Tender Training Programmes and Masterclasses | Tender Consultants

How to Become a Tender Expert

John Hudson — Wed, 10 May 2023 08:00:46 +0000

How to Become a Tender Expert

Becoming a tender expert is a surefire way to win contracts! However, it takes time and resources to develop this skill. Whether you want to outsource your tender writing needs to our experts or become an expert yourself, we can help you.

In this blog, we will cover what a tender expert is, the skills required, their benefits, how to become one and how to find them.

What is a Tender Expert?

A tender expert is a professional tender writer with vast experience and knowledge in the tendering process. All tender writers will have varying levels of experience; however, the most effective and successful tender writers will have experience spanning many sectors.

Tender Expert Skills

Becoming a tender expert means you must have a particular skill set than just strong written communication skills (though that is important!):

Adaptability: The tendering process is always unpredictable. No tender is the same, meaning the same planning process will not apply, nor will the content of your work. Also, there are bound to be hurdles during the writing process, so being able to adapt to any challenges that may come your way is vital.
Teamwork: Tender responses are rarely written by one writer alone. They are very collaborative, which means that you must be able to provide the best work you can individually, and deliver as a team — providing a seamless, unified response.
Understanding Client Needs: This is the most crucial aspect of the tendering process as without knowing what your client wants from their tender response, you won’t be showing their business in the best possible light. Open communication between the tender expert and the client is vital for keeping up-to-date with client requirements.
Time Management: It goes without saying that you must meet all internal and external deadlines. If you are new to tendering, you may just want to dive right into the tender writing and forget to plan. However, this is a vital part of the process which involves everything from client meetings, research, developing a timeline and planning your responses. Manage your time accordingly so you give yourself ample time to plan!
Compliance: Every tender expert needs a strong understanding of government procurement processes, industry regulations and the ability to meet requirements as stated in the tender specification in order to produce a fully compliant tender. Failure to comply with the specification can get your tender disqualified and failure to comply with laws and regulations can lead to fines and criminal prosecution.

Benefits of Hiring a Tender Expert

Save Time: Hiring a tender expert can save you time and hassle when preparing a tender response. They can take care of all the research and paperwork involved in the process, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business.
Maximise Your Chances of Winning: A tender expert will have experience and knowledge of what makes a successful tender and how to present your business in the best light. They can also help you to create a winning tender that stands out from the competition.
Improve Your Quality and Professionalism: Tender experts have the skills and knowledge to craft high-quality, professional, and persuasive tender documents. This can help to give you an edge over your competitors and increase your chances of winning the contract.
Provide Insights into Winning Strategies: Tender experts have a wealth of experience in writing and submitting tenders. They can provide you with insights into winning strategies and provide advice on how to improve your chances of success.
Meet Deadlines: Tender experts understand the importance of meeting deadlines. They can help you to stay on track and ensure that your tender is submitted on time and according to the requirements of the tender.

How to Become a Tender Expert!

Now you know what a tender expert is and the skills you need to become one, let’s take a look at how we can help you become an expert yourself!

Our online virtual learning environment Tender VLE houses our first of many tender training courses. Take our FREE introductory tender course on June 1^st, 2023.

Where to Find Tender Experts!

At Hudson, there is no shortage of tender experts! All of our tender writers are experts and write for a variety of sectors. If you need assistance with your tender, whether it involves writing, reviewing, submission, improvement, or a full end-to-end service, we can help!

Check out our services 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 How to Become a Tender Expert appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Tender Writing Tips: 7 of the Best FREE Tips from Professional Bid Writers

John Hudson — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 06:00:48 +0000

Here’s 7 tender writing tips from professional Bid Writers!

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:

Use writing and communication to your advantage
Don’t use technical jargon
Proofread your work before submission
Read all the documents before you start
Use bid management skills to stay on track
Ensure you use relevant case studies
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:

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

How Can Bid Training Benefit Your Business?

Kathryn Wright — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 16:23:05 +0000

Are you wondering how bid training can help your business? Here’s how!

You may be wondering what benefits you can get from bid training. As a business owner, you may have heard of or have experience in tendering for work. The tendering process can be hard work and extremely time-consuming. However, the rewards can outweigh the difficulties faced beforehand. Hudson Succeed are here to tell you all about how bid training can benefit your business.

What is bid training?

For those unfamiliar, bid training is a way of educating you on how best to approach and handle a tender. Most businesses will turn to bid writing services to handle this for them. There are many reasons for this, mainly that Bid Writers produce proposals of the highest standard. They also save the business a lot of time and resources by taking the pressure off their shoulders.

If you would prefer to write your own bids though, you may worry you do not have the skills. Completing a winning tender can be difficult, so bid training is essential for helping you get there.

How can bid training benefit your business?

Many people may look to complete tender writing training if they are bidding but not seeing success. Improving and developing skills is always a great thing. Especially if you’re doing it to help grow your business.

By completing bid training, you’re doing just that. You’ll gain an insight into how to approach bids through bid management. You’ll also learn the importance of writing and communication skills. Plus, you will learn how to anticipate how the buyer will evaluate your bid. There is a lot of work that goes into writing a winning bid. Bid training can help you get to the winning standard. Once you know how to write a bid to a high standard, you’ll likely start seeing the results you desire.

Essential bid training: Tender VLE

For bid training from experts with an 87% success rate and over 60 years of experience, look to Tender VLE. Our Tender Writing Consultants will take you through ‘what is a tender’ to how to win them. We have tender training courses suitable for beginners and all levels above.

Summary

So, in summary, bid training is a way of preparing yourself to complete future bids for your business. There are so many advantages of tendering for work, so bid training can help you secure those opportunities.

By completing bid training, you’ll be prepared to write winning bids by learning the following:

Bid management
Importance of writing and communication skills
Understanding the evaluation process.

For accredited bid training brought to you by expert consultants, you can turn to Tender VLE. Our training starts with the basics right up to expert level skills.

Still have questions about bid training? Why not call our Bid Management Consultants? We are always happy to help!

Need help searching for tenders?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now you know how to accurately perform a tender search, you may be wondering how to write a bid. Well, luckily for you, we 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 – we can help. There are four bid writing packages available:

Tender Writing

Tender Mentor

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

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

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

Vocal

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

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

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

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

The post How Can Bid Training Benefit Your Business? appeared first on Tender Consultants.

The Getting Ready Series Part IV: Considering a Critical Friend

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

Have you considered enlisting a critical friend?

[Last modified: July 2021]

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

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

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

How do you know if you need a critical friend?

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

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

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

Common mistakes when you don’t ask for help

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

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

Inconsistencies

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

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

Spelling and grammatical errors

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

500 words of waffle

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

How can a critical friend help you win bids?

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

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

Acting as the buyer

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

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

Advising if this is the right bid for you

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

Your eligibility

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

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

Demonstrable experience

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

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

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

Your capabilities

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

Contract title: Home care support packages

Budget: £500,000

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

Deadline: 01-02-2021

Initial considerations you should make:

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

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

Tender Mentor

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

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

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

More bid writing support

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Guide to Tender Training Courses

Katherine Kane — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 08:00:04 +0000

Tender training courses can offer lots of guidance, hints, tips and tricks. How do you choose which course is right for you?

Last updated: Feb 20, 2023 @ 12:19 pm

For anyone seeking to learn about the tendering process, the resources available online might seem overwhelming. There is a huge variety of free, useful information which you can draw from. So where do you even start, without feeling overwhelmed?

Let’s start from the basics – what do you want to learn?

Many training courses unrelated to tendering cover the core essential skills crucial to tendering for contracts. That is not to say that tendering is simple. However, if you develop the following core skills below, your overall tendering efforts can be more effective.

1. Excellent time management.

This is an absolutely crucial skill for writing winning bids. The tendering process is always filled with deadlines, which are using held tight and don’t alter. This means you must be able to keep track of your time and dedicate the right amount of time to certain sections of a bid/tender.

Relevant course topics here can include:

Effective time management
Project management
Strategic thinking
Decision making in the workplace
Prioritisation and planning

2. Effective communication skills.

You must be able to communicate well with a range of stakeholders on any given project. Effective communication also involves different approaches to communication, depending on the situation. This also connects to time management.

Relevant course topics here can include:

Business communication
Conflict management
Interpersonal communication
Non-verbal communication
Presentation skills

3. A good eye for detail.

The success of a tender can hang in the balance of ensuring you have read all the relevant information. Ensuring that you have covered essential information will also help you to tailor your bid responses. Effective research skills will enable you to be selective. Effectively choosing relevant information and discarding irrelevant information will ultimately support your bid.

Relevant course topics here can include:

Positive mindsets
Attitudes to business
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) modules, specific to your organisation

Writing skills.

You must be able to write for a range of audiences, in a range of styles. No two bids are the same – so you must adapt your writing approach. Writing skills link to time management, communication and attention to detail skillsets. Writing creative tenders can offer more space for enthusiasm and flair. On the other hand, technical tenders need to be to-the-point. You must be able to produce high-quality copy which is free of grammar and punctuation errors. All writing must read well and be engaging.

Relevant course topics here can include:

Business writing
Writing for SEO and social media
Creative writing
Report writing
Grammar and punctuation

Write out what you want to improve or learn. Using a mind map, list, or diagram can help. It will allow you to visualise what skills you need to prioritise and which skills require less work. Planning your learning approach now can save you time and effort in the future.

Each bid writer has their own method and style of working. However, they must also develop these essential skills in the process. This is in addition to tender specific training.

These key skills form the backbone of tendering. They will complement any tender training courses you may find and help you immensely.

Understanding your sector is just as essential as specific tender training courses

You must fully understand your sector. This sounds obvious, but lack of knowledge in specific areas can cause trip-ups during the tendering process.

Understanding your sector includes understanding sector-specific ‘jargon’, or terminology. For example, if you are based in the construction industry, you must be familiar with terms including:

RIBA Stages of Work;
Passivhaus;
ISO 9001; ISO 45001 and ISO 14001
CHAS

Whilst you may have delivered work for years, consider if your ideal tender requires ISO 14001 accreditation. What if you don’t have this in place?

On the other, if you work in the care sector, you must be familiar with the following:

The Care Act 2014;
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS);
The Care Quality Commission; and
Care and Support Plans.

Fully understanding all associated terminology within your sector will benefit your tender writing by:

Giving you a head-start with any future requirements
Enabling you to respond swiftly with the right information
Deliver the work more effectively to the specification

Understanding your industry’s terminology inside and out is crucial. It will enable you to write about it in the best possible way.

Tailor learning to your needs

You can find lots of tender training courses online, however, these skills don’t exist in a vacuum. You must be able to apply them effectively, in context. So tailor your learning to your needs. This will greatly benefit your work, productivity and motivation.

Of course, there is always time to research your interests. However – focused, purposeful learning will make your tendering efforts more productive. Consider what motivates you to learn. Use this to your advantage, through increasing your sector-specific knowledge.

Go back to basics

Consider your writing from a buyer’s perspective. The purpose of developing the above skills is enabling you to respond appropriately and effectively to the specification.

You must respond to what they ask for – not what you wanted them to ask.

When selecting any tender training courses, consider your learning style. Use this to your advantage. Whilst bid writers use a specific type of core strengths, they may approach a task in different ways. Therefore, reflect on your learning and writing style. Do you need to modify it, or develop a new skill set? Often changing the approach to a problem can provide new inspiration and motivation.

For example, what about if you love writing, but don’t know how to structure it? Then focus on this. You can write pages and pages of content. However, if it is not relevant, is cluttered, and unfocused, this can damage your tendering efforts. Consider points which you may have overlooked previously.

Reflect on strengths and weaknesses within your skillset. Are there any issues you have been ignoring? Tackle these first – in a few months, consider how your tendering efforts have improved.

So what about specific tender training courses?

Whether you are a business who tenders or a tender writer – there is a lot to know. A useful starting point is to understand tender specific terminology. It will arise time and time again.

For example:

You need to understand the difference between a PQQ, an ITT and a DPS.
It’s important to understand how to navigate and use different tendering portals.
You need to know how to complete a Selection Questionnaire correctly.
You also need to know how to correctly provide documentary evidence to accompany your tenders.

Applying training in context

So where do you begin to learn tender specific content? One option is Tender VLE. This is Hudson’s free, online video training platform. It offers a huge range of tendering resources for beginners to tendering professionals.

Tender VLE is guided by experts in their field –

Jill Hudson, Growth Director
John Hudson, Group CEO
Daniel Hall, Head of Bid Management
Kathryn Johansen, Head of Creative

They discuss tendering in context, to help you really understand essential tendering information. We offer are incredible video tutorials suited to all learning levels. Whether you have tendered before, or are completely new to tendering, there is relevant content for you.

Our bid writers break down key tendering points. They explain exactly why and how these key points are relevant. In addition to this, we also offer useful links, tips and tricks to accompany the video. Our Tender VLE resource contains a full suite of learning videos. This will ensure that all your learning bases are covered.

Hudson Helpline

What if you only need support with a specific query, and Google can’t provide the answer? Hudson Helpline offers 20 minutes of free tendering support. Our consultants are on hand to support you with your tendering efforts. The team has multi-disciplinary experience across a range of sectors to help you in your learning journey.

Our experts have a wealth of tendering knowledge to share with you, to help you succeed in your tendering efforts. We offer services like:

Tender Ready: This service will support your organisation in becoming ready to tender. It includes case study and policy development.
Tender Mentor: This service will help you to fully master your tender responses. Our bid writing professionals will review your completed tender with a fine-tooth comb. We will ensure that the specification is fully covered. We will also support you in presenting your tender in the best possible way to the buyer.
Tender Improvement: This service will support you in maximising your bidding potential. We review your current bid resources and optimise them.

How about specific tendering training bespoke to you and your organisation?

Our dedicated consultancy team can ask you some questions and devise a training programme that is suitable for you and your team today!

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

The post A Guide to Tender Training Courses appeared first on Tender Consultants.

5 Things to Consider Before Bidding for a Contract

Daniel Hall — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 08:00:39 +0000

5 Things to Consider Before Bidding for a Contract – From Expert Tender Consultants

Last updated: Aug 30, 2022 @ 4:35 pm

Tendering can be pretty overwhelming at times, especially for new or young businesses. There are so many opportunities that it can be difficult to decipher those that are worth your time to bid for. There are a number of things our Bid Consultants consider before advising a client to bid for a contract. Here are five questions that consistently crop up across all tenders:

Do you have enough experience?

One thing our Tender Consultants look for immediately in their assessment of a client’s business when tendering is experience. This is because the majority of tenders have strict requirements concerning contracts completed in the past. For example, a tender may demand that a potential supplier has completed at least three contracts in the same field of work in the last three to five years. Our Tender Consultants would be more than happy to help you come to a decision regarding whether your business has the relevant experience to pursue a particular tender or not.

Do you meet the economic and financial threshold?

It would be completely understandable if you read this question and didn’t have any idea what it meant. So, to clarify, tenders are often accompanied by a monetary figure. These figures act as barometers to how big a business should be before they should consider bidding for a tender. Our Tender Consultants employ a general rule of thumb in this instance: if the contract is worth more than half of your annual turnover as an SME, you are highly unlikely to win it.

Learn more about financial thresholds.

Do you have the time/resources to produce a high-quality submission?

Here at Hudson, our Tender Consultants work with copious amounts of business owners. Therefore, we are fully aware of just how busy they are. You may be attracted by a tender and, after answering the first two questions in this list positively, may decide to bid for it. However, what you must consider next is if you have the time available to write a submission of a sufficient standard to stand a chance of winning the bid.

Many SMEs do not have the expertise necessary to write such a submission. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was someone who could write it for you? Well, it just so happens that our Tender Consultants do exactly that, and with an 87% success rate, we’re pretty darn good at it. Speak to one of our Tender Consultants today and see what they can do for you!

If you were to win a contract, would you have the time/resources to fulfil the demands of the contract?

By this point, you have established that your company is experienced enough and stable enough to compete for a tender. You have also determined that you have the time and capability to write a high-quality submission sufficient to win the contract. Fantastic! Now you have to consider the logistics of the contract.

Does your business have the capacity to actually fulfil the needs of the contract to a satisfactory standard? If, for example, you come to the realisation that the contract’s demands will require all of your team members to spend 100% of their time on it, it is unlikely that you will win it. The reason for this is that buyers will deem this to be a risk to the completion of the contract and will, therefore, steer clear of such businesses.

Have you considered the level of competition?

One last thing to mull over is who you will be competing with to win a contract. When reading the requirements for a contract, you can identify areas in which your business may be lacking somewhat. If this is the case, are you aware of any competitors that you know are not lacking in those same areas? If so, it would probably be best to discount this contract.

There are exceptions and ways to navigate circumstances such as these. Our Tender Consultants are specialists when it comes to this, speak to them today to gain a greater understanding of the tender process and what they can do for you!

Support from our Tender Consultants

Still unsure about whether you should bid for that contract you’ve found? Why not leave it in the hands of our dedicated Bid Writers instead? Email us or give us a call on 0203 051 2217.

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

The post 5 Things to Consider Before Bidding for a Contract appeared first on Tender Consultants.

As a Sole Trader, How do I Tender for Work?

Emma Nelson — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 08:00:39 +0000

Objectives of the Tendering Process that Every Sole Trader Should Know

Last updated: Dec 17, 2021 @ 10:40 am

“I can’t win work, I’m a one-man-band”

This is one of the most common misconceptions a lot of sole traders have when it comes to tendering.

Just because you are considered a sole trader or a freelancer, doesn’t mean you’re automatically out of the running in the tendering world.

The key objectives of the tendering process are to make sure work is awarded fairly and to the best applicant.

This could be a sole trader, an SME or a larger blue-chip company.

It’s all about your offering and how this can benefit the buyer in many ways and ensure you are able to deliver a full-service to the buyer.

Low value tenders more so, allow sole traders the chance to secure contracts across the public sector, and in most cases, blue-chip companies or larger organisations are less likely to bid for these opportunities. This opens the door for sole traders and micro-businesses to put a bid forward and ultimately win the tender.

Yes, but my competition will be bigger than me!

Our advice – always check the requirements of the tender, along with the questions the buyer is asking and do not be prohibited by the confines of your resource and staff numbers.

You can find out a lot simply by the questions in which the buyer is asking throughout the tender, and, in some cases, you may be able to identify a specific trend to where priorities lie for the contract/project at hand.

If there are 3 questions relating to resourcing and staffing, and ensuring multiple staff are allocated to specific elements of delivery, then yes – this may not be the tender for Sole Traders.

That’s not to say they are all like this, however. Some buyers may ask for a small team or dedicated accountabilities, so deliverables are assigned to specific people.

You, being the technical expert in your industry, will know how exactly what you need in order to deliver a successful service in line with potential client aims.

Great – so where do I begin?

Make the decision on whether to bid or not to bid.

By shredding the specification and reading the tender questions and evaluation criterion, you’ll be able to see if this is within your purview. This is another (key!) objective of the tendering process – making sure it’s right for you.

You may be able to tell from the initial contract notice/notification, whether or not this is one for you. Don’t waste your time – make smart decisions where you know you stand a chance.

Ask yourself these questions:

Do I turnover the required amount to tender? (the minimum financial threshold)
Can I deliver the requirements?
Do I have good examples to showcase in the technical responses?
Will my pricing beat that of a larger organisation?

You can find out further information relating to making the decision to bid or not to bid in our blog.

Preparation is key!

Just because you’re a sole trader, doesn’t mean you can click ‘not applicable’ to the majority of sections in SQs or ITTs. The SQ (or PQQ) is a key objective of the tendering process, as it is the first step to proving your eligibility to the Buyer. Don’t assume that because you are a Sole Trader, the SQ is not important – go through it thoroughly and make sure you are able to provide as much information as possible.

Admittedly there will be a lot of the requirements which will not be applicable to you as a Sole Trader. For example, when it comes to Health & Safety as you legally don’t need a Health & Safety policy if you have 5 employees or less and could click ‘N/A’ to a lot of the questions relating to this.

However, it will certainly put you in good stead if you have some basic corporate literature to provide with your submission. If you are up against another sole trader, then showing you have some H&S literature in place would be a real edge for your submission.

Outline your procedures in the written word. This will help you start defining your processes, policies and procedures on paper, which is very much needed in the tendering world.

The next step would be to develop a Bid Library.

Find further information on our Tender VLE website.

Remember – You’ll need to still spend time and retain technical skills to manage this process and develop your responses.

Developing your response

Some key things to remember in order to align with the buyer’s objectives in the tendering process is to:

Certify your status as a sole trader on the documentation. Be meticulous when developing your response and ensure every ‘tick box’ is checked correctly.
Don’t worry about submitting full financial accounts – there are other options available, where you can submit your bank statement if needs be.
Ask clarifications to the buyer if you’re unsure of any part of the tender and your position as a sole trader. The buyer should quash your concerns.

Support is out there

Don’t worry – we have you covered.

Our dedicated bid writing team have 60-years collaborative experience in supporting businesses with their tendering efforts and writing bids assertively and persuasively for large blue-chip companies, to freelancers and sole traders.

We are masters when it comes to the objectives of the tendering process.

Should you require any support, don’t hesitate to get in touch today and we can help you become Tender Ready.

Find out more on our VLE website.

Get in touch today.

We’re here to help you succeed!

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

The post As a Sole Trader, How do I Tender for Work? appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Why You Should Read Your Tender Notifications

Emma Nelson — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 08:00:41 +0000

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 interest 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 from a buyer.

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 but 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, whether you receive 5 or 20 tender 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 but try to resist taking 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 that you may not be as bothered about might be a really important one, like ‘updated TUPE information’ which 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 first choice for).

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

What next?

Hopefully, if nothing else, you have been at least partially convinced of the importance of actioning your tender notifications.

If you are trying to tender regularly then understanding how to manage your portal to best effect will really help you out in your bid management efforts.

Remember that in all but a few cases, communications with the buyer are firmly restricted to the use of the portal messaging system. Make sure you are familiar with the way the portal you are using works is really important.

If you would be interested in learning more about portal management (including those pesky tender notifications!) then check out our free to use online learning resource, Tender VLE, where you will find helpful instructional video content on key areas of the tendering process.

If talking to an experienced consultant is more your cup of tea, then contact our Bid Writing Consultants for a chat.

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

The post Why You Should Read Your Tender Notifications 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.

Tender Training Programmes and Masterclasses | Tender Consultants

How to Become a Tender Expert

How to Become a Tender Expert

What is a Tender Expert?

Tender Expert Skills

Benefits of Hiring a Tender Expert

How to Become a Tender Expert!

Where to Find Tender Experts!

How we can help!

Tender Writing

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

Tender Mentor

Contact us:

Additional support:

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

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package

Our other divisions:

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

Tender Writing Tips: 7 of the Best FREE Tips from Professional Bid Writers

Here’s 7 tender writing tips from professional Bid Writers!

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

Summary

Need help searching for tenders?

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

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

What we can do for you

Vocal

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

How Can Bid Training Benefit Your Business?

Are you wondering how bid training can help your business? Here’s how!

What is bid training?

How can bid training benefit your business?

Essential bid training: Tender VLE

Summary

Need help searching for tenders?

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

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

Vocal

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

The Getting Ready Series Part IV: Considering a Critical Friend

Have you considered enlisting a critical friend?

How do you know if you need a critical friend?

Common mistakes when you don’t ask for help

Inconsistencies

Spelling and grammatical errors

500 words of waffle

How can a critical friend help you win bids?

Acting as the buyer

Advising if this is the right bid for you

Your eligibility

Demonstrable experience

Your capabilities

Tender Mentor

More bid writing support

A Guide to Tender Training Courses

Tender training courses can offer lots of guidance, hints, tips and tricks. How do you choose which course is right for you?

Let’s start from the basics – what do you want to learn?

1. Excellent time management.

2. Effective communication skills.

3. A good eye for detail.

Writing skills.

Understanding your sector is just as essential as specific tender training courses

Tailor learning to your needs

Go back to basics

So what about specific tender training courses?

Applying training in context

Hudson Helpline

How about specific tendering training bespoke to you and your organisation?

5 Things to Consider Before Bidding for a Contract

5 Things to Consider Before Bidding for a Contract – From Expert Tender Consultants

Do you have enough experience?

Do you meet the economic and financial threshold?

Do you have the time/resources to produce a high-quality submission?