers have?

1. Bid management skills
2. Expert writing and communication skills.

They can use these skills, amongst many more, to produce winning tender responses for your business. Trusting the experts who have years of experience is often the best option.

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

Need help searching for tenders?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now you know how to accurately perform a tender search, you may be wondering how to write a bid. Our Bid Writers have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. Whether you’re completely new to tendering or aren’t seeing results – we can help. There are four bid writing packages available:

• Tender Writing

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

• Tender Mentor

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

• Tender Ready

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

• Tender Improvement

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

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

Vocal

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

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

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

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

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

Contact us today to find out more.

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

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

The post PQQ Tenders: What Are They and How Can Bid Writers Help? appeared first on Tender Consultants.

When writing a response to a procurement tender, you want to make it stand out from the crowd. There may be tens of other applicants competing for one tender.

You want to persuade and demonstrate to the buyer that you’re the best business for the job. Producing a winning bid takes time. You don’t want to be rushed or leave it last minute.

The average bid takes 23 hours to complete end-to-end. Therefore, it’s best that you get on the case as soon as possible. This can help you avoid unnecessary stress and account for any unexpected delays. Working back from the submission date can help you form a timeline. Remember to consider time for proofreading and revisions.

If you don’t have this time to hand, there are options. You can outsource it to a bid writing professional who will also have a better win rate.

5 ways to win a procurement tender

1. Quality assessing questions

When you complete a procurement tender, you can expect to be asked quality questions. The actual weighting of evaluation will likely be split between price, quality and social value (for government tenders).

Quality questions will be assessing your competence. For these, you can expect to demonstrate your capabilities and experience. You should break the question down into subheadings to make sure you’re answering every aspect of the question.

Include any relevant qualifications or accreditations that you and your staff hold. How much combined experience do you have? What other contracts have you fulfilled that’s similar in scope and style.

2. Address the specification

Each procurement tender is different. There is no winning formula that will work across the board. This is because each buyer has different needs. You should be tailoring your tender response to the specification and the buyer’s needs.

Reading the tender documents can help you gain a better understanding of what the buyer is expecting and wanting. Within them, it will detail certain things you need to include. It will give you a better idea of the aim of the contract and what the buyer is trying to achieve. It’s up to you to write the best answer including this information to win the contract.

3. Demonstrate previous contract experience

Every procurement tender will require you to have a bank of experience ready to show. Buyers will require up to three case studies of past contracts you have delivered. These will likely need to be within the last three to five years.

They should be similar in scope, scale and complexity to the one you’re applying for. Including key challenges you encountered can strengthen your bid. This shows your flexibility and problem-solving skills. Both of which are essential to tendering for work.

4. Keep up to date with changing legislation

It shouldn’t be surprising when I say that a winning bid from three years ago may score poorly now. Procurement legislation is always changing and it’s essential that you keep up to date with best practice.

You should be reviewing your approach to responding to procurement tenders to stay ahead of the curve. Due to the changing nature and priorities with government procurement, it’s best to pay attention. For example, social value wasn’t compulsory before 1st January 2021 – but for public sector tenders, it now is. If you submit a procurement tender for the public sector without addressing social value, you will lose marks.

5. Demonstrate added value

When tendering for contracts, continuously ask yourself how you’re going to add value to the buyer. It’s not enough to just say how you meet the requirements. You need to state how your goods/services/business will benefit the buyer.

This may be via reducing carbon emission targets or using eco-friendly cleaning products. Including added value can help you write a winning bid. Government buyers have certain targets and initiatives they need to meet. Do your research and say how you can help them meet these.

For public sector contracts, the tender will be awarded to the MEAT. This stands for the most economically advantageous tender. It’s when a buyer will assess tender responses on more than just price. You should consider:

• Quality
• Technical ability
• Sustainability
• Price
• Innovation
• Customer service
• Accessibility
• Ability to deliver on time.

Where can I find a procurement tender?

Half the battle is finding the right procurement tender for your business. There are hundreds of websites posting multi-sector contracts opportunities. Filtering them out can be a challenge and relying simply on CPV codes can lead to missed opportunities.

Ideally, you should be looking for a sector-specific portal that posts all tendering leads from your industry. Our sister company, Hudson Discover, hosts 11 sector-specific tendering portals.

What makes it unique, is that you’re able to filter search results by location, keyword, budget and more. This helps you find the right procurement tender for your business – streamlining the process and saving you time. They also host public, private and unique tendering opportunities, giving you more choice.

Our portals cover the following industries:

• Healthcare Tenders
• Creative Tenders
• Facilities Tenders
• Construction Tenders
• Technology Tenders
• Logistics Tenders
• Research Tenders
• Consultancy Tenders
• HR Tenders
• Finance Tenders
• Hospitality Tenders

Once you’ve found the right bid for your business, you should ask yourself the following before you progress:

• Am I eligible?
• Do I have the necessary qualifications/accreditations?
• Can I actually deliver the work?
• Do I have the necessary experience?
• Do I meet the economic-financial standing?
• Can I write a winning bid by the submission deadline?

If you’ve answered yes to all the above questions, then it sounds like the right opportunity for your business.

In summary

Hopefully, you now have a better idea of what to expect from a procurement tender. You want to ensure that you make your tender stand out from the crowd. Demonstrating your business capabilities is essential to success. Think about how you can present added value to the buyer and read the tender documents carefully.

Keeping up to date with the ever-changing procurement legislation can help. Remember how things might differ with private buyers over the public sector. When looking for sector-specific tendering opportunities, one of our 11 portals can ensure you find the right tender.

Need help writing your next procurement tender?

If you don’t have the resources in house to submit a winning tender, we can help. Here at Hudson Succeed, we pride ourselves on being procurement tender writing experts. Our Bid Writers have over 60 years of collective bid writing experience and an 87% success rate.

You may not need the whole bid written for you. You may simply need it proofread before you submit it. We offer four bid writing support services:

Our services

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. They can also help you better understand the tendering process. 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. This can help you formulate a winning submission.

Additional support

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

Discover Elite

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.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

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

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

The post What to Expect From a Procurement Tender appeared first on Tender Consultants.

If you’re tendering for contracts, you most likely have come across PQQs. You may be wondering what they are and what’s required. You can find them in both private and public sector procurement.

What are PQQs?

PQQs are pre-qualification questionnaires. They are most commonly used as an initial stage of qualification assessment for tendering. It is mostly a box-ticking exercise to ensure you meet the minimum eligibility criteria for a contract.

PQQs are now also known as SQs (selection questionnaires). This is a more updated system introduced by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS).

They cover the status of your business, including relevant policies and procedures, finances and quality control measures. Essentially, PQQs are used to ensure that you’re capable of delivering and compliance with specific regulations.

What is the difference between PQQs and SQs?

There are only a few differences between PQQs and SQs. Mainly that the exclusion grounds in the modernised selection questionnaire relates to the latest version of Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

When are PQQs likely to be used?

PQQs are often used when a buyer is procuring more complex goods. This is because buyers need to be sure prospective suppliers are qualified to deliver the contract. In order to do this, they set initial qualification questions to establish they meet the minimum eligibility criteria. PQQs are used for two-stage restricted tendering procedures.

Restricted procurement procedure

A restricted procedure, sometimes called selective tendering, may be used if a buyer is procuring more complex commodities. They want to create a shortlist of potential suppliers to ensure they can deliver the contract. Their capabilities will be assessed. The process typically looks like this:

The PQQ process

PQQs are released and interested, and prospective suppliers can complete them. At this stage, anyone can fill out the questionnaire.

Once the buyer has assessed the questionnaire responses, they’ll shortlist eligible businesses for the contract. These companies would then receive their invitation to tender (ITT) documents.

Next, the suppliers would complete their tender responses on how they plan to deliver the contract. They would complete the quality sections and price their services or goods.

The buyer will then evaluate the ITT responses and award the contract to the most suitable buyer. If you’re bidding for public sector contracts, the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) would win. The same can’t be said for private contracts as they can be awarded however the buyer likes, be it on price or quality.

What can I expect from a PQQ?

You can expect to detail the following information when completing a PQQ:

• Company information

This includes your registration and VAT number, company address and contact information.

• Economic and financial standing

In the economic and financial standing section, you will be assessed on three things. They are annual turnover, financial ratios and insurance.

• Legal compliance

• Modern slavery

• Equality and diversity

• Health and safety regulations

A buyer will want to be assured that you operate to the highest health and safety authority. This could include Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

• Environmental standards 

• Project-specific questions
• Quality management systems

These could be quality management systems such as ISO 9001, for example.

• Relevant policies and procedures

• Staff and subcontract information (if applicable)
• Any grounds for mandatory exemption

A simple yes/no response to various statements.

• Case studies/testimonials

It’s likely that you will need to submit two or three case studies when compiling your response for PQQs. These need to be relevant and similar in scope and complexity to the contracts you’re applying for. Buyers often ask for case studies that have been completed within the last three to five years.

Sometimes you can be asked to include testimonials from previous clients. Bear in mind that you’ll likely need to include their contact information. This is because buyers want to ensure that you’re telling the truth and not fabricating any information.

What sectors use PQQs?

Most sectors use either PQQs or SQs, this includes facilities, logistics and technology. Below are a couple of examples that use a similar PQQ-style system:

PAS91

The construction sector also uses PQQs, however, they are known as PAS91s. It was developed by the British Standard Institute to save construction companies from filling out multiple PQQs. Although it’s slightly longer than a PQQ or SQ, it has the same mentality. Once you’ve completed it, you no longer have to complete core sections if you have certain accreditations. You are also able to develop a standardised response to the standardised questions which saves you time.

PCS-Tenders

Another system that uses a type of PQQ is PCS-Tenders. PCS-Tenders is a type of eTendering system used by the Scottish Government. PCS stands for Public Contracts Scotland. One of the main advantages of this is that there are standardised SPD (Single Procurement Document) templates. Buyers can use standardised ITT templates allowing buyers to create consistent tender documentation.

Suppliers can then complete their profile on the system allowing them to answer these questions ahead of time. They then don’t need to complete it every time when bidding for a new contract. They simply need to update it as time goes on. This, again, saves them time when it comes to the procurement process.

Where can I find contracts for my business?

Our sister company, Hudson Discover, hosts 11 sector-specific tendering portals. You’re able to filter the search results by location, keyword, budget and more. This helps you find the perfect bid for your business – streamlining the process and saving you time.

Our portals cover the following industries:

• Healthcare Tenders
• Creative Tenders
• Facilities Tenders
• Construction Tenders
• Technology Tenders
• Logistics Tenders
• Research Tenders
• Consultancy Tenders
• HR Tenders
• Finance Tenders
• Hospitality Tenders

What makes Hudson Discover different?

We don’t use unreliable CPV codes to track opportunities. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search and upload unique, public and private sector opportunities. You can find them on one centralised and easy-to-navigate portal. This can save you a lot of time when search for new business contract opportunities, streamlining the process.

Need assistance with your next PQQ?

Although you’re a bit more familiar with what’s required, you might still be looking for some support with PQQs. Writing isn’t everyone’s strong suit and that’s ok. Outsourcing to bid writing specialists can help you secure that next contract and grow your business.

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

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. They can also help you better understand the tendering process. 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.

Additional support

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

Discover Elite

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.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

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

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

The post What are PQQs? appeared first on Tender Consultants.

[Last modified: July 2021]

Buyers use a PQQ in construction as the first stage of selection for potential suppliers.

This blog will cover everything that is asked for within a PQQ and how they are commonly formatted. It will also cover some frequently asked questions about PQQs in construction.

What is a PQQ in construction?

A PQQ stands for pre-qualification questionnaire. They’re used as part of the tendering process when a buyer is looking to procure works, goods or services.

Essentially, a PQQ in construction requires you to note basic company information, confirm statements of non-collusion and more. They can end up being quite a lengthy process, but there are some variations of PQQs in construction. It varies from buyer to buyer and depends on how they want to procure.

Is there any other format for a PQQ in construction?

Standard Selection Questionnaire 

A PQQ in construction can also be referred to as a standard selection questionnaire (SQ). The aims of an SQ are to simplify the supplier selection process for smaller enterprises. It typically includes a self-declaration that you don’t meet any grounds for exclusion.

PAS91

A more common form of PQQ in construction is the PAS91. It is a standardised type of PQQ used in the construction industry. They are used by buyers to filter suppliers who might not be eligible, thus ensuring they’re getting top tier suppliers.

You must pass the PAS91 in order to progress onto the invitation to tender (ITT) stage. PAS91s are designed with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in mind. It simplifies the PQQ process thus encouraging more SMEs to become suppliers.

The PAS91 helps buyers identify the most suitably qualified suppliers quickly. This is because by passing, you are demonstrating that your business is qualified, fitting the minimum standards for the contract.

If you are a Constructionline member, you are automatically compliant to some PAS91 questions. Although this saves you a lot of time, it doesn’t mean you can skip this stage completely. You will most likely still need to complete a few questions in the PAS91.

The 2017 amendment to PAS91 now includes new questions covering mandatory reasons for exclusion and legislation. These relate to the Immigration Act and the Minimum Wage Act.

What does a PQQ in construction ask for?

You may be wondering what exactly a PQQ in construction asks for. Typically, you will be required to add information to the following 11 sections.

1. Company information

The first piece of information that is required for a PQQ in construction, is your company’s information. This includes your registration and VAT number. You must also state what type of organisation you are and provide your contact details.

2. Grounds for mandatory rejection

This section simply required you to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to questions relating to various statements. These are often to do with conspiracy, corruption, fraud and bribery.

3. Grounds for discretionary rejection

The grounds for discretionary rejection are similar to the grounds for mandatory rejection. You’re required to answer a series of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions stating your business hasn’t been convicted of criminal offences.

4. Economic and financial standing

For the economic and financial standing section, you will typically be asked for three things:

• Annual turnover

Contractors will assess your annual turnover via your latest financial accounts. You should only apply to tenders that are 40 – 50% of your annual turnover and no more. Any higher, and it’s unlikely that you will be approved.

• Financial ratios

You may be asked to attach asset test ratios. These may be assessed automatically through your attached accounts as part of your tender submission. Some PQQs require you to input this separately within the document. If unsure, your accountant should be able to support you with this.

• Insurance

Buyers will want you to be aligned with the requirements set for insurance. Typically, buyers will allow you to increase your levels of insurance.

If you are unsure if you meet the necessary requirements, read the full specification. It will usually note the requirements and pre-requisites needed.

5. Technical and professional ability

A buyer will obviously want to know that your business is qualified to carry out the job at hand. They often want to see examples of past contracts you have completed that are of a similar scope. They may ask for up to three case studies within the last five years.

A strong response will include evidence from past clients, and you may be asked to attach past client’s information on. This is so they can be contacted by the buyer to confirm the accuracy of the information you provide. Backing up these case studies with concrete evidence will get you in the buyer’s good books.

An example of a typical question asking you to demonstrate your technical ability shared across PQQs in construction is:

“Please provide details of up to three contracts from either or both the public or private sector, that are relevant to the Authority’s requirement. Contracts for the supply of services should have been performed during the past three years.”

The word count for answers can vary from as little as 150 over 1000. If this seems a little overwhelming, you could try breaking the question down into key sections. The STAR method:

• Situation – an introduction.
• Task – the specifics of the tasks at hand.
• Actions – how you delivered the contract, including key challenges faced.
• Results – detail the success of the contract and emphasise why you’re the best business for the job.

It may also be worth noting any unexpected complications you faced while fulfilling these contracts and how you overcame them. This allows you to demonstrate initiative, problem-solving skills and flexibility which are key with any construction project.

6. Staff and subcontractor’s information

You most likely will be required to provide the staffing and subcontractor information you intend to use if successful. You’ll likely need to demonstrate that they have the capabilities and experience to guarantee a successful project. This can include:

• CVs
• Summary introductions to team members
• Provisions of qualification documents

You want to convey to the contractor that you know what you’re doing and can deliver the project successfully.

7. Project-specific questions

This includes technical capability such as any qualifications and accreditations and project-specific questions. Some examples of potentially relevant qualifications and accreditations needed for a PQQ in construction are:

• ISO 9001; 14001; 18001
• CSCS Card
• CPCS
• BIM
• SSIP
• IOSH
• Subcontractor
• CHAS
• SafeContractor

8. Health and safety

The buyer wants to be assured that your company works to the highest health and safety authority. It is one of the most important sections of a PQQ in construction. They want to be sure potential suppliers can deliver the work as safely as possible. You need to demonstrate clear levels of accountability to ensure works are delivered in accordance with the appropriate regulations. For example:

• CDN 2015
• Health and Safety At Work Act 1974

If completing a PAS91 – you will be exempt from completing this section if you have:

• Completed a PAS91 question set within the last 12 months.
• A formally recognised management system such as OHSAS 18001;2007 or ISO 45001;2018.
• A SSIP health and safety accreditation such as SafeContractor or CHAS.

If you don’t have these, then you will be asked a series of questions regarding your health and safety policies and procedures. Areas that could be covered are:

• The training of staff and how you keep them up to date regarding health and safety practices.
• Risk assessment and accident reporting (RIDDOR).
• Reviewing policies, procedures and compliance with best practice.

9. Quality assurance

A PQQ in construction is likely to have a section on quality assurance. For this, suppliers will often have to answer noting their approach to performance management. This can include the likes of:

• Quality assurance and training procedures.
• How you manage the underperformance of employees and how you discuss this with them.
• Reviews of policies, procedures and compliance with best practice.
• Inspections, audits and any other means of performance management you may use.

If you’re certified with ISO 9001 and provide a certification to show this, you can be exempted from completing this. If you don’t, you can provide training records and even inspection reports to back this up.

10. Environmental management policy

A businesses environmental management policy is an ever increasingly important section within a construction PQQ. You will be required to provide evidence responses to the questions. This could be done with the provision of policies and procedures your company holds. They must state that you’re undertaking the appropriate due diligence to minimise your environmental impact. Areas you can cover include:

• How you’re reducing waste and encouraging recycling.
• Reducing carbon emissions.
• Training and maximising environmental awareness.

However, if you hold an ISO 14001, you can bypass this.

11. Equal opportunities policy

You will need to include your company’s equality and diversity policy. This is to ensure you are maximising equal opportunities for all employees regardless of sex, relationship status or ethnicity. Your business’s equal opportunities policy needs to be in line with the Equality Act 2010.

Need help completing your PQQ for construction?

Here at Hudson Succeed, we offer four bid writing packages to suit your businesses’ needs. For more information on how we can help you complete a successful PQQ in construction, get in touch.

Are you looking for more tender contracts for your business but don’t know where to find them?

Our Construction Tenders portal can help.

Our Opportunity Trackers manually source live construction leads from thousands of sites. They then manually upload them to one, central easy-to-use industry-specific portal. There’s no reliance on inaccurate CPV codes, and you’re able to filter the results by keyword, budget, location and more. You’ll also receive a dedicated Accounts Manager to help answer any questions or queries you may have about the process.

When you sign up, you’ll also receive a daily construction tenders bulletin straight to your inbox. It’ll detail all the new construction tender opportunities that are available. This can help save you countless hours and allow you to focus on your business.

Book a Demo with Construction Tenders

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

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

The post Hudson Insight Series: PQQs in Construction appeared first on Tender Consultants.

[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:

1. 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.

2. 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. 

3. 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. 

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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?

8. 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.

9. 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:

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

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

[Last modified: July 2021]

Realistically, how many different types of tendering procedures can there be? Well, there are actually a number of methods that buyers can use to procure services. It might seem unnecessary to overly complicate the tendering process. However, with so many different types of contracts available, one size can’t fit all.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by potentially encountering so many different procedures, fear not! In this blog, we will guide you through the various types of tendering that you will most likely come across. 

1. Public sector tenders 

The majority of tendering opportunities are published by public sector departments. This makes sense because publicly funded bodies must spend their money fairly and wisely. These organisations must create a fair and level playing field for potential suppliers to compete.

Examples of public sector tenders include:

Contract: Implementation of a Community Engagement website – Hart District Council

Buyer: Hart District Council

Value: £20,000

Contract: User Experience and Design Capability

Buyer: NHS Test and Trace

Value: £1,100,000

Contract: Commercial Agreement for the Provision of Employment and Health Related Services (CAEHRS)

Buyer: Department for Work and Pensions

Value: £7,5000,000,000

Contract: Enfield Cluster Cleaning

Buyer: George Spicer Primary School

Value: £850,000

Contract: AOC Major Refurbishment Works at Hellesdon

Buyer: East of England Ambulance Service

Value: £175,000

Tendering for public sector contracts can be a prosperous avenue for generating income for many businesses.

The advantages of public sector tendering include:

• Increased chances of finding a suitable tender due to the sheer volume of opportunities that are published.
• Guaranteed pay due to the regulations that public sector organisations are bound by, such as the Prompt Payment Code.
• An efficient way to build your portfolio and experience as you work your way up to delivering larger contracts.
• Access to buyers that you may not ordinarily get to work with.
• When social distancing is necessary, tendering is a way of generating new business without the need for face-to-face meetings.

2. Open tendering procedure

Within the public sector, there are many types of tendering procedures, one of which is open tendering. This process is commonly used when procuring goods or services that are considered to be “straightforward”. When a buyer creates an open tendering procedure, they are allowing any business to bid for their contract. The process would look something like this:

Step 1: An ITT is released

When their buyer releases their invitation to tender (ITT), any prospective supplier can respond. The ITT will be published in the public domain and interested parties can respond to the specification. Each supplier will be submitting tender responses that they believe sell their business.

Step 2: The contract is awarded

After evaluating the bidder’s responses, the buyer will award the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT). The buyer will have placed an evaluation weighting on the prices quoted vs the quality of the written responses.

Of course, the buyer may choose to include steps such as site visits or requiring a presentation from potential suppliers. However, overall, the open tendering procedure allows any business to bid for the opportunity to deliver the contract.   

3. Restricted procedure

In contrast, a restricted procedure may be used if the buyer is procuring more complex goods/services. They will want to shortlist the bidders to ensure that all the finalists can deliver the contract. The bidder’s capabilities will firstly be assessed before inviting final bids. This type of tendering process could look like this:

Step 1: The buyer releases a PQQ

A pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) would be released for interested businesses to complete. At this stage, anyone can fill out the questionnaire. It’s important to note that this stage could have a variety of names such as an SQ or PAS91. The PAS91 is the construction industry’s version of a PQQ but essentially, they all deliver the same result. The pre-qualifying questionnaire is designed to shortlist eligible suppliers. Here, you can expect to be asked for details of your:

• Company’s turnover
• Insurance
• Non-collusion
• Qualifications or required accreditations

Step 2: The ITT is issued to eligible businesses

Once the buyer has assessed the questionnaire responses, they will be able to shortlist eligible businesses for the tender contract. These companies would then receive their ITT documents.

Step 3: The contract is awarded

After evaluating the ITT responses, the contract would be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender.

4. Competitive dialogue

A competitive dialogue is a type of tendering process that is used if buyers need more information about their solution. Sometimes, buyers will have identified a need for goods/services but they’re not sure of ins and outs. This process would look like this:

Step 1: A PQQ is published

Buyers will ask interested suppliers to answer a pre-qualifying questionnaire in order to shortlist the eligible businesses. This is similar to the restricted procedure at this stage in the process.

Step 2: An invitation to participate in the dialogue

Once the buyer has shortlisted the eligible organisations, they will invite them to a competitive dialogue process. During this time, prospective suppliers can discuss aspects of the project and discuss solutions. The buyer can allow the dialogue to continue until solutions have been identified that meet their requirements. Essentially, this is an opportunity for the suppliers to influence the solutions being procured.

Step 3: Closing the dialogue and inviting tenders

When the buyer is satisfied with the proposed solutions, they will close the dialogue. Once closed, only limited further clarifications are permitted. The buyer will then issue the invitations to tender.

Step 4: Awarding the contract

In the same way as the above procedures, the buyer will evaluate the final tenders and award a supplier.

5. Negotiated tendering procedure

A negotiated tendering process does what it says on the tin. The process will follow these steps:

Step 1: A pre-qualifying process

In this type of tendering procedure, buyers will ask for a PQQ to be completed before the second stage.

Stage 2: Negotiation

After the suitable suppliers have been shortlisted, they receive an invitation to negotiate. Unlike the above procedures, there are no clear rules as to how long the negotiations should take place. There is no formal end to the process before the contract is awarded. Sometimes, negotiations can continue after the preferred supplier is appointed. 

6. Innovation partnership 

This type of tendering procedure was introduced in 2015. It’s used when the buyer has a need for a solution that isn’t currently available on the market. In this case, the buyer would need to work collaboratively with suppliers to develop the product or service. Then, they can procure the resulting supplies or works. In practice, this process usually works in the following way:

Step 1: Call for competition

Using the innovation partnership procedure, any business may submit a request to participate in response to the call for competition. In order to help suppliers decide whether or not they can provide a solution, the buyer must:

1. Identify their need for the goods/services that cannot be procured from the market currently.
2. Indicate the minimum requirements that must be met by all bidders.

Step 2: Shortlisting

Once the buyer receives the requests to participate from the interested parties, they can shortlist the bidders. The buyer must choose at least three suppliers to make the next phase a genuine competition.

Step 3: Developing the solution

The buyer will then enter into the development phase with the chosen bidders. The successive phases are typically well structured and after each phase the buyer may decide to either:

• Terminate the innovation partnership, or
• Reduce the number of chosen partners.

Step 4: Awarding

Tenders must be awarded on the basis of the best price to quality ratio.

7. Private sector tenders

Privately owned organisations can also choose a type of tendering exercise to outsource goods/services. However, they are not bound by the same regulations as the public sector. There isn’t anything stopping private sector businesses from choosing a supplier just because they know them or they’re the cheapest.

They’re also not bound by as many rules regarding payment and these types of opportunities can be difficult to find. Private organisations don’t have to publish their tendering opportunities. They can simply send them to the businesses they want a proposal from.

Finding different types of tendering opportunities

Keeping track of all these different types of tendering opportunities can be a full-time job. That’s if you’re not using an efficient tracking process.

There are many tender tracking systems on the market to help you find tendering opportunities. But there is a fatal flaw in them. They rely on the accuracy of common procurement vocabulary (CPV) codes.

In theory, every buyer should categorise their tender with the correct CPV code. However, with so many codes floating around, it’s too easy for them to be inaccurately used.

What does this mean in practice?

For example, a construction company could sign up and pay a tracking system to send them construction tender notifications. Instead, they could receive obscure notifications for the supply of baked beans or irrelevant tenders for website design.

Enter…Hudson Discover  

After conducting research into the use of CPV codes, we found that a third of tenders are incorrectly categorised. To combat this, we made our own tender tracking portals.

Hudson Discover houses our 11, sector-specific tendering portals. Instead of relying on CPV codes, we use manual tracking. Our team of Opportunity Trackers sift through thousands of sources every day so that you don’t have to.

To learn more about how our portals can save you time, book a free live demo.

Choose the portal that is best for your business then schedule a demo for a suitable time and day.

How to secure the contract

Hopefully, this blog has cleared a few things up about writing bids. However, we understand that tendering for work can be a time-consuming process. Should you need any support, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Our team here at Hudson Succeed have over 40-years’ experience in bidding for work. Our Bid Writers proudly hold an 87% success rate. They are also multi-disciplinary Bid Writers. Their experience spans across various types of tendering procedures and numerous industries, including:

• Healthcare
• Construction
• Technology
• Recruitment
• Facilities Management
• Creative
• And Education to name a few.

Get in touch for a free consultation.

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

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

The post The 7 Types of Tendering Procedures appeared first on Tender Consultants.

[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:

1. Domestic subcontractor – appointed and selected by the main contractor.
2. Named subcontractor – selected from a list of acceptable subcontractors provided by the client.
3. 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:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. A Tender Mentor service

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.

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:

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

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

[Last modified: July 2021]

An invitation to tender (ITT) is usually released when the buyer has shortlisted a group of appropriate suppliers. This most commonly follows a pre-qualifying exercise such as a PQQ, SQ or PAS91, depending on the industry/services required. Some buyers may publish an invitation to tender immediately, without a shortlisting round. However, during the tendering process for the public sector you should expect to submit a pre-qualifying application before receiving an ITT.

Making it to the invitation to tender stage is certainly cause for a small celebration. The buyer has seen potential in your business, and you have proven your capability (to some extent). They are interested to hear more from your business and now is your chance to impress them.

If you are new to tendering for contracts, don’t give up now! You have made it this far. When you receive the ITT documents, you should be prepared to feel a little overwhelmed. Especially if your business doesn’t have a team dedicated to responding to ITTs. It’s understandable to feel daunted by the work that may be required.

Our team has been bid writing for almost two decades. In that time, we have seen buyers ask for anything from 2,000 words to 50,000+. Not to mention supporting evidence, company policies, procedures, accreditations and CVs.

Don’t panic! Let’s break this down

1. First, take some time to digest the work involved

Before submitting your pre-qualifying response, you should have fully read and digested the specification. Therefore, you will already be familiar with the requirements of the contract. You may have been able to pre-empt some of the buyer’s requests based on this.

Take your time reading the questions, assess the required supporting evidence and compile a list of work to be completed.

2. Set internal deadlines

Gathering the evidence and information you need may require liaising with multiple departments, depending on the size of your business. Next to each task to complete, set a deadline for yourself and anyone involved. This will avoid last-minute panicking and rushing to produce documents.

3. Reach out for support before it’s too late

If you don’t have the in-house resources to produce the work required to a high standard, consider outsourcing – in advance. You may want to try and complete the bid yourself but leave enough time to source help if required.

Don’t wait until two days before the deadline to decide that you need a Bid Writer. This will mean risking submitting a rushed bid, or not submitting anything at all.

Our “How to work more effectively with your Bid Writer” blog will help you with things to consider before outsourcing. This includes timescales, word counts and the evidence you can produce.

With the above in mind, let’s explore our top three tips for impressing buyers at the invitation to tender stage.

1. Keep asking yourself ‘how’ and ‘why’

When responding to the buyer’s questions, consider;

1. How does what I’m saying positively impact the buyer?
2. Why will my responses persuade the buyer to choose my organisation over my competitors?

Remember, you are not the only business bidding for this contract. Even if you know the buyer or have established a previous working relationship, this doesn’t guarantee a win. So often we hear businesses say, ‘we know we’ll win because we know the buyer’. We would strongly advise against relying on this and spend time creating high-quality, detailed responses.

For example, if a buyer requires domiciliary care services, they may ask something along the lines of:

“How will your organisation ensure the safety of the service users throughout the contract?”

Here, it is not enough to simply say that you have experience and will ensure patients are safe. You must demonstrate your competence. Provide a detailed response, outlining your safety policies and make the buyer feel confident in your ability. 

2. Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes

Imagine yourself as the buyer. They are not only evaluating your invitation to tender responses but several others. When bidding for the same contract, the responses will understandably begin to sound very similar. It’s important to provide your information concisely. Provide detailed responses but don’t allow yourself to go off on a tangent about how wonderful your business is.

When writing your concise responses, you should also be aware of your tone. You want to sound assertive and sure of your answers. Stay away from words such as ‘we could’ and ‘we might’ and replace them with ‘we will’ and ‘we are’.

If you were the buyer, you would undoubtedly choose the supplier who fills you with confidence. Don’t leave any room for doubt in your invitation to tender responses.

3. Evidence, evidence, evidence

If you follow our Insight Series, you will know that we always reference ‘evidence’ in our blogs. That’s because evidencing your capability is crucial. It will mean the difference between a win and an unsuccessful submission.

In public sector tendering, we always advise that buyers often ask to see at least three relevant case studies. If you know you can’t provide three examples of similar work, you should probably reconsider bidding. Our ‘to bid or not to bid’ blog can help you make this decision.

Case studies allow the buyer to assess your company’s competency in context. They can see how your organisation responded to similar scenarios that you could be faced with on this contract. An effective case study will:

• Demonstrate that you have experience in delivering similar work;
• Detail how you overcame obstacles and responded to challenges;
• Provide information about the lessons you learnt whilst delivering the contract, and;
• Showcase impressive results.

Should you be tendering for work now?

We know some businesses put tendering on hold in December, until the new year. However, we always advise tendering for contracts, while you are still delivering work. This means that you can build a pipeline and secure income for the future.

After the challenges most businesses have faced in 2020, we are advising our clients to schedule their bid work early. They can then get a head start on the new year and make up for lost time.

Do you need support with an ITT?

We know that most businesses don’t have endless resources to dedicate to tendering. In order to be successful, you will need skilled writers with experience of how to win a tender. 

If you need extra support, our team are here to help. At Hudson Succeed, we have been helping businesses to grow for almost two decades. Our team of multi-disciplinary Bid Writers have helped organisations in a variety of industries to see success. Their experience includes;

• Construction
• Healthcare
• Technology
• The creative industries
• Facilities management
• Transport and many more

Our Bid Writers proudly hold an 87% success rate and they are trusted by over 700 businesses globally. Get in touch for a free consultation.

Don’t just take our word for it, see what our clients have to say

Could not recommend higher”

– Nick Steiert, Managing Director at Invasion Ltd.

We are thrilled to have been successful for all 3 pieces of work.”

– Matthew Meanie, Managing Director at MJ Support Staffing.

It was a pleasure to work with Hudson and we look forward to collaborating in the future.”

– Dave King, Director at Imagine You Can.

With such a tight deadline, we could not have done this without Hudson.”

– Fred Kivumbi, Managing Director at Care Solutions Recruitment Agency.

We would highly recommend Hudson and look forward to future endeavours together.”

– Nick Sheehan, Sales Director at iLine Technologies.

We would highly recommend Hudson to any company who require bid support of any kind!”

– Samantha Reid, Director at APM Cleaning Ltd.

Find more client testimonials.

Stay tuned for the final part of our Getting Ready Series. Our next blog will explore the role of a critical friend and how this can help your business.   

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

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

The post The Getting Ready Series Part III: 3 ways to impress a buyer at the invitation to tender stage appeared first on Tender Consultants.

[Last modified: July 2021]

Writing tenders and proposals is a skill that comes naturally to some but not to others. If you’re trying to educate yourself around the best way to see success, you’ll notice an abundance of theories. For those of you who are new to writing bids and proposals for your business, it can seem very daunting. It’s important not to be discouraged and give up before you’ve really begun.

If you’re struggling to make sense of the best way to approach tender writing, you’re in the right place! In this blog, we will provide tips and advice for successfully securing work when tendering for contracts.

Why listen to our advice?

Allow us to introduce ourselves.

We are Hudson Succeed, the bid writing division of our overarching Hudson Group.

Our team have almost two decades of experience helping to grow businesses around the world. In fact, the team are trusted by over 700 businesses internationally.

Not only do we have extensive experience in numerous industries and sectors, but we also hold an 87% success rate.

So, now that we have been properly introduced, let’s get to the real reason you’re here – how to win.

The public sector

Tendering is most commonly a method of securing public sector contracts. When writing tenders and bid proposals, it’s likely that the buyer will be based in the public sphere.

Public sector buyers must put contracts out to tender if they meet or exceed the current OJEU thresholds.

At the time of this blog (December 2020), the current thresholds are;

Supplies & Services (except subsidised services contracts)

Schedule 1 bodies £122,976

Others £189,330

Subsidised services contracts

All bodies £189,330

Works (including subsidised works contracts)

All bodies £4,733,252

Light Touch Regime for Services

All bodies £663,540

Small lots

Supplies and services £70,778

Works £884,720

These thresholds are in place to ensure that public money is spent wisely with a fair process in place.

Types of public sector tenders 

When writing tenders and proposals in the public sector, it’s important to understand the various procedures. These tendering processes include;

• Open procedure 

This is the most commonly used process. Within an open procedure, anyone can submit a full tender.

• Restricted procedure

This type of procedure requires a pre-selection phase. Anyone may participate and apply to tender, however, only selected tenders may submit the final bid.

• Competitive negotiate procedure 

Similar to a restricted procedure, any supplier may ask to participate. However, only selected suppliers may submit tenders and negotiate. This procedure can be used as standard practice for defence & security, water, energy, transport and postal industries. Other entities can only use this procedure when the purchase is specific or complicated and negotiation is necessary.

• Competitive dialogue

This method would be used when a contracting authority seeks to establish a method of addressing their needs.

• Innovation partnership

When the authority requires goods/services that are not yet available on the market, they may use an innovation partnership. Multiple companies can participate throughout this procedure.

• Design contest

As the name suggests, this procedure is used when the authority needs to obtain design-based ideas.

Top tip:

Writing tenders and proposals in the public sector can require jumping through a few hoops. However, in our experience, it can be a very lucrative way of growing your business and securing regular income. Consider the following before you begin;

• Do you have the experience required by the buyer and can you demonstrate this?
• Is there a minimum turnover threshold that you have to meet?
• If successful, do you have the resources required to deliver the contract? For example, does the specification require you to work in different regions?
• Can you price your services competitively? After all, public sector buyers will be most likely to award the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT).
• How can you demonstrate your social value? As of January 2021, the UK government will introduce a 10% weighting on social value when tendering. You must be able to demonstrate how your organisation goes above and beyond to positively impact society.

Our To Bid or Not to Bid blog can help you decide if a tender is right for your business. 

The private sector

Buyers in the private sector are not bound by as many regulations. They don’t have to tender for work. When they do, it’s more likely to be a quotation-based exercise.

It can be more difficult to source private sector opportunities. Sometimes, it’s more about who you know. In our experience, we have found that successful private sector tendering can be heavily influenced by your relationship with the buyer.

With this in mind, we wouldn’t recommend relying on your relationship building skills alone. Accreditations and qualifications are just as important to demonstrate your capabilities.

Top tip:

If you’re focussing on the private sector, relationship building should form a large part of your business development strategy. 

Flying through the pre-qualification stage

As mentioned above, public sector tendering may require a pre-qualification stage. Successful suppliers will then be invited to submit the full tender response.

The format for the pre-qualification stage will largely be determined by the industry you work in. For example, in the construction industry, this procedure usually takes the form of a PAS91. Other buyers may use a Selection Questionnaire or a PQQ.

In order to successfully pass this stage, you must be able to demonstrate that you comply with the requirements. Some buyers may require a specific turnover. If this is the case, we would recommend checking that the contract value does not exceed 50% of your turnover. This is a general rule of thumb in public sector procurement. It will often mean that you’re not eligible to bid.

Top tip:

Read the full specification. If you are confident that you meet the criteria, the PQQ stage shouldn’t be a problem.

Managing the workload and saving time in the future

Writing tenders and proposals can be time-consuming, especially if you don’t have a dedicated team working on this. However, there are ways of saving yourself time for future bids. Put smart methods in place now to help yourself later down the line.

Here are our top 4 tips to help you manage the workload;

1. Start with a bid plan

The first step when writing tenders and bid proposals should be a bid plan. This is especially useful if the specification requires a large amount of work. The bid plan will help you and your team work collaboratively and ensure that you meet the deadline. This plan can include;

• Timescales;
• Assigned roles to show who is responsible for each section, and;
• The documentation you may need from other departments.

2. Create supporting documents in advance 

It is likely that you will need to attach supporting documents and appendices when writing bids. You can often pre-empt which documents you are likely to need when writing tenders and proposals. For example, healthcare businesses can assume that they will be asked to provide a health and safety policy. In the public sector, it’s safe to assume that you will be asked for at least three relevant contract examples. Think about the contracts you want to win and develop three case studies in preparation.

3. Creating a library for the future 

Once you have created the documents, we would recommend filing them in a “bid library”. This will make reactive tendering a smoother process in the future. However, it’s important to thoroughly proof the documents before attaching them to each bid. You don’t want to accidentally leave in another buyer’s name or contract title for example.

4. Taking accountability for bid quality

Additionally to the above point, it’s vital that you have a thorough proofreading process in place. In your bid plan, you should assign accountability for this. When planning your process, you should consider who will be responsible and how many people will check the work. In our experience, we have seen businesses rush this process, only to be unsuccessful. Spelling, grammatical and consistency errors suggest a lack of attention to detail to the buyer. This is not a quality they are looking for.

Are you adding value?

When talking about your own business, it’s easy to go off on tangents about how amazing your organisation is. However, when writing tenders and proposals, it’s important to always keep added value in mind. When creating your tender responses, continuously ask yourself how you are going to add value to the buyer. It’s not enough to just state how you meet the requirements. You must demonstrate how your services/goods will benefit the buyer.

What about social value?

As we mentioned earlier, from January 2021, public sector organisations will place a 10% weighting on social value responses. Previously, we have seen some businesses simply state that they do, essentially, the bare minimum. In other words, they only go as far as what is required by law. From next year this won’t be enough. Buyers want to see how your organisation goes above and beyond to positively impact society.

This is good news for SMEs!

The new requirements will mean that large organisations and SMEs are evaluated by the same standards. The new system will apply tests that all bidders are capable of meeting, regardless of their size. This will help to level the playing field for small businesses.

Further support

Do you need help with writing bids or the tendering process? We understand that spending days writing tenders and proposals just isn’t feasible for some businesses. But that shouldn’t mean that you have to miss out on all the fantastic opportunities.

We provide four levels of bid writing support to ensure that we can help businesses of any size.

1. Tender Writing

Our ad-hoc bid writing service allows you to reactively respond to tenders. Our team will write your tender responses, ask clarification questions and submit the final bid on your behalf.

2. The Tender Ready programme

Designed for businesses who are new to tendering, the programme ensures that you have everything in place to tender successfully.

3. Tender Mentor

If you don’t have time to conduct a thorough proofreading process, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Writers will assess your work, in-line with the specification. They will check for any spelling mistakes, grammar errors or inconsistencies and ensure that you have answered the specification.

4. The Tender Improvement programme

If you’re already tendering for work but not seeing success, Tender Improvement was designed for you. During the programme, we will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. We will then make any amendments that will increase your chances of winning.  

Both our Tender Ready and Improvement packages also include a 12-month subscription to one of our tendering portals.

Our Hudson Discover division houses 11 sector-specific tendering portals. The subscription ensures that you never miss an opportunity and increases the efficiency of your tender tracking process.

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

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

The post The Getting Ready Series part II: The best way of writing tenders and proposals appeared first on Tender Consultants.