Looking for free tender writing tips? Have you ever wanted to sit down with a bid writing professional and see what it takes to win? Well, at Hudson Succeed, our experts are more than happy to offer support. In this blog, we will cover seven of the most important tender writing tips. Keep reading to see how you can increase your chances of success!

1.    Use writing and communication to your advantage

Here’s our first tip: make sure you have a great grasp on writing and communication skills. You can use these to your advantage when writing a tender. As you may have guessed, writing skills are important for writing tenders. This isn’t just about spelling and grammar, although these are incredibly important. Writing a good tender means using writing skills to communicate with the buyer. You should clearly express your skills, experience, concepts, and more, in the best way. Your tone should be persuasive. Afterall, you are trying to convince them that you are the best option for the contract.

Essentially, you want to use writing and communication to make yourself memorable. That doesn’t mean you should go to any extremes, as you should remain professional. But executing these abilities and showcasing them in the best light will give you an edge over competitors.

2.    Don’t use technical jargon

Following on from our first point, next on our list of tender writing tips is to not use technical jargon. Since your bid should be clear and easy to read, adding technical jargon will work against this. There is a very high chance the buyer has little to no knowledge of your industry. So, using words they won’t understand will instantly make it a chore to read your bid. They’ll be confused and may have to research what something means (if they have the time, which is unlikely).

Ultimately, if your bid becomes difficult to read, you’ll leave the buyer with a bad impression. In turn, they will likely avoid awarding you the contract as they won’t fully understand your tender.

3.    Proofread your work before submission

Even the best writers will make mistakes in their first draft, no matter how small they are. Our next tender writing tip is the importance of proofreading and editing your bid proposal. You should never submit a first draft when tendering! There’s almost certainly going to be mistakes, even minor ones you might not notice at first. The issue is that the buyer likely will notice them, as it is their first time reading the document. Plus, they are reviewing it thoroughly.

Our Bid Writing Consultants suggest that you thoroughly proofread your bid several times. It can be beneficial to take breaks and then read it, as you are more likely to notice errors. You should also read it aloud, or have your device read it aloud to you. This makes it easier to notice anything that doesn’t sound quite right. If you have the team members, you could ask other people to read it too. The more it is proofed, the higher the quality. If you submit a bid full of errors and mistakes, the buyer won’t take you seriously. They will get the impression that you are lazy and unprofessional. So, they certainly won’t want to award you the contract.

4.    Read all the documents before you start

One of our most important tender writing tips is to read all the buyer’s tender documents before you start. This way, you can prepare your bid and make sure you cover all the important details. The last thing you want is to complete an excellent bid, only to find you missed an important part. This will result in your bid being a complete waste of time and effort.

5.    Use bid management skills to stay on track

One of the best ways of staying organised is through bid management. Here are a few things to consider for effective bid management:

• How long will each individual question take?
• Do you need to create case studies for responses?
• What do you need to attach for each question?
• Where is the response to be submitted and with what deadlines?
• How is the work to be submitted? Some buyers require physical submissions as well as online.
• What format do they require your responses in?
• Who will be responsible for developing responses?

The more prepared you are, the less likely you are to have made mistakes. If mistakes happen, you’ll also be prepared to deal with them efficiently and effectively. This ensures time isn’t wasted and the bid is submitted on time and of the highest standard.

6.    Ensure you use relevant case studies

Next on our list of tender writing tips is the importance of case studies. These should be showcased in your bid proposal as it is evidence of your skills and experience. The buyer wants to feel assured they can trust you with their contract. So, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to put their faith in your abilities.

It is also important that your case studies are relevant to the bid you are going for. Irrelevant case studies do more harm than good. This is because it shows you don’t have relevant experience, firstly. Then, it shows you haven’t bothered to check whether it’s relevant.

It is an added bonus to be able to include testimonials for the case studies you showcase. We wrote a blog for more tender writing tips for case studies.

7.    Be compliant with the instructions

For the last of our tender writing tips, we will discuss the importance of compliance. You may be surprised to know that there are those that don’t follow the buyer’s instructions. This massively impacts your chances of success. Why would the buyer award you the contract if you can’t follow instructions for the bid?

When the buyer gives a specific word count for your answer, stick to it. For example, if they want 1000 words, get as close to that as possible. If your answer is only 500 words, it shows two distinct issues. One is that you can’t follow instructions. Secondly, is that you don’t know enough about your business to answer the question fully. Both are detrimental to your chances of success.

Summary

So, now that we have come to an end on our blog of tender writing tips, let’s recap!

Here are the seven tender writing tips we explored:

1. Use writing and communication to your advantage
2. Don’t use technical jargon
3. Proofread your work before submission
4. Read all the documents before you start
5. Use bid management skills to stay on track
6. Ensure you use relevant case studies
7. Be compliant with the instructions.

Do you have questions about our tender writing tips, or something else? Feel free to contact us, as 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-minute phone consultation with a Bid Writer. Our expert bid consultants will chat with you about anything tender related.

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

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

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

What we can do for you

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

• Tender Writing

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

• Tender Mentor

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

• Tender Ready

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

• Tender Improvement

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

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

Vocal

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

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

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

• 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 Tender Writing Tips: 7 of the Best FREE Tips from Professional Bid Writers appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Are you new to writing tenders and proposals for your business? Have you never tendered for contracts before, and don’t know where to start? Luckily for you, the experts are here to help!

3 tips for writing tenders and proposals

1. Make a plan

Before you start writing a tender proposal, you need to thoroughly plan your tender response. If you start writing without a plan, then you run the risk of missing key points from the buyer’s specifications.

To ensure this doesn’t happen, you should plan each stage of the tendering process. Carefully look through the tender documents and assess what needs to be done. Take note of any key dates that you need to be aware of – especially the submission deadline! You should also plan for any unexpected delays and how you plan to overcome them.

2. Gather your evidence

When you’re tendering for work, the buyer will expect to see evidence of any previous contracts you’ve delivered. Generally, you should be able to provide two to three case studies from the past three to five years.

Remember, these should be similar in size, scope and complexity to the tender you’re bidding for. If it doesn’t demonstrate your relevant experience, there’s little point in including it in your response.

3. Become the MEAT

When you’re writing tenders and proposals for a public sector contract, you need to be the MEAT. This means that you need to be the most economically advantageous tender.

When evaluating tenders in the public sector, the buyer will be looking for more than the cheapest bid. Instead, they’ll be searching for the highest quality services for the lowest price. In other words, when you’re writing tenders and proposals, you need to offer the buyer the best value for money.

In summary  

If you’re writing tenders and proposals, there are certain things you should keep in mind. Firstly, remember to make a plan before you actually produce your tender response. That way, you can ensure you’re addressing the specifications in the tender documents and prepare for unexpected delays. Secondly, you need to provide the buyer with two to three case studies. Ideally, these will be similar in size, scope and complexity to the project you’re bidding for. Finally, remember that the buyer is looking for the most economically advantageous tender, or the MEAT. In other words, you need to offer the buyer the best value for money when writing tenders and proposals.

How Hudson Succeed can help 

Still have questions? Why not call our Bid Consultants? We’re always happy to help!

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

• Tender Writing

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

• Tender Mentor

Tender Mentor can give your tender response a once over before you submit. 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. 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.

Need help searching for tenders?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vocal

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

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

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

Our team specialise in six areas, including:

• 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 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 3 Things to Remember When Writing Tenders and Proposals appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Last updated: Jan 18, 2022 @ 3:06 pm

The Public Contract Regulations 2015 are the driving force for all UK public tendering opportunities and drive the standard practices in the world of tendering. This includes setting minimum amounts of time to allow tenderers to create their responses.

It is also widely accepted that by having sufficient time to prepare tender responses, the client can encourage a competitive marketplace and ensure every company responding is on an equal footing.

How long is sufficient?

Under the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) Guidelines, there is a set minimum of 35 days from publishing the tender to response deadline dates. Additional to this, if the client has to change the tender documentation in the middle of the tender process, they are required to give an additional 15 days for tenderers to take these changes into account.

Further to this and prior to the tender stage, a procuring entity may also publish a prior information notice (PIN) on the Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) portal. The aim of the PIN is to provide potential contractors with information in advance about future procurement.

Normally the PIN is published between 35 days to 12 months prior to the publication of the contract notice.

What this means, is that when a tender is published following a prior information notice, the time limit to submit tenders can be reduced.

It is worth remembering that OJEU rules state that ‘adequate’ time is given to allow tender responses. This is meant to create a safeguard for all parties, but it can sometimes mean that ‘adequate’ time isn’t enough – for example, if the tender is complex.

Tender Timescales

In the UK, the Public Contract Regulations (PCR) 2015 sets out the following timescales for tender responses. These depend on the procedure being used.

Open Procedure:

Normally 35 calendar days, however, this can be reduced to 30 days if tender responses are submitted electronically.

However, if a Prior Information Notice (PIN) has been published, the tender window can be reduced to 15 calendar days.

Accelerated Open Procedure:

15 calendar days. This may seem like a short timescale; however, the client must notify all interested parties for the reason of this when publishing the tender documents.

Restricted Procedures, including Competitive Procedures with Negotiation

These are split into two stages. At Stage 1 there is a timescale of 30 days for a PQQ stage (find out more about PQQs) or the buyer can substitute this stage for a PIN as previously described.

Stage 2 is normally 30 days. This can be reduced to 25 if the tender is submitted electronically, or 10 days if a PIN has been published previously.

Accelerated Restricted Procedure

This procedure has the following timescales:

Stage 1 has a timescale of 15 days. Again the client must notify all interested parties the reason for this within the tender documentation. Stage 2 has a timescale of 10 days.

Innovation Partnership

Under the PCR2015, this procurement is available to use when “an innovative product, service or works that cannot be met by (those) … already available on the market”. This is a two-stage process with the following timescales.

Stage 1 requires 30 days. Stage 2 can be 30 days or 25 days for electronic submissions. Alternatively, tender responses can be submitted in 10 days if a PIN was issued instead of a full Stage 1.

For Innovation Partnership procurement, clients can agree individual timescales with the buyers to as little as 10 days.

Accelerated Innovation Partnership

As above, this procedure has the following timescales:

Stage 1 has a timescale of 15 days. Again the client must notify all interested parties the reason for this within the tender documentation. Stage 2 has a timescale of 10 days.

Competitive Dialogue

At stage 1, a timescale of 30 calendar days is set. For subsequent stages, there are no explicit rules. However, the client must be transparent and fair to all parties.

Win / Win

Providing plenty of time to allow companies to tender brings benefits to all.

It gives companies of all sizes sufficient time to respond, and that makes the contract open to as many tendering businesses as possible. It also ensures the client can get the best deal possible, and that makes good business sense.

Not all Buyers are the same… 

Recent research across the UK has shown how there is not just one set timescale the government uses for its public procurement. Each department sets their own deadline dates and in 2018 these range from the shortest being 18 days (by the Department for Transport) up to 33 days (by the Ministry of Defence).

Recent History 

The results of recent research into UK central government response times led to the following findings:

• On average in 2018, central government clients gave only 26 calendar days (that’s 15 working days) to complete a response. That’s a full nine-days short of the 35 day EU Guidelines.
• In fact, central government haven’t met the EU threshold in any quarter dating back to 2015.
• Since 2015 there is a trend of central government decreasing the time available for bidders to submit tender responses. In 2016 the average was 28 days. The average of 26 days for 2018 breaks down into a 7% decrease between 2016 and 2018.

Openness 

Whilst the Government seems to be on a worrying trend, shortening tender response times available for bids; there are other considerations to remember

UK Central Government procurement is one of the most transparent processes available compared to other client groups both across Great Britain and internationally.  This means that tendering will be easier to complete, with simple routes for clarifying any ambiguities, clear buyer requirements and supported tendering processes. 

So what can you do?

Do not fear these shortened timescales, you can still create a strong tender response in 26 days. There are several things you can do to make sure you submit your bid on time. Check out our Hudson blog on doing just that! How to Ensure you Submit on Time.

The team at Hudson have several ways we can manage the tender response timescale. We can work with you to break the opportunity down and make sure you fully understand the tender requirements. We will shred the specification and create a detailed bid plan to guide the creation of the tender response and we have a range of services to support your tender response submission.

Before you begin your tender response, you should consider the following:

• How long have you been trading for?

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

• The minimum economic financial standing

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

• Annual turnover
• Financial ratios
• Insurance[s]

• Do you have the necessary experience?

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

• Can you fulfil the contract?

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

Top tips to help you with your tender response

Writing a high-quality tender response is crucial. As mentioned above, even if the weighting on quality is less than cost, buyers care about the quality. You want to be persuasive when bidding for a contract. You want to convince the buyer that you are the best business for the job. You should consider:

• Format

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

• Assumptions

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

• Word count

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

Support

If you feel you need some support with Bid Management to help submit your tender on time. Or if you need more information about tender response processes or how to write winning bids, contact our Bid Writing Consultants for specialist advice.

Our Bid Writers can help you when tendering for contracts. They can give you more information about the tendering process in general.

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.

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 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.

The post Tender Response – How Long do I Have to Submit a bid? appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Last updated: May 6, 2022 @ 11:07 am

Tendering for contracts doesn’t need to be complicated.

There are many factors that lead people to assume that tendering is overly-complicated. This is usually down to the amount of time it takes to complete and how mundane the process is. Yes – there may be 5000 pages of specification, but who doesn’t enjoy a bit of light reading?

The three qualities you must possess when tendering are PERSISTENCE, PLANNING & POSITIVITY!

Let’s get past the moaning and downtrodden attitude and share our tips for success to ease the tendering process.

Is your business ready?

It is important that you regularly review the positioning of your business and associated strategies. This will help you figure out whether tendering for work is the right approach for you. Once you have identified your strengths and weaknesses, you can then decide whether it is better to be patient rather than waste valuable resources.

Finding the right tenders

There are thousands of online platforms, websites and communication systems that are evident across UK procurement. Some portals are outdated, complex and an all-around pain to navigate. Our team have used them all! Just make sure you know your key focus areas and process-knowledge for each website – these are working your way around:

• Downloading all tender information
• Asking/monitoring clarification questions from other suppliers/the buyer
• Submitting the tender.

Every website should have a ‘help’ section – don’t be afraid to use it.

Most tendering portals are extremely broad with hundreds upon hundreds of opportunities released daily!

Typically, opportunities are shared through problematic electronic algorithms across multiple platforms, either showing you irrelevant opportunities or no opportunities at all.

Our Hudson Discover portals keep it simple. Sign up to our industry-specific portals to receive tendering opportunities, sourced from the thousands of UK tender portals. These are manually searched and published on a daily basis by a team of procurement-based staff, not computers. We are the first company to do this and the feedback we have received has been fantastic.

Ensure you are being consistently realistic and don’t try to be overly ambitious. Tender proposals are very time consuming and can be costly. Look carefully at the tender requirements and specifications and make sure it is appropriate for you to undertake the contract.

Take the time to learn the terminology

The number of abbreviations flying around is becoming increasingly common in the procurement world. Terms like RFQs, ITTs, PQQs, DPS, and RFPs seems like they are only used to confuse us into a state of literary decline. Let’s simplify:

PQQ

Pre-qualification questionnaire – This is usually a stage-one questionnaire asking about specific company details like insurance and similar contracts you’ve worked on. Along with simple ‘yes and no’ questions making sure you’re not fraudulent and you pay your taxes, etc.

ITT

Invitation to tender – We can sometimes forget about the PQQ and jump straight into an ITT, which is usually where your quality and costing ratio comes in. This is where you price the job at hand and answer several technical questions about your ability to undergo the work in accordance with the detailed specification/scope of work.

RFP

Request for proposal – Very similar to an ITT, where cost and quality are assessed, however, RFPs are used in situations where the client either can’t – or don’t want to – define the scope of work up front. This means you need to be very descriptive and state a clear proposal to what’s needed.

RFQ

Request for quotation – The RFQ is a lot like the tender, however, typically smaller in size and scope. They’re often more geared towards clients who are seeking pricing information for a defined scope of work or supply of materials or equipment. Detailed proposals aren’t typically required here.

Framework

A framework agreement is an agreement between one or more businesses or organisations. If you enter into a framework agreement, usually you will be one of many suppliers contractually bound to deliver against buyer requirements.

DPS

Dynamic Purchasing System – A DPS is similar to an electronic framework agreement, with two exceptions. New suppliers can join at any time and can be run as a completely electronic process. DPS’ are used exclusively by public sector organisations and can be considered as a ‘competitive supply chain’, where all chosen supply chain members regularly compete for work via ITTs and RFQs.

Focus on what the buyer wants

Not everyone can write in an engaging, concise and straightforward manner. It’s easy to tell people what you do, but to put that on paper in a professional way, covering set criteria, is a major hassle for a lot of business developers. Don’t get stressed about it. Just remember three key focus areas when writing bids:

WHAT

What you have done or what you are going to do?

HOW

How you have done this (methodology) or how you are going to do it?

EVIDENCE

Hard-hitting proof that you have done it before – experience/evidence is key!

When tendering for contracts, the buyer must always be at the forefront of your mind. You need to know as much as you possibly can about the organisation and understand their objectives, mission and values. Create a section on this to show them that you are aware of their future developments and how you can contribute to them. You need to specifically demonstrate that you understand the requirements of the work and show case studies of similar work you have previously completed. Preparation of the tender response in line with the evaluation criteria is crucial. Concentrate on areas with the highest percentage weighting.

We offer bid writing services, using our procurement and tender experts with 60 years of experience in writing winning tenders.

Our team supports over 700 businesses globally and they proudly hold an 87% bid success rate. We offer five dedicated services to ensure that we can support businesses of all sizes, with varying levels of procurement experience.

Our bid writing services include:

• Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme was designed for businesses who are new to tendering for contracts. During the programme, our Bid Consultants will create and develop your corporate literature as well as professionally branding the documents. Once the programme is complete, you’ll have access to three days’ worth of bid consultancy.

• Tender Writing

Do you need support with a one-off bid? As part of our Tender Writing service, our Bid Consultants will not only write your tender responses, but submit the bid on your behalf. This is the perfect solution for businesses who need to tender for work but don’t have the resources in-house.

• Tender Mentor

Before submitting any bid, we highly recommend having a second pair of eyes to review your content. During our Tender Mentor service, our Bid Consultants will assess your tender responses. They will check for any grammar or content mistakes that could result in lost marks. This means that you can submit an error-free bid with confidence.

• Tender Improvement

Are you tendering for contracts but not seeing the desired success? We understand that this is frustrating because writing bid responses can be time-consuming. With Tender Improvement, we will assess your previous responses and highlight areas for improvement. Our Bid Consultants will then provide you with three days’ worth of bid consultancy.

Pricing

For time-based contracts, suppliers are usually asked to provide a proposed daily rate for the individuals involved in the project. When estimating the timescales, ensure you include the likes of time incurred on professional work as specified in the contract, meetings, time spent travelling, etc. Be careful and guarantee you achieve full cost recovery with a balance of value for money.

Check your work thoroughly

Be careful to always check and follow the submission guideline to ensure you have completed everything that has been asked for within the instructions. Always ask someone to proofread your document to be confident it flows and makes sense to someone who may not know your organisation.

Use your feedback

What is the point of spending all this time on a bid for it to lose and you to go back to hating the process? Don’t fret – use the feedback! If you didn’t win the work because you lack ISO accreditations (for example)– you know what to do! As part of our provision at Tender Consultants, we have a Tender Ready programme that you can use to make sure you maintain a good chance of securing key pieces of work.

All procurement-based processes that most people find difficult/complicated are because they don’t understand key tender-management processes. We launched our virtual training environment, Tender VLE, in May 2018. The platform focuses on everything tender and procurement based, including profound topics that will completely eradicate the notion that tendering and procurement is complicated.

Stay up to date by reading your tender notifications

Tender notifications: What are they?

This might seem like an obvious question, but it never hurts to establish the basics, especially when it comes to tendering! Most tendering procedures (especially in the public sector) these days are carried out through ePortals including:

• ProContract
• Intend
• Multiquote.

These are places where you will register your interest in opportunities, download documents and submit your tenders.

Tender notifications are, essentially, messages you will receive from a portal to say that something has occurred. This might be anything from a clarification being released by the buyer to notification that you have received a direct message.

How many tender notifications is normal?

If you have ever used a tendering portal, you will know just how many tender notifications can come through for just a single tender.

Some portals are more ‘enthusiastic’ than others. For instance, you are more likely to get multiple notifications from Multiquote than ProContract. However, you’ll get tender notifications to one degree or another, whichever portal you are using.

The number of notifications you receive per tender can vary depending on such things as:

• The portal
• The buyer (some buyers will frequently update the available documents, for instance, whereas others will hardly make a peep)
• The number of clarification questions raised by suppliers.

The real answer to the question ‘how many tender notifications is normal?’ is ‘how long is a piece of string?’. It really is entirely unique to each tender. Don’t panic if your last tender came with a whole slew of tender notifications, but your current one has hardly sent you any at all.

What’s so important about a tender notification?

So, we’ve established that every tender is different and, consequently, the number of tender notifications received will always vary. However, the number of notifications has no impact on discerning whether each one is important or not.

It is tempting (especially if you are receiving a daily tender notification) to dismiss them as unimportant and unnecessary. However, you should resist that approach.

The number of notifications for a tender (especially if they relate to clarifications) can be a good indication of how well put together the tender is. For example, if there have been 90 clarifications raised from suppliers, this shows that the requirements or actions for the tender haven’t been put together all that well.

In amongst all of the notifications, there might be a really important one, like ‘updated TUPE information’. This would be a terrible one to miss as your pricing would not be accurate without the correct TUPE data.

Regular emails announcing yet another tender notification might feel akin to receiving spam. However, it is much better to take a few minutes to check each one out than it is to miss an important tender update.

Okay, we get it – tender notifications are important. What shall we do about them?

It is really very simple. Most portals will send an email to the email address registered on the portal account every time the buyer wants to send you a tender notification.

If you don’t have a dedicated Bid Writer and multiple people within the company are working on your tenders, it would be highly advisable to create a single email address (i.e. tenders@yourcompany.co.uk). Give all concerned parties access to register on all portals.

This will mean that no tender notifications are at risk of being missed.

It is worth noting that not all portals will send you an email if there is a tender notification to view. If you have a live tender on a portal (either to be submitted or recently submitted) and haven’t received any emails from the portal, it would be worth logging in and checking the portal daily, just to be safe.

Once you have established that, yes, you have got a tender notification, then it is really just a case of thoroughly checking them out. Don’t send that email straight to trash. Follow the link and see what it has to tell you.

Most commonly, tender notifications refer to the following things:

• Changes to the tender documents, or additional supporting documents that have been uploaded
• The release of a clarification log, which is where the buyer has answered a set of supplier questions
• A change to the submission deadline (you really do not want to miss that one!)
• A request for you to clarify something about your tender submission
• A shortlist or result notice (also very important, and not checking this notification out could result in you missing out on a contract you were the first choice for).

As you can see, none of these tender notifications are things that you would want to miss!

How to find current tendering opportunities

A quick Q&A with our Hudson Discover Team…

The team here at Hudson have published many insightful blogs from our Tender Consultants with tips on how to successfully bid for works. But we haven’t shed light on our wonderful Hudson Discover Team.

Our team of experts often work behind the scenes to manage current tender opportunities for our client base, working tirelessly to ensure all tenders are easily accessible.

Additionally, the team provide support as the point of contact for our clients who are looking to complete a current tender opportunity.

Q: So, who are the Discover Team?

The Hudson Discover Team support Hudson’s clients. They help our clients use our Discover portals and access current tender opportunities.

The team is made up of:

1. Marie Fisher – Head of Client Relations
2. Rebecca Morland – Business Development Executive
3. Jamie Peacock – Head of UK Sales
4. Joshua Smith – Client Engagement Manager
5. Melanie Robertson – Discover Administrator
6. Charlotte Jarvis – Digital Communications Manager.

Q: What does the team do?

The Hudson Discover Team are the point of contact for many of our clients looking to source current tender opportunities.

After initial contact is made with Hudson, the team will introduce the clients to our range of Hudson Discover portals. They ensure our clients can access the portal most relevant to their business and demonstrate how to navigate the site to find current tenders.

Charlotte Jarvis is our digital marketing expert, heading up our Marketing Team. She and the team additionally manage the online chat functions for our clients and visitors to the Discover sites. Charlotte also works to find private tendering opportunities for our clients by connecting with buyers in the private sector via digital campaigns.

Marie is responsible for maintaining ongoing relationships with our client base and ensuring they are kept up to date with current tender opportunities. This is achieved through regular contact with emails, newsletters and direct contact.

Q: What are the portals?

Hudson Discover is a unique suite of 11 tendering portals, which show all current tender opportunities for our clients. These are split across a range of industries:

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

Q: How can clients use the portals?

When new customers engage with the Hudson Discover Team, they are given a demonstration of their most relevant tender portal. The team is on hand to answer any questions they may have.

Once they have access to the tender portals and have seen the current tenders, Rebecca and Marie are on hand to discuss how Hudson can best suit their needs.

We are happy to provide complimentary access to the most suitable portal for you for one whole day. This gives you the opportunity to get to grips with the portal and begin searching for suitable tenders in real-time from the list of current opportunities.

Remember that our Hudson Discover Team are always on hand to provide support. As well as hints and tips to help you with your bid management.

Q: How do I see current tenders?

Once in the tender portal specific to your business needs, you can search for current tender opportunities which meet your requirements. This is achieved by using the built-in search function.

For example, if you’re an IT company looking for current tender opportunities, you can search for any keywords specific to your business model, such as ‘software’. This will bring up all current tender opportunities matching that keyword.

If you feel there are too many keywords to search across, the portal also allows you to search by:

• Region
• Sectors
• Budgets.

Or, of course, any combination of the above.

Q: How can I get help? 

If you’re unsure about accessing current tender opportunities or tendering as a whole, the team at Hudson can help.

You can get in touch with our Hudson Discover Team through many different methods:

• Check out our page for an introduction to each of our tender portals. This will help you identify which portal is most suitable for your needs.
• When you’re on our website, you can use our live chat function to talk directly with the Hudson Discover Team. Here you can ask any questions on how to access current tender opportunities.
• If you’re more of a talkative type than a writer, that’s OK too! You can call our team for a chat on 0203 051 2217. We’re always happy to talk through your requirements.
• Alternatively, you can email the team. Just send any questions you might have about current tenders to hi@tenderconsultants.co.uk.

Q: What can Hudson Discover do for me?

To put it simply, Hudson Discover is the easiest way to find current tender opportunities which meet your business requirements. Our industry-specific portals are user-friendly, allowing you to quickly search for the right tender opportunity for your current requirements.

Hudson’s Discover Team also maintain all our portals daily, updating each industry-specific portal with new tender opportunities every day. This means our customers have access to a constantly updating set of current tenders to choose from.

How to maximise your tender portal membership with our Account Managers

Wham, bam, thanks for your money – goodbye! Does this sound familiar? After signing up to some online portals, it is easy to feel forgotten about and quickly become disgruntled with the whole tendering debacle.

We know that tendering can be complicated and that not everyone is a bid management expert. That is why when you sign-up to one of our tender opportunity tracking platforms, you will be assigned a dedicated Account Manager.

This is where you can really maximise your membership!

As part of your subscription, your Account Manager will ensure that you receive filtered daily bulletins, specific to your sector – as well as access to the online, member’s portal.

Your tender portal Account Manager

Your Account Manager is directly contactable, five days a week, to deal with any queries you might have. This service is not only limited to tender portal tips, but our Account Management Team can also assist you if you are needing to advertise a tender opportunity as a buyer.

For example, if you have work that needs to be put out to tender, but you don’t have a portal to take the submissions and host the clarification questions, etc, this can all be done via our portal, with access to industry-specific suppliers. Simply contact one of our Account Managers and you’re on your way!

If it is the actual tendering process itself that is proving to be problematic, we can help with that too! For examplee, if you’re bidding but not winning, or maybe you’re new to tendering and don’t know where to begin. Our dedicated Account Managers will be able to refer you directly with one of our Bid Writing Consultants, who are experts in all tender-related projects.

Your Account Manager is part of your subscription, so make sure that you utilise this service to the full potential!

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 five 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.

Further support

If you require any further support with tendering for contracts, please call or email our expert team. Our expert Bid Writers will be happy to support you at any stage of your tendering journey.

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.

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