Tender Consultants Archive | Tender Writing Consultants

Bid Writing Specialists

John Hudson — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 10:40:28 +0000

Bid Writing Specialists

What is a bid specialist?

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

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

Bidding or tendering?

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

Tendering Process

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

How do bid specialists work?

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

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

Advantages of hiring a bid specialist:

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

Exceptional writing skills

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

Organisation

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

No more stress!

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

Where to find a bid specialist?

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

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

How we can help!

Tender Writing

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

Tender Ready

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

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

Tender Improvement

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

Tender Mentor

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

Contact us:

Additional support:

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

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

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

Discover Elite

Upgrading to Discover Elite can optimise your tendering efforts!

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

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

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

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package

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

Our other divisions:

Vocal

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

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

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

Vocal specialises in:

Alpha

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

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

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

The post Bid Writing Specialists appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Bid Writers Near Me: Here’s Why Closer Doesn’t Mean Better

John Hudson — Wed, 04 May 2022 08:00:48 +0000

Searching for ‘Bid Writers near me’? Here’s what you should consider…

Have you found yourself searching for ‘Bid Writers near me’? It is understandable that many people will assume that services closer to them are more suitable. But this isn’t always the case…

Here at Hudson Succeed, we have offices in Durham, London, Manchester, and Florida. We have also supported businesses all over the world!

We know that many businesses will likely look for local businesses for help. In this blog, we will discuss whether these professionals are you best option. As well as what other help there is available to you. Keep reading to learn more…

Why do so many businesses search for ‘Bid Writers near me’?

Many businesses will opt for local Bid Writers for several reasons. Firstly, they may believe that it is more suitable. In some cases, this can be true. For example, a local business will work to the same time zone. Therefore, there won’t be a limited timeframe for communication. This would be the case if a business hired a Bid Writer on the other side of the world.

Similarly, some businesses may prefer to do things in person. They may want to meet with their Bid Team. It mainly comes down to personal preference. They may even trust local businesses more and want to support other local companies. However, this mindset can be limiting when it comes to your choices of Bid Writing Professionals.

Why can outsourcing remote Bid Writers be more beneficial?

Since the pandemic, we have become ever more aware of how much we can use technology to our advantage. Schools and places of work were able to continue because of our access to technology. Working with a remote Bid Writer would work similarly. They’ll be able to have phone and video calls to clearly discuss the project if this is preferred. Afterall, talking directly to someone can make things easier than via several emails.

By limiting yourself to ‘Bid Writers near me’, you may be missing out on the best expert for you. Local Bid Writers may not connect as well with you and your business. Many businesses in London actually use Bid Writers in the North East. This is because their prices are considerably cheaper without London office overheads.

We have won contracts for businesses all over the world. So, we can confidently say that doing your research can benefit you far more. See which Bid Writer suits you best, rather than one that is close to you for convenience.

Summary

Let’s recap everything we covered!

Many businesses prefer searching ‘Bid Writers near me’ out of convenience. This is especially the case if they want to meet in person.

However, this can limit the quality of Bid Writers available to you.

Still got questions about Bid Writers? Feel free 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 website that posts 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 may be wondering how to write a bid. Well, luckily for you, Hudson Succeed, are experts in bid writing.

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

Tender Writing

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

Tender Mentor

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

Tender Ready

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

Tender Improvement

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

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

Vocal

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

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

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

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

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

The post Bid Writers Near Me: Here’s Why Closer Doesn’t Mean Better appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Wondering How to Tender for Construction Work? Here’s What You Need to Know

Kathryn Wright — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 10:31:05 +0000

Here’s everything you should know if you’re looking into how to tender for construction work

If you are looking for how to tender for construction work, then you’ve come to the right place. We offer as much support and advice as we can. Whether it’s how to win with the right pricing strategy, PPQs, or government contracts. We are confident we can offer you our expert advice to answer whatever questions you may have.

Finding a contract

If you’re new to tendering, you may wonder what the first stage is. The first stage of how to tender for construction work is to find contracts and opportunities. You can do this by researching via online search engines such as Google. You may find it tiring to go through countless websites, so it can be better to try a tendering portal. We offer 11 sector-specific tendering portals for clients to discover hundreds of opportunities. They include:

Our portals are updated daily by our admin team so you will not miss opportunities. Plus, we don’t use CPV codes, so you can be sure to find legitimate opportunities in the right place.

Once you find the right opportunity, you can look at the documents and see if you are eligible. If you hire a bid writer, they’ll be able to do this for you.

Since you’re looking into how to tender for construction work, our construction portal is the one for you.

Break the tenders down

When you have the tender documents, you can break down all the work that is involved. This is also how you can see if your company are eligible for the contract. For example, if your annual turnover was £1million, you probably shouldn’t bid for contracts of excess £500k. You may be surprised at how many companies bid for work without checking if they are eligible. This is a complete waste of their time and money and can easily be avoided.

Here is where you can also make a note of all the key dates so you can stay organised. Using a bid sheet can help you when breaking down all of the work involved.

Writing the bid

Now that you’re ready to write the bid, you should keep the following information in mind. These tips are from our own expert Bid Writers, and it’s how we have a win rate of 87%.

Meet the word counts to show you can follow instructions.
Be organised so you get everything done on time. Rushing at the last minute will almost certainly result in mistakes and a lot of stress.
Edit your work to ensure the bid is of high quality. You give the impression you are lazy and unprofessional if your bid is full of errors.

Do you not have the time to write a bid? Why not trust us to give you the tools to succeed?

If you still have questions about how to tender for construction work, don’t hesitate to contact us. We are always more than happy to help and offer advice to those who need it. If you would like to know more about how we can help with your bid, see details below.

Our services

Tender Writing

Tender Ready

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

Tender Improvement

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own tender response and need it double-checked for errors, Tender Mentor can help. A Bid Writer will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They will also ensure it’s in line with the specification before you submit. This can help you formulate a winning submission.

Additional support

If you only need 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.

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

The post Wondering How to Tender for Construction Work? Here’s What You Need to Know appeared first on Tender Consultants.

How Can Tender Writing Consultants Help You?

Millie Newbold — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 10:46:55 +0000

Thinking of hiring tender writing consultants? Here’s what you need to know

Hiring tender writing consultants can massively increase your chances of success when tendering for work. There is a lot of expert knowledge and skills that tender writing consultants possess. Since we want to help people learn, we will be covering how tender writing consultants can benefit your business.

Tender writing consultants offer industry knowledge

Since tender writing consultants are so familiar with the process and their industry, they know how best to advise clients. This means they can clarify which opportunities you are eligible for. Tender documents can be long and chock-full of information, so it can be easy to miss key information. Tender writing consultants can look through these for you and break them down into the key information. These breakdowns will include information such as the contract price, deadlines, what work is needed, and so on.

Tender writing consultants are experts at bid writing

As you might guess, consultants of tender writing need to be talented writers. They use their writing and language skills to persuade the buyer why you should be awarded the contract. They also use their skills to make your tender response interesting and engaging to read. You don’t want the reader being bored to the point they don’t even want to read your proposal. The very point of your proposal is to make you stand out! It goes without saying that they are also skilled proof-readers. So, they can check over proposals for grammatical errors and punctuation and spelling mistakes.

Whether you are wanting your entire proposal written or you need advice, tender consultants can help. They know exactly what is expected and how to make sure your proposal is of the highest standard.

Tender writing consultants have excellent communication skills

As a proposal is used to show the buyer what you can offer, it needs to be communicated clearly. Tender writing consultants are professionals at clearly stating your values and attributes. They will showcase your business and explain why you should be awarded the contract. They won’t waffle about points that are irrelevant to the questions as this would lose you marks.

Tender writing consultants know exactly how to manage their time and workload

One of the greatest skills of tender writing consultants is that they are organised. They know how to break down their workload and can do the same for clients. This is to ensure deadlines are never missed and work is done in advance. This way, there is no stressful rush at the last minute to submit. Technical Bid Writers know how to manage their time in order to get your bid proposal submitted on time, if not early.

Summary

Let’s summarise just some of the many ways consultants of tender writing can help you.

Tender writing consultants have industry knowledge

Being familiar with their industry is a crucial asset for consultants. They know what is expected, so they can offer expert advice.

Tender writing consultants are experts in their field of writing

They have written hundreds, sometimes thousands, of bids. So, they have perfected their writing skills to create high-quality proposals.

Tender writing consultants are excellent communicators

They are able to clearly communicate why a client should be awarded the contract.

Tender writing consultants have great time and project management abilities

The process of tendering and writing bids can be tedious, but they know how to manage their workload. Tender writing consultants will not miss deadlines and will have work done in advance to avoid stressful, last-minute submissions.

Need assistance with your next tender?

Although you’re a bit more familiar with what’s required, you might still be looking for some support with your tender. 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 tender 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

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

Tender Improvement

Tender Mentor

Additional support

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

Discover Elite

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

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

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

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

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

The post How Can Tender Writing Consultants Help You? appeared first on Tender Consultants.

We’ve Rebranded

Georgie Morgan — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 11:03:45 +0000

You may have noticed we have a slightly different look here at Hudson Succeed. Although we may look a little different, our promise remains the same. We are a global family of innovators on a mission to help businesses grow far and wide.

As our business has continued to grow, we thought it was time to update our appearance. We have a new name, a new website and a slightly different look. However, this doesn’t mean that our service has changed. We still pride ourselves on being bid writing experts and put our all into winning contracts for our clients. We still have an 87% success rate and over 60 years of collective bidding experience. Our mission is still to help businesses grow far and wide.

Hudson Succeed is now one of six Divisions offered at Hudson Outsourcing. Our other Divisions include:

They have been designed to provide a central outsourcing solution for businesses across the globe.

Once you’ve found a tender you’d like to respond to, we can offer you support through our four services:

Once you send us the details of the tender, we will provide you with a quote within four working hours. Get in touch to find out how we can help your business grow.

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6 Reasons to Hire a Bid Writing Professional

Georgie Morgan — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 07:00:20 +0000

What can a bid writing professional offer your business?

How can a bid writing professional benefit your business? That’s the question you may be asking yourself if you’re considering hiring a bid writing professional. The simple answer is a great deal.

If you’ve come across a tender but you don’t know where to start, a bid writing professional can help. Here’s how…

Increase your chances of success

A bid writing professional can increase your chances of success. Their expertise in bid writing is what makes them successful. They are well versed in the tendering process and what evaluators are expecting.

Their success rate will give you a good indication of whether or not they are worth using. If you’ve never tendered before, a bid writing professional can definitely increase your chances of success. They produce bids of high quality which is what a buyer is ultimately looking for.

They can save you time and resources

Outsourcing a tender to a bid writing professional can save you time and resources. You’re busy enough as it is running your business. You may not have the time or resources to spare in order to write a winning bid. This is when a Bid Writer comes in. Some tender responses require all sorts of supporting documents as well as in-depth, detailed 1,000+ word answers.

A bid writing professional can allow you to keep on with the day to day running of your business, uninterrupted. A tender, depending on the size, may need to be split up with your team. This can take them away from their usual job. Can you afford for your team to be working on the tender as opposed to their regular jobs?

Giving this responsibility over to a professional can keep you running as normal. You can relax knowing that your tender is well taken care of and in good hands. After all, most Bid Writers can write, manage, and even submit the tender on your behalf.

Ensure you answer every aspect in line with the specification

A buyer is expecting a high-quality tender response that is in line with the specification. A bid writing professional understands the requirements. They know what’s needed in order to submit a response that caters to every aspect of the specification. This is critical for a winning response.

A bid writing professional will work with you to achieve this. They are not experts in the field they will be writing about. They are experts in bid writing. Therefore, they will need your input about the running of your business to complete the tender. They can then format and apply this information catering to what a buyer is asking in the question.

A wealth of experience

Your chance of success is likely to increase with the more experience you have. This can be applicable to a lot of things, but particularly for bid writing. You can take confidence in the fact that a Bid Writer has a wealth of experience. Their experience can be in a wide array of sectors. From technology to healthcare and creative to logistics – a bid writing professional isn’t a one-trick pony.

Conduct a bid review

A bid writing professional can also help conduct a bid review. This is one of the most important stages of submitting a bid. All bid responses should be reviewed before submission. This is not the same as proofreading, which you will find more about it on the next point. All bids should be reviewed against the question, specification, and scoring criteria.

Ideally, this should be done independently or by someone not involved in writing the bid. You could even go as far as scoring the responses. This could help a bid writing professional go back and develop their responses. It can help them know where there are gaps in the content or where you ramble.

Our Tender Mentor service can help if you’re seeking to outsource your bid review. Our Bid Writers will go over your bid, ensuring that the bid you’ve produced is the best it possibly can be. This is an external guide and review service. Our service allows you to eliminate any mistakes and generally improve your final response for submission.

Submit an error-free bid

Submitting an error free bid can separate you from your competitors. If you think it comes down to two responses that are very high quality in substance. One has no grammatical or spelling errors, the other does. As an evaluator, you would award the bid to the error free bid.

A bid writing professional will proofread your bid numerous times and likely by multiple people. This ensures that your bid is the best it can be. This attention to detail may be the deciding factor in the contract award. A fresh pair of eyes can help notice mistakes if you’ve written it yourself. So, even if you don’t want them to write the whole bid, they can help you in this aspect. The best bid writing companies will offer this service.

What skills does a bid writing professional possess?

Exceptional writing and grammar skills

Following on from the last reason to hire a professional, they can offer you exceptional writing and grammar skills. They have a unique skill set that allows them to write successful bids. The way they convey information is unparalleled and great attention to detail goes hand in hand. They can use their linguistic skills to make sure your business stands out from the crowd.

Research abilities

Whenever a bid writing professional is writing your tender response, they will conduct research. First-rate research abilities are another essential skill they must possess. Being able to research both the buyer’s requirements and your business is what they’re good at.

A bid writing professional can go from writing a tender for asbestos removal to supported living. This requires extensive research skills and abilities. Being able to research and find key information in the industry they’re writing about is essential. Over time, they’ll build up a wide bank of knowledge across multiple industries.

Time management

Great time management is a skill that every bid writing professional must possess. They often have multiple deadlines on the go at one time for multiple clients. These deadlines are often final, so their time management needs to be on point. This coincides with their organisational skills as keeping track of the various submission and clarification question deadlines are essential.

Planning skills

Good planning skills are essential to any successful bid writing professional. You must manage you and your team’s time meticulously to ensure a winning response is submitted on time.

A bid writing professional can help take this time planning worry out of your hands. This is one way you can be assured that your bid will be finished ahead of the submission deadline. You’ll no longer have to wait for multiple co-workers to submit their responses to internal deadlines.

You won’t have to evaluate your workload and assess the amount of time you need to dedicate to it. A Bid Writer will take care of this all for you. This includes:

Submission deadline: date and time
Clarification questions deadline
Where to submit the response (email, hard copy, bid portal)
The amount copies of the response that need submitting
Supporting documents (cover letter, executive summary, etc.)
The number of questions that need answering and additional documents.

If you’re using a bid writing professional, they can handle this all for you. You can continue with the day-to-day running of your business.

Excellent communication

A bid writing professional needs to have excellent communication skills. They need to be able to communicate with clients to get the critical information about their business. They also need to then communicate this in line with the specification, tailoring it to the buyer’s needs.

A bid writing professional needs to be able to adjust their approach to communication too. They can switch from grant writing to tender writing and then writing for charities. These all require a different type of communication with different types of clients and buyers. A flexible communication approach does well here.

Top tip

When considering whether to use a bid writing professional, you should be looking for testimonials. These can help you decide if the outsourcing bid writing service is any good. If their website proudly posts positive testimonials from previous clients, you can be reassured that they’re good at their job.

Here at Hudson Succeed, we are a team of bid writing professionals. We can help you win your next bid. Don’t just listen to us, however, the testimonials from our clients speak for themselves:

“Daniel and the team were incredibly professional and delivered a very high level of service with our tender application.

Unfortunately, we found out about the opportunity at the last minute, which meant that we required a very tight turnaround and the team went the extra mile for us to ensure that it was ready on time within the stipulated deadline. The application proved to be successful and we are delighted with the outcome.

Could not recommend any higher.”

Nick Steiert, Managing Director

Invasion ltd

“From our first contact, Hudson were brilliant.

After a short conversation, they quickly grasped the basics of our business and sector in which we operate. Jonny and the team took the stress and hassle away from us and we are very happy to say that we were awarded the first contract that we collaborated on.

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

Nick Sheehan

Sales Director – iLine Technologies

So hopefully you now have a better idea of what a bid writing professional can offer your business. There are a number of reasons why hiring one can help you succeed with your next tender. The skills they possess enable them to write winning responses on your behalf, saving you resources and time.

Here at Hudson Succeed, we proudly boast an 87% success rate. Our Bid Writing professionals have over 60 years of collective bid writing experience. Our four bid writing support packages can help you when tendering for contracts. Whether you’ve never tendered before, or need your proposal proofread before you submit – we can help.

Our services

Tender Writing

Tender Ready

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

Tender Improvement

Tender Mentor

Discover Elite

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

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

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

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

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

The post 6 Reasons to Hire a Bid Writing Professional appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Approaching Different Tender Proposal Formats

Emma Nelson — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 08:00:09 +0000

How many different tender proposal formats can there be?

Last updated: Dec 17, 2021 @ 10:53 am

I’m glad you asked. The short answer can be summed up with the well-known phrase ‘how long is a piece of string?’. There are several tender proposal formats which you are more likely to encounter. However, there are still many other ways you can be asked to present a tender, and these can be affected by the sector you are bidding in as well.

The key thing is to make sure that you read the tender instructions thoroughly. This will ensure that your tender proposal format is compliant with the criteria laid down by the Buyer.

As a general guide, here are some of the tender proposal formats you can expect to come across whilst tendering:

Selection Questionnaire / Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (SQ / PQQ)

The SQ and PQQ tender proposal format is usually a very simple one. This consists of the following:

A set questionnaire concerning your company information
Financial position
3 contract examples and in most cases a small selection of quality questions.

The questionnaire element itself will always be presented in a set format, either through the use of a word document, excel sheet or as an online form on the relevant tender portal. Any additional quality questions will most likely be within the same pre-formatted tender document, or within text boxes on the online portal.

Occasionally you may have the option to submit the quality questions separately in a non-buyer document. This is an excellent opportunity to brand your responses and really make them stand out (more on this further down!).

Invitation to Tender (ITT)

In most cases, the ITT is the second stage of a procurement process and your company information will have been submitted at the first stage, meaning that your tender proposal format at ITT will usually consist of quality questions, commercial response/pricing schedule and supporting attachments.

It is entirely dependent upon each buyer (or contract authority) as to how an ITT is laid out and the format you are expected to respond within. ITTs typically fall into two camps:

Pre-designed buyer documents with clearly marked response areas, usually with strict instructions for font size, font type and wordcounts.
Free-format responses, where the ITT instruction layout any guidance points (like word counts or page numbers, font type or size and likewise) but give you the freedom to submit the quality responses in your own documents. (Sometimes, there is no guidance provided at all and you are free to format and develop your tender as you see fit).

If you have the chance to create your own response document, then this is a fantastic opportunity to make your tender stand out. So long as you adhere to whatever instructions are provided (for example, it is usually that the font must be Arial and a size 11) then you can take the chance to ensure the Buyer remembers your proposal.

Some things you might consider doing are to:

Use your company logo to create a simple branding image that you can place on each page of the document, using your company colours to accentuate any further design elements.
Think about putting together a title/cover page and a back page to place at the end of the document. You don’t have to be a design wizard to make these look good; a bold colour for a background which allows for your logo to be displayed nicely will look just fine if you take the time to match everything up properly.

Unfettered tender proposal formats really do give you a great opportunity to showcase the professionalism of your business. In theory, it shouldn’t matter at all if you upload a plain document or a professionally designed one; you’re not being marked on the design work, just the content.

However, creating an eye-catching document when given the chance will improve your odds of catching the buyers eye. Look at it this way; if you were reviewing 20 tender submissions and 19 of them were plain, you would definitely remember the branded one and appreciate the extra effort given.

Request for Proposal / Request for Tender (RFP / RFT)

Request for tender or proposal formats are nearly always free-format. RFPs are particularly common in the creative sector, where the buyer will provide a specification or a creative concept (for example, the basic premise and requirements for a website) and a creative agency will develop an RFP based upon that.

RFPs usually don’t come with wordcounts or stringent restrictions, but always read the instructions to make sure you haven’t missed anything. In procurement, just because something isn’t the norm doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

If you work in the creative industry, then you will know all about how best to display your brand. Don’t make the mistake of assuming tenders or proposals need to be plain documents; take the opportunity an RFP offers to get dynamic with your tender proposal format. This is especially the case if you are tendering for something like website development or film production. White space may help. However, you want to make sure that the buyer remembers you and your brand above all else.

Attachments and supporting evidence

If you are submitting a tender with a pre-designed buyer document that prohibits you from showcasing your beautifully branded documents, don’t despair! If you are permitted to submit supporting evidence with your bid (and in most cases, you will be) make the most of it. Have your company policies, organograms, CVs and case studies designed so that they a) look professional and b) wow the buyer in a way that the tender proposal format restrictions put a stop to.

Tips for a successful submission

Submitting a tender proposal is perhaps the most important part of the tendering process.

Web-based tender submissions have become normal in recent years and is the preferred way for buyers and suppliers to complete the tender process.

What this means is that if you are interested in submitting a tender proposal, you need to be confident using web-based submission portals.

The requirements for submitting a tender proposal have not fundamentally changed. However, the way you as a supplier interacts with the buyer has changed. It is now more streamlined for your company to submit your tender.

Benefits of web-based portals

Modern procurement is completed online and there are a number of ways that this is beneficial:

Web-based tender portals were introduced to speed up the procurement process and make it more transparent for all parties.
Using portals makes it easy for the companies submitting tender proposals to communicate with the buyer to clarify any questions they may have.
It means that the rules must be adhered to by suppliers. It is easy for the buyers to check that you have uploaded the required tender documents before the deadline times
Using web-based portals means your tender proposal information can be stored online. This can save you time and effort if you tender regularly!

Our top 5 tips are:

1. Take your Time

Make sure you have understood all the documentation that needs to be submitted. You should also make time to learn how the tender portals work if you are unfamiliar with them. One of the easiest mistakes to make when submitting a tender online is failing to understand all the submission requirements:

What you need to complete in terms of any additional attachments,
How to complete the correct sections,
And generally ensuring the correct boxes are ticked.

2. Don’t be put off

At first glance, many of the tender portals can seem very confusing. Don’t worry however, it is a lot easier than the old methods of printing out and posting or delivering a hard copy!

3. Learn what works for you

For example, the tender expert writing this blog prefers work in a Word document. They then transpose the proposal text into the relevant online response sections when it is finalised. This is because it is not always easy to work directly with the online boxes.

4. Communicate

The online tender proposal submission portals allows for a much simpler communication process. Any clarification questions, notifications and important correspondence can be completed via the portal.

This is a lot easier and more transparent for all parties. Online portals also create a central location for working on your proposal. This is especially helpful when working with other contributors.

You can all work on the same submission easily. However, you need to make sure you communicate who is doing what to prevent any errors or duplicate content.

5. Strive to stand out

Online proposals can sometimes remove the need for design, formatting and branding of a tender. This might save you time, but most importantly, it increases the need for your bid to stand out from the competition.

You should take the time to make sure your tender proposal is of the highest quality possible. Naturally, at the same time, you need to make sure that it matches the contract criteria and specification. See our Tender Design series on Tender VLE for more information.

Common problems with web-based tender proposals

Although online tender proposals save the time and costs of printing and delivering a hard copy bid, the submission portals are known for being confusing and difficult to navigate.

The main problem with online tender submission portals is that there are several portals that you might use. These are all different and unique in their own special ways.

What this means for you as a supplier is that you need to become familiar with how each portal works. This is especially important if you use different systems regularly.

Another issue often encountered with online portals is on submission day.

Everyone can relate to the fact that although technology saves a lot of time, it can also create major problems when it doesn’t work! Right before the deadline for a tender proposal, the portal is likely to experience a lot of traffic and occasionally the system can crash.

To counter this, make sure your tender proposal is written in plenty of time. This will give you the breathing space you (might) need to upload your proposal in plenty of time before the deadline.

Don’t submit your proposal at the last minute as you run the risk of the portal crashing right at the vital moment. (Trust us, it happens!) If you miss the submission deadline, even by one minute, the tendering window will be closed and the authority will decline your submission.

Stay up to date

Ensure that you read all tender notifications and portal messages from the buyer throughout the tender process.

There may be important updates or additional actions required which may impact your proposal. Normally, these will be notified to all tenderers on the portal, with an (often) automatic email sent to all tenderers.

Tender proposals can demand a lot of your time and resources…

For particularly large tender proposals, there is usually a significant amount of supporting text, attachments, additional documents and financial information provided with each tender.

What this means for you is that you have a lot of reading and understanding to do before you even write your response. This can require a significant investment in terms of time and resource.

It is important to invest that time to fully understand the requirements of the proposal. If you cannot commit to this investment all the time, why not let Hudson’s tendering experts take this burden for you. Our range of tender services mean that we can support your tendering and proposal submission requirements.

Bid proposal support from Hudson

At Hudson Succeed, bid proposal support comes in the form of our most popular service, Tender Writing.

The Italian-based organisation, Barbara B Cooperativa Sociale, approached the team at Hudson Succeed to support them with expanding their services internationally. Formed in 2007, the company has strengthened its role as a multi-service cooperative. They provide services such as town cleaning, environmental hygiene and cemetery management. Their main goal is to provide employment opportunities in the facilities sector to vulnerable and disadvantaged people.

“The collaboration with Hudson has been interestingly fruitful for Barbara B as we were entering a new market and we needed more insight and somebody who would be able to help us in letting our long experience in the Italian market emerge in the UK tendering process. In Hudson we found very responsive and professional support, in particular given the difficulties of transferring/translating the value of our Italian social cooperative work into the bid writing process: language sometimes can a be a limit, but Hudson’s flexibility and creativity helped support our business.” – Filippo Enseki, Operations Manager at Barbara B Cooperativa Sociale.

Tasks and challenges

Research into the UK market

To assist Barbara B Cooperativa Sociale with their expansion goals, we provided them with both our Succeed and Procure services. In addition to supporting them with their bid proposal, our team also carried out research via our Hudson Procure division. This involved undergoing a thorough investigation by liaising with UK councils. Our findings were compiled into a detailed report, within the necessary timescales.

The bid proposal

As well as this insight, Barbara B Cooperativa Sociale also required support with their bid proposal. Their tender of choice was for grounds maintenance services, to be delivered across the UK.

When tackling the bid proposal, the team had to overcome translation issues. As with all clients, the first step for our bid writers is to extract information. This information then builds the foundations upon which the tender responses are crafted. Therefore, it is vital that these details are accurate.

Opportunity tracking

In order to help Barbara B Cooperativa Sociale futureproof their UK market strategy, we also assisted with opportunity tracking. Utilising our research findings, we were able to help the organisation identify the right opportunities for their business. This means that the company was able to prepare for future tender proposals, eliminating the risk of unexpected, reactive work.

Activities

Our bid writers begin every Tender Writing project by creating a bid plan. The plan clearly outlines what they will need from the client and what the client can expect from them. This helps us to set expectations from the outset. It means that both parties have a clear understanding of the project timeline and how we will deliver the work required. In this case, the bid plan was particularly important. Extra time had to be factored in for translating any documents required from Barbara B Cooperativa Sociale.

The Succeed team underwent detailed, industry-specific research throughout the project. This ensured that their tender responses were developed to the highest possible quality. Barbara B Cooperativa Sociale is an experienced provider of grounds maintenance services. It was crucial that the bid responses accurately represented the client’s capabilities.

With the bid plan in progress, the team were able to effectively communicate with the organisation throughout the project. This led to the timely submission of the grounds maintenance bid proposal.

As for the procurement research, the team developed and designed a detailed and intuitive report. As the client was new to tendering for work in the UK, the report outlined the best strategy for them.

Results

Due to the success of the first submission, where a 97% quality score was achieved, we continued to work with Barbara B Cooperativa Sociale. We have since helped the organisation to streamline their understanding of and approach towards procurement in the UK.

Our second tender submission was also a success, securing a four-year contract, totalling a value of c.£350,000.

Find more information about our work with Barbara B Cooperativa Sociale.

Find your perfect service

Writing a tender proposal for the first time?
Needing a second pair of eyes?
Never tendered before?
Need some advice and guidance through the tender process?
Having burning questions?
Don’t have the time to tender?

Don’t worry, it’s Hudson to the rescue!

No matter your question or query about writing a tender proposal, we have a service that is ideal for you. Whilst lots more information on our tendering and procurement advice and writing services can be found in our blogs, read ahead for a snapshot of each of our services, what they involve and the benefits they can bring to your business.

How we work

We maintain a client-first approach in everything we do. Communication and transparency are vital to our service delivery.

Clients utilise our services for many different reasons, such as:

Support with an ad-hoc bid proposal;
Help to get started with their first tender;
Help to improve their internal bid success rate;
Simply because they need a second pair of eyes before they submit a bid.

No matter the reason, their goal remains the same – to grow their business. That’s why we developed our four service offerings; to ensure that we can support businesses of all sizes.

Tender VLE

Tender VLE is the UK’s first, online, tendering and virtual learning environment. The platform is dedicated to answering your questions about writing a tender proposal. Our team of procurement specialists regularly update the site with videos, accompanying blogs and downloadable attachments. These resources provide guidance, advice and helpful hints and tips regarding the tendering and procurement process. The site caters to beginners, intermediates and advanced level businesses. It is free to use and many clients find this service extremely helpful in terms of its clarity, ease of use and the answers it provided to commonly asked questions.

Lots of our videos are designed to provide specific tender support to those who have never tendered before or have lots of questions about the process including:

If you’re interested in learning more about how to make the most of formatting your tenders, then check out our upcoming instructor on Tender VLE, Kathryn Johansen. In her introductory video, Kathryn has some excellent advice to give on the importance of your brand and how to use it to greatest effect when tendering.

Tender Mentor

Our Tender Mentor service provides businesses with a vital, second pair of eyes to make sure that their submission is the best it can be. It is predominantly a guide, review and advice service which involves our team critiquing your prospective tender responses whilst mentoring your team on ways in which they can continuously improve their submissions.

Tender Mentor is perfect for businesses who need a helping hand writing a tender proposal; our team of procurement professionals will pay attention to the details of your submission and the particulars of the specification. They will ensure that your response flows well and answers the question, whilst optimising the effectiveness in relation to the buyer’s requirements.

Tender Ready

Since launching the Tender Ready programme, we have helped numerous clients to take the first step on their tendering journey. We know that the tendering process can seem daunting. The programme was designed to help businesses who are exploring this avenue for the first time.

The package includes:

The creation of the corporate literature you will need to tender for contracts;
Three days of bid writing consultancy to develop your first bid proposal response;
12-months access to the Hudson Discover tendering portal of your choice so that you can continue to identify opportunities after the programme.

Call or email us to book a free consultation.

Tender Improvement

This programme is designed for businesses who are currently tendering for work but are perhaps not seeing success. Our bid team will provide tailored, one to one support to critique clients’ past responses. Knowledge and guidance is offered that can help improve future responses.

In order to help you increase your win rate, the package includes:

A full analysis of your previous tender responses and the identification of areas for improvement;
The creation/redevelopment of your corporate literature to help you impress buyers;
Three days of bid consultancy to either write your next tender response or guide you through the process yourself;
A 12-month subscription to the Hudson Discover portal of your choice.

Simply call or email the team for more information.

Tender Writing

This is our ad-hoc writing service, primarily aimed at businesses who know how to tender but struggle to find the time and resources to do so. Our team will take tender management, writing the bids and the submission process off clients’ hands completely.

Our team will work closely with the client throughout the process. They will ascertain the level of technical input and specific examples required to make the submission stand out from the crowd. And on top of all of that, we will battle with those pesky submission portals on our clients’ behalf. This makes the process of writing a tender proposal as stress-free as possible.

Further support

Still got questions? For more information about tendering and how to approach it, contact our Tender Writing Consultants for a free chat about your tendering queries and needs.

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

The post Approaching Different Tender Proposal Formats appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Tender Consulting FAQs: Answered

Emma Nelson — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 08:00:16 +0000

Tender Consulting FAQs: Answered

As any procurement worker can tell you, there is a lot to know about tendering. Tendering (also commonly referred to as bidding and procurement) is a relatively dense topic. Terminology that can be unfamiliar to the uninitiated and many different elements to learn about, all of which are vitally important!

Because of the seeming complexity of tendering, many companies wishing to tender employ tender consulting services.

At Hudson we provide expert bid writing services and many more come to us for guidance and information.

In light of this, both our free online learning resource, Tender VLE and our Bid Surgeries with our MD, Jill Hudson, have become increasingly popular.

Tendering can seem impenetrable, but it doesn’t have to be! If you take the time to learn about the process and requirements, then it soon starts to make sense.

Lots of businesses must have received that memo because we’ve been receiving plenty of questions, ranging from ‘What is tender consulting?” to “What is the difference between an SQ and a PQQ?”.

So, this got us thinking. Instead of restricting ourselves to responding only to those who contact us on an individual basis, we could pull together the 5 most frequently asked questions and put our answers in this blog for access by any budding tenderer to use.

FAQs

#1 – What is tendering?

I haven’t put this FAQ at number 1 for no reason, this is one of the questions we get asked the most. In essence, tendering (or procurement) is the way Buyers ensure that they are choosing the contractor who can offer the best value for money for a contract. Multiple suppliers will submit a bid, as part of the tender process, in line with the instructions from the Buyer, who will then score each tender in accordance with the evaluation criteria and the highest scoring Supplier will be offered the contract.

This process is meant to ensure a non-discriminatory approach to engaging supplier services through an open and fair procurement process. This prevents collusion and ensures a level playing field for all participants.

For more information about this topic, check out what our tender consulting guru, Daniel Hall, has to say about this in the Tender VLE video ‘What is Tendering?’.

#2 – What is a typical tender process like?

As any tender consultant should honestly tell you, there is no ‘one size fits all’ response to this question. Tenders can take several different forms which, depending on whether they fall above or below the EU threshold, may be one stage, or two-stage, processes. In public procurement, you will most likely encounter the Selection Questionnaire/Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (SQs and PQQs) and Invitation to Tender (ITT) processes the most often. For these types of tendering, you will most likely follow this process:

A Buyer will put out a Contract Notice explaining:
- What the contract is for;
- What the delivery length and contract value is;
- Any qualifying criteria that potential Suppliers must meet;
- The Evaluation criteria;
- Timeline for the tender (submission deadline, contract award date etc);
- The tendering process/particulars.
Each supplier will complete and submit a bid that is usually a combination of a written quality response and a commercial/pricing response. Both elements will be scored according to the evaluation criteria.
Once all of the tenders have been evaluated, the Buyer will either award the contract to the highest scoring supplier, or they will shortlist the highest-scoring tenders to a secondary stage. The process will continue until the Buyer is satisfied that they are able to award the contract to the most suitable supplier.

Although this covers the most basic process, you should expect some variance from tender to tender. This is influenced by such factors as the size of the contract, the time between the contract notice being realised and the required award and commencement of the contract.

For more information on what you can expect from a typical PQQ/SQ and ITT, check out our instructional videos on those subjects here and here.

#3 – What is tender consulting?

This is another question that we get asked a lot! Put simply, if businesses don’t have a person (or persons!) internally who can produce tenders, then they will seek the services of a tender consulting business to help them produce tenders on a fee basis. This, at Hudson Succeed, is what we do. We work with clients across multiple sectors – from Construction to Creative and Technology, to Facilities and Logistics to name just a few – to help them produce top-quality, winning tenders. For a better understanding of the types of services you can expect from tender consulting, check out our Services page.

#4 – Can SMEs tender?

One of the big misconceptions about procurement is that it is just for the big, multi-million earning companies. We are very pleased to tell you this is emphatically not the case! In fact, in 2014 the UK government completely overhauled its legislation concerning public procurement to a) make it fairer and b) encourage SME business to get into tendering. In fact, it has been so successful that today most of our tender consulting work is for SMEs!

#5 – What is the difference between Private and Public sector tendering?

The main difference between the public and private sector is this: public sector is not for profit and private sector is for profit.

Public sector tenders mainly refer to contracts which are paid for using public money, for example; state-run schools, the NHS, local authorities, central government or public services.

Private sector tenders are offered by privately-owned companies, where the contracts are paid for using private money. For example, a privately-owned construction company might put out a contract for website development, which they will pay for from the business.

Still have questions not answered here?

I’m sure there will be many of you who still have a plethora of questions for our tender consulting team! These may be the top 5 questions that we are asked on a regular basis but it’s by no means the sum total of information that SMEs need when they are considering tendering.

If you would like to pose your question to one of our experienced tender consultants, then please contact us for a free chat, or visit our Hudson Succeed Insights page for more helpful blogs about all things tendering!

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

The post Tender Consulting FAQs: Answered appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Sit Down with Bid Writer, Jack Grayson

Ben Glaister — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 08:00:25 +0000

Tender Writing Consultant – Sit Down with Jack Grayson

Last updated: Dec 17, 2021 @ 11:14 am

Today I sit down with one of our Bid Writers, internal procurement experts and tender writing consultants Jack Grayson. Jack comes from a Utilities background, with previous experience in the Energy sector. Due to his experience, Jack looks after our Energy, Facilities and Utilities clients.

Today Jack and I discuss tactics for writing a brilliant bid, the help available for businesses, and the new stories and events making waves in the Energy, Facilities and Utilities sectors.

Introduce yourself:

Jack: I’m one of the tender writing consultants here at Hudson. As a Bid Writer, my role largely entails liaising with clients and creating detailed bid plans and responses to ensure that questions are thoroughly answered, and technical specifications are met. Not only this, my role involves helping clients to discover new work by tracking opportunities daily and providing tailored one on one support to clients depending on the specific needs and challenges of their business.

Tell us about your experience:

Jack: I come from an Energy and Utilities background and have acted as an Account Manager and client liaison in my past roles. My experience working on both the buyer and the supplier’s side of the table is something I actively strive to bring to bear on a daily basis to assist my clients here at Hudson.

What makes a good bid response?

Jack: Any one of our tender writing consultants will tell you that there is no simple answer to that question. But, there are a few sure-fire ways of making sure your tender ticks all of the boxes, doesn’t miss out key information and stands out from the crowd.

First of all, plan!

Bid Management is critical. A rushed response will be a sloppy response. Not only will you miss out key requirements, misinterpret the questions and make mistakes, but it will look unprofessional. A buyer is not going to “take a chance” on giving their cash to a company or business they don’t trust. So, digest the requirements of each bid, take your time, understand what is expected of you, plan your approach, factor this into your diary and don’t forget to delegate. Send the pricing schedule to your finance team for example – they will be best placed to answer it.

Secondly, proofread

Many pairs of eyes are better than one. It is amazing how even the savviest and experienced of writers become blind to their own mistakes. Of course, it is a good idea to double-check your own work, but after this, get a colleague or even a friend or family member to have a look over your submission, even if only to check for spelling and grammatical errors. Little mistakes may cost you big wins. If you need a second pair of eyes and can’t find anyone to help you out then our Tender Mentor service here at Hudson is perfect for you; this service provides businesses with the vital final check they need to ensure their submission stands out from the crowd and includes guidance, advice and hints and tips from our dedicated tender writing consultants to help clients continuously improve their tender submissions.

Thirdly, if you need help – shout!

There is loads of help out there so take advantage of it. Hudson has recently launched Tender VLE, for example. Tender VLE is the UK’s first, online, tendering and virtual learning environment. Our team of procurement specialists regularly update the site with videos, accompanying blogs and downloadable attachments, providing guidance, advice and helpful hints and tips regarding the tendering process at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. It is free to use and many clients find this service extremely helpful in terms of its clarity, ease of use and the answers it provides to commonly asked questions. If businesses are in need of further, more specialist or dedicated support, our dedicated team of tender writing consultants at Hudson Succeed are on hand to help.

What waves can we expect in terms of tendering and procurement in the Energy, Facilities and Utilities sectors?

Jack: Well I think it’s clear we will see potential suppliers having to show an awareness of, and conform to, much tougher environmental regulations. At the start of June, half a dozen House of Commons select committees made their intention public to establish a “citizens assembly” for climate change. Not only have these produced a very valuable £120k tender for a firm to assist them with this, but the assembly’s decision is likely to involve recommendations for tougher environmental regulations. Energy and Utilities oriented businesses especially would do well to avail themselves of the output of this assembly as it occurs and tighten up their environmental policies as a precursor to any future tenders.

What significant events have taken place across these sectors this year that might affect businesses looking to tender?

Jack: Not only this but last week, Construction giant Kier announced the sale of the Facilities management arm of its business to focus their efforts on their construction and highways endeavours. CEO Andrew Davies has described the business’ divesting itself of these contracts as “simplifying the portfolio and emphasising cash generation.” We know that collectively the 13 live contracts have a value of £160m and whilst it is as yet unclear whether these will be retendered in their current form or broken down into a greater number of smaller contracts, it is likely that a large quantity of nationwide facilities and utilities contracts will be up for grabs soon.

What else should small businesses look out for in these sectors?

Jack: It is also common knowledge in the tendering and procurement industry that there are over 70 facilities management frameworks in the UK public sector expiring this year, run by the likes of Engie, Compass, Capita and Sodexo. These frameworks could present a valuable opportunity for small businesses or those business who are new to tendering to take that vital first leap into tendering. If a business has never tendered before, I’d advise them to seek help to maximise their chances of winning a place on one of these prestigious frameworks. Seeking help from tender writing consultants such as ourselves really will help to cross the Ts and dot the Is.

Remember, our dedicated team of tender writing consultants at Hudson Succeed are here to help you tender for contracts in the Energy, Utilities and Facilities sectors. Get in touch today to have your questions answered and to find out more about the dedicated support we can provide you with.

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

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12 Top Tips for Writing Construction Tenders

Nick Eyley — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 08:00:38 +0000

An Expert Insight into Writing Construction Tenders

Last updated: Aug 30, 2022 @ 4:29 pm

Introduction

Construction tenders can take up a significant amount of commercial resources for construction companies. There is often a huge amount of information to digest as part of understanding the tender including:

A letter of invitation to tender.
The form of tender;
Preliminaries (including pre-construction information and site waste management plan);
The form of contract, contract conditions and amendments. This might include a model enabling amendment if building information modelling (BIM) is being used, to make a BIM protocol part of the contract documentation;
Employer’s information requirements if BIM is being used;
A tender pricing document (or contract sum analysis on design and build projects);
A drawing schedule;
Design drawings, and perhaps an existing building information model, and
Specifications

This can be overwhelming for some construction companies looking to return a compliant tender. Sometimes it can put you off completely.

But returning a strong construction tender isn’t impossible if you know how to do it. The team at Hudson have prepared the list below to help you guide your tender.

The tips below assume some level of tendering ability, for example, this list assumes your tender will be compliant. Find more guidance on compliant tenders.

If you require help you can contact our PPQ Tender Writing team.

1) Know your strengths and weaknesses

It’s an easy place to start, right?

You are the experts at knowing your business strengths and weaknesses. You know what you can deliver well and what you would need support to deliver. When you begin to tender for construction bids, you need to go into it without rose-tinted glasses.

Be brutally honest about what you can clearly demonstrate you’re the experts at and tailor your tendering to these areas.

2) Research your clients

Clients appreciate it when tenderers include details above and beyond the tender documents they created. By taking the time to research your client you can learn their strategic plans for the future and what’s important to them.

You can then use this understanding to tailor your tender approach. Show the Client how the construction services or product you offer will support both project delivery and achieving wider goals.

3) Use your expert staff

Not only are your operational staff good at construction, but they’re also subject matter experts in their respective fields.

Use this expertise in construction to create the tender. Engage with the team you will allocate to complete the works and get them to help develop the methodologies you will have to write about.

If you work with your staff as soon as the tender lands and plan your response, you’ll immediately start creating a strong response. Often, they can identify improvements to the proposed construction!

Your humble blog writer has had first-hand experience of this. The Operations Manager took one look at the client’s designs and immediately gave alternative methods to achieve the same result with fewer materials and cost.

Encourage this behaviour and use the team’s construction knowledge to provide strong tender arguments.

4) Be specific

The specification you will receive as part of the construction tender documentation will tell you in great detail the requirement for the project. Your tender response needs to be as detailed.

Construction Clients want to know how exactly how you are going to deliver the works. Give as much detail as you can within the set word or page limits.

Where you have given a method or proposed action, back this up with examples of previous successes or proof of concept.

5) Invest in the tender process

No matter the size of your construction company, tendering for construction opportunities is important. To see the best results you need to invest time and resource in your tender process.

Make the time to get your experts around the table, on a budget for resources to gather this information for you. Invest in bid writers dedicated to writing the strongest possible tenders for you.

This part is important: If you don’t invest in your tender process you won’t see the results, you’re targeting…

6) Have strong examples

This links to your investment in the tendering process but is worth noting in its own right. Take the time to create a pool of good examples of your previous delivery:

Projects completed
Good References from your clients
CCS reports
National awards and nominations
Before / During / After photos
Fully completed Risk Assessments, Method Statements,
Training examples, Toolbox Talks
Site Audits and reports completed.

Having a detailed pool of previous examples of your completed work will make your tenders stronger.

7) Get Feedback

Get feedback from everyone, for everything. For all the works completed as part of your day to day project delivery – get a statement of satisfaction from the client. This might be part of your established methods of working to prove satisfactory completion of work – use it as examples for tenders. At the end of the project, request a feedback session with the Client to capture your successes (and constructive criticism!)

For every construction tender, request feedback at the end of the processes. Even for the tenders you win! Clients are happy to provide this upon request and will usually be specific about how they scored your tender.

Use this to learn and develop your tendering approach. You will quickly find that different clients like different things in tenders (even across the public sector when they have the same scoring approach!)

8) Involve your Supply Chain

Every time you propose to deliver construction works with subcontractors, involve them in the tender process. If you’re subcontracting works you already realise that your subcontractors have skills and expertise you can’t offer.

Use that skill and knowledge as part of the tender process – No one says you have to do it on your own!

9) Make time to tender

Each construction tender opportunity has a minimum tendering window to allow you to create a strong response. There are two key points to take home here:

Find tender opportunities as early as possible. This gives you the most time possible to plan and deliver a strong response.
Dedicate the time you need to create a strong tender. Tenders are not quickly written (especially construction tenders). They require detailed planning and adequate time to create a strong response. By giving yourself (or your team) the time it takes to produce the best quality response you can, you give yourself the best chance of success.

10) Design your response

Sometimes construction clients require you to fill in template responses, meaning you are limited in how you have to return your tender documents. Sometimes you are given free rein to create a tender response document. When this happens – take full advantage!

It is your chance to make a strong impression. Bear in mind that the panel assessing all the tender responses are going to review multiple documents together. By creating a well-designed tender response you will draw the client’s attention above other boring documents.

Creating a construction tender is your chance to show off your company to potential clients. Take the opportunity and use it to show off how good your company is. No one else will tell the buyers how good you are!

Just remember these tips for how to show off well:

Provide evidence for every statement you make.
Clearly lay out your argument for the client to read.
Choose your arguments carefully, matching them to the required answers.

11) Don’t be afraid to ask for help

You’re not expected to be an expert at tendering. You’re an expert in Construction. Hudson, however, are experts at tendering.

We’re here to help you succeed at construction tendering – so you can focus on being experts in construction.

By contacting our team, we can take the stress out of tendering for construction opportunities. We can guide your introduction to the world of construction tenders. So if you’re looking for help, don’t be afraid to ask! Get in touch with our team of tendering experts today.

12) Build up your tendering abilities

The more you go through a tendering process, the better your tendering abilities will become. You can achieve this by:

Creating a databank of template responses to use as a guide each time you receive a similar question. E.g. Health and Safety.

Note: each construction tender will need a bespoke response – No copying and pasting!

Establish a process for guiding your response creation. E.g. have a plan for how you will respond to each construction tender.
Create and maintain a stock of examples of your work to support your tenders.
Use the right people to lead the tender process. By having the right people driving your tendering, you will find the process runs smoothly.

If you’re not in a position to create a team of writers and bid managers, why not use ours?

Conclusion

In summary, the most important thing to do when you tender for a construction opportunity is to prepare as far beforehand as you can. If you don’t take plenty of time to understand your bids and tenders and plan your response then you might find that all the stress is for nothing!

Give yourself plenty of time, read everything carefully and approach the work methodically. If you do this, you’ll have a strong chance of tendering successfully without too much stress!

For more information on how to tender for construction opportunities, or to improve your existing tendering efforts, contact a bid consultant today. Also, check out the UK’s first free-to-access virtual learning environment, Tender VLE, for more guidance on organising your tender documents.

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