tender writing consultants Archives - Tender Consultants

How to get a bid consultant?

John Hudson — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 09:00:38 +0000

How to get a bid consultant!

What is a bid consultant?

A bid consultant, also known as a tender consultant, is a professional who manages your tender submissions on an ongoing basis.

This typically involves:

Tender writing: One of the major aspects of tender submissions is, of course, tender writing. Bid consultants can work alongside your business to develop high-quality, detailed responses that help you stand out from your competitors. Here at Hudson, we have a team of expert Tender Writers who operate across multiple different sectors and can work alongside your business to create stand-out detailed and technical content.
Opportunity tracking: Bid consultants can also take the strain of hunting for opportunities off your hands. Bid consultants can work alongside your business to understand every key aspect of your operations and track opportunities that are relevant to you.
Managing tenders: Bid consultants can help you with managing your tender submissions on an ongoing basis. This involves organising all of your company literature, developing detailed case studies, tracking opportunities, writing responses and assessing strategic growth. Outsourcing this can provide your business with the breathing space to carry on with its normal operations safe in the knowledge that all your tendering endeavours are being looked after by experts.

Why do I need a bid consultant?

We understand how running a business can be relatively time-consuming. You do not necessarily have the time or resources to write winning responses in-house. The tendering process is long and complex and tendering for contracts can be confusing for a beginner.

If this is the case, outsourcing to bid writing experts can help you win your next contract. Here at Hudson Succeed, we pride ourselves on being tender writing experts.

We have over 60 years of collective bid writing experience and hold an 87% success rate. We offer four levels of bid writing support to suit every business need. If you are completely new to tendering or need a response proofread before you submit – we can help!

Do I need a bid consultant for the public sector?

Tendering can often be a difficult and daunting prospect for any business looking to venture into the public sector. With tenders ranging from numerous different scopes and sizes they can also be presented in the following formats:

PQQs
ITTs
RFPs

Tenders can often be in excess of 10,000 words, with multiple documents needing to be attached and sometimes designed.

Standing out from the crowd can be difficult in tendering. Having a bid consultant on hand to guide you through this process can be very beneficial for your business growth.

Managing tender submissions and searching for opportunities whilst handling your business’ daily operations can be difficult. Having a bid consultant to alleviate this stress can be one way to ensure growth when public sector tendering.

What do we do?

As global providers of bid writing consultancy, we provide support across the board!

Hudson promises you two things. Firstly, we will always write to win, maintaining commercial awareness across multiple industries to ensure our clients have the best chance of success. Secondly, we will continue to innovate to meet the changing needs of your business.

We offer four packages:

Tender Writing

Once you have found the perfect contract for your business, send it our way. Our Bid Writers can take care of the whole thing for you, and they will submit it on your behalf. They will 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.

What can we bring to the table?

Unique writing skills

Bid writing consultants have a unique skill set that is, obviously, tailored to producing successful bids. They know exactly how to convey an organisation’s strengths and use those to answer questions on specifications. Tenders will usually be unsuccessful for those who have not scoured the requirements and detailed how their company is suitable. Bid writing consultants have done this countless times, so they know precisely how to hit those points. Over time, they have developed their craft and understand how to write winning bids. Yet, they can also use their creativity to really make the company stand out. These skills are likely not held by anyone who is not experienced in bid writing.

Professional process

Since bid writing consultants are experts in tendering, they will have a professional process. This process allows the bid writers to keep on track with the goal. They can ensure the quality of the documents and that they are completed within the timeframe required. Since they are experts, they understand how important these contracts are. They know that they provide income for your company and help it to expand and grow.

Remote work

Another benefit of hiring bid writing consultants is that they are able to work efficiently with you remotely. This means there is far less time spent on travel and meeting times. Therefore, they can be done quicker but still in the most productive manner. This time saved can go towards work on something else! Given recent events, this is also incredibly beneficial as there is no risk of jeopardising anyone’s safety. Being able to quickly and efficiently contact and discuss with your bid writing consultants online is a massive convenience.

Understanding documents

There are many documents bid writing consultants are familiar with. These documents may be more of a task for those with less experience. For example, Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PPQs) and tenders can be confusing and complicated. Bid writing consultants understand exactly how to respond to these. If you do not fully understand what is required, you risk failing to secure contracts and wasting time and resources.

Higher chance of success

As you can imagine, bid writing consultants vastly improve your success rate. This can be expected as bid writing consultants have the experience and structured process to write winning bids. They also have the right writing skills to make your company stand out. Knowing you have a strong chance of winning can improve your confidence in bidding for more contracts. It is better to leave it to someone with the desired experience, rather than to a sales team. This is something many businesses do. They may not have the skills or understanding necessary to win contracts. Again, this is a waste of time and resources.

Cost-effective

Tendering takes time and resources, so you want to be sure you have a good chance of success. Otherwise, all that time and those resources go to waste! The chances are your company does not have in-house resources or the time to complete bid responses. Since bid writing consultants do, you will be saving yourself time and money in the long run.

The professional process saves time as you’ll have bid writing consultants writing documents and also proofreading and making adjustments. Whilst they are busy doing this, you and your team can be focused on running your business.

Experience

Since most bid writing consultants are highly experienced, they have had the time to learn from previous bids. This is great as it means you don’t have to waste resources doing the same! Bid writing consultants will know exactly how to approach your tender. They will also have enough experience to recognise precisely what the contracting authority is looking for. They can then ensure your company meets the contracting authority’s requirements.

Okay, so I need a bid consultant… Where do I find one?

Additional support:

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

Simply 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). Also, the bid strategy will be managed by our Global Bid Director.

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 get a bid consultant? appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Win more contracts with a tender consultant

John Hudson — Wed, 17 Aug 2022 16:16:45 +0000

Improve your win rate with a tender consultant

Are you looking to improve your win rate? The best thing you could do is work with a tender consultant. Keep reading to find out more!

What are tender consultants and how can they help you?

Tender consultants (also known as bid consultants), can help you and your business with your tendering processes. By working with a tender consultant, you can rest assured that the bid process will be smooth sailing. Tender consultants are trained professionals, whose sole purpose is to write bid proposals to achieve success. A tender consultant focuses solely on the tender process, whilst your focus can be divided across numerous business needs.

Here is a breakdown of why working with a tender consultant can be beneficial:

A tender consultant has industry knowledge

A tender consultant works on ensuring they are familiar with their client’s industry. Meaning they know exactly what is expected when it comes to the bid proposal, offering expert advice. Here at Hudson Succeed, our team of Bid Writers have knowledge that spans multiple industries. Meaning they’re well-equipped to help with a range of bid proposals.

Tender consultants are experts in their field of writing

Tender consultants’ expertise in writing is of the highest level. Our Bid Writers have written hundreds of bids. Therefore, they have perfected their writing skills to create high-quality proposals. So, you can rest assured you are getting nothing but the best.

Communication is second to none

A tender consultant excels at all things verbal – making for excellent navigators in complex bid proposals. They clearly and effectively communicate why a client should be awarded the contract. Showcasing your business to the buyer.

Tender consultants have controlled project management abilities

You’re probably familiar with how the tender process works, and how complex and long-winded it can be. A tender consultant consistently meets deadlines, without sacrificing quality. Managing their workload and ensuring they gather all the required information.

Want to find out more about how working with a tender consultant can be beneficial to you? Get in touch with our team today, to discuss this in more detail.

How can a government tender consultant help you?

Are you looking to specifically win government tenders? Then bringing in a tender consultant for support will help improve your win rate.

You may be thinking you don’t need the help. However, when it comes to government tenders, the better your response is, the more likely you are to see results. Here are three reasons why you should consider working with a government tender consultant:

They understand the complexity a government contract can bring

Due to the nature of tenders, there is an added complexity as there are regulations and legalities that need to be considered and followed. Without adhering to certain regulations, you may not even make the shortlist. A government tender consultant has first-hand expert knowledge when dealing with government contracts. They understand what is needed and are dedicated to writing a winning response.

A government tender consultant understands the importance of social value

Social value is a major component when it comes to government contracts. A government tender consultant understands this and ensures it is well established within the tender response. They will work with you and how you will effectively tackle economic, environmental, and social issues.

A government tender consultant understands the MEAT

Government contracts are always awarded to suppliers who showcase the MEAT. This stands for the Most Economically Advantageous Tender. What this means is, the buyer is evaluating tender submissions based on those who provide the most value for money. Thus, rewarding them with the contract. Because of the nature of tenders, each can be different from the next. Working with a government tender consultant can be the difference between winning and losing a tender. A government tender consultant understands what the buyer is asking, what the specifications are and how to best respond. Increasing your chances of being successful.

Let’s Summarise

By now you will be more than familiar with how a tender consultant can help you. Let’s recap why working with a tender consultant can be beneficial for increasing your win rate.

4 things a tender consultant brings to the table:

Industry knowledge
Writing expertise
Effective communication skills
Project management abilities

Looking to bid on government contracts? – Here are three reasons why you should work with a government tender consultant:

They understand the complexity a government contract can bring
Have a thorough understanding of the importance of social value
A government tender consultant understands the MEAT

Want to improve your win rate? – Enter Hudson Succeed

Our team of tender consultants are here to help you.

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

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

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

Tender Writing

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

Tender Mentor

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

Tender Ready

During the Tender Ready service, our team will create professional policies, procedures, and case studies in your company branding. If you already have this content, we will review everything carefully to ensure that nothing is missed. Once the programme is complete, you’ll have access to three days’ worth of bid consultancy. This can be used for bid writing, tender reviews, or general advice and guidance.

Tender Improvement

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

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

Need help with searching for tenders?

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.

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 all the opportunities that are available, intuitively categorised, and easily accessible.
A daily email bulletin. When we upload new tenders, we will send you an email alert.
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?

Hudson Discover hosts 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.

Discover Elite

If you want to streamline the process even further, you can sign up to Discover Elite via your chosen portal. With this service, a dedicated Account Manager will find live bids on your behalf. They’ll speak with you weekly to discuss opportunities that may interest you. This is especially helpful for those with little time to spare.

Vocal

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

At Vocal, we are not afraid to stand up and make ourselves 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 using striking and thought-provoking content to help to grow your business. 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:

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 Win more contracts with a tender consultant 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.

Win Tenders: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed

John Hudson — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 08:00:46 +0000

Want to win tenders? Here’s how you can increase your chances of success!

If you’re wondering how to win tenders, then you’ve come to the right place. Here at Hudson Succeed, we have over 60 years of experience with writing tenders and proposals. We also have an 87% bid success rate, so we are confident in our ability to help you.

A lot of work can go into writing a bid proposal. If you are new to tendering and unsure of the bid process, it can seem overwhelming. Don’t worry! It isn’t as bad as it first appears. Continue reading to learn the various ways in which you can increase your chances to win tenders.

What are tenders?

If you are completely new to the tendering process, you may want to know more about what tenders are. This is a key part of how to win tenders . You need to know what you’re in for! In short, a tender (also known as a ‘bid’) is a document submitted for a contract.

This contract will be for goods or services that are required by the contracting authority. For example, a company may require a new logo and branding. So, they’ll likely put out a contract for a suitable creative agency to deliver these services. Since they’ll receive several bids, they will need to find the most suitable through a vigorous evaluation process.

A lot must be considered during this process. If you are bidding for a public sector contract, the process is a lot more transparent. The buyer must go with the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT). This is so that there are no buyers choosing suppliers for personal reasons that put other suppliers at a disadvantage.

Where can you find tenders?

If you are wondering where to find a tender, then we have some solutions. Afterall, before you can win tenders, you need to have suitable contracts to bid for.

Most people will begin a tender search by using a search engine such as Google. This is understandable, as we rely on the internet for a lot of information in recent times. This helpful tool can give you results instantly. For example, if you search ‘nursing tenders’, you’ll see plenty of results. The issue is how long it takes to go through these results.

Many sites will not feature breakdowns of the contract. You’ll have to read through these lengthy tender documents to even see if you are suitable for the work. This can take hours of your time. Running a business is hard enough, and you likely won’t have the time to dedicate fully to this. So, what solutions are available to help with this issue?

Tender tracking portals

There are many sites out there that track tenders, making it easier to find them as they’re in one place. In turn, this makes the process quicker so that you can move on to how to win tenders. This saves you having to scour through endless sites in an effort to find remotely suitable contracts for your business. 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.

They are:

What makes Hudson Discover unique?

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 sites are unique as we don’t use CPV codes when we source our opportunities. This means there is no risk of missing a tender due to a coding error.

Our Opportunity Trackers manually upload new tenders daily and send out a tender notification. This way, our users can stay updated with the day’s most recent additions.

These portals are specifically designed for industry users to easily find suitable contracts. We use a filter system so that users can easily find what they’re looking for. So, users can search by keyword, dates, locations, and budgets. This way, you can easily narrow down your search!

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.

Want to save even more time looking for tenders? Try Discover Elite

Sign up to Discover Elite via your chosen portal where a dedicated Account Manager finds live bids on your behalf. They’ll speak with you weekly to discuss opportunities that may interest you. This is especially helpful for those with little time to spare due to busy schedules.

Upgrading to Discover Elite will ensure you never miss a tendering opportunity even when you’re busy!

The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool offers your business:

An annual subscription to a maximum of two Discover portals of your choice.
Up to five bid breakdowns per month to help you make your bid or no-bid decisions
Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable leads and tendering opportunities.
Award and pre-market engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
Public and private buyer portal management including registering, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid strategy.

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.

How to win tenders

To win tenders, you need certain skills. Here are a few that can boost your chances of writing a winning tender.

1. Professional writing and communication skills

As you may have guessed, writing and communication skills are critical for writing a winning bid. To win tenders, you need to persuade the buyer that you are the right fit for the job. You need to communicate your skills, experience, ideas, and concepts clearly. The last thing you want to do is confuse the buyer. This will make them a lot less likely to award you the contract. They won’t want to have to stop and research something if you haven’t explained it clearly.

Our Bid Writers recommend that you don’t use industry jargon when writing your bid proposal. This is because the buyer is unlikely to be an expert in your industry. Therefore, they won’t know what you are referring to. To win tenders, you need to be as clear and concise as possible.

Writing skills are important for ensuring the quality of the bid proposal. You want your bid to be as professional as possible. Check out our third point for more information on the importance of proofing your proposal!

2. Bid management abilities

Being able to win tenders means you need excellent organisation skills. By staying organised and prepared, there is less risk of missing important information. This is why a pre-bid plan can also be highly beneficial as well.

It is important to conduct bid management as tenders usually have a lot of documents. The workload needs to be organised to ensure it is completed in time. This is especially the case if you have a short deadline. The last thing you want is to be rushing at the last minute. This panic can lead to making mistakes and forgetting certain information. Plus, if you miss the deadline, even by a minute, your bid will not be accepted.

3. Editing and proofreading skills

As promised, now we will cover the importance of editing your proposal before submission. Even if you have excellent writing skills, you still need to proofread your proposal. Little mistakes can always find a way to hide. Often times, you won’t even notice them at first. This is why we suggest you have different people proofread the proposal to be sure nothing is missed.

If you have various mistakes within your proposal, the buyer may not choose to award you the contract. This is because it gives the impression you are not thorough with your work. So, the work isn’t of the highest standard that it has the potential to be. It makes you seem unprofessional, and this is not the impression you want to give!

Bid reviews

If you want to win tenders, then Bid Writers can certainly help but conducting bid reviews. This should be done by your team, even if you don’t hire an expert. This is also different from proofreading. You need to ensure that all tender responses meet requirements. Check that you are fully answering the question, and so on.

It isn’t essential, but it will definitely be a benefit for the review to be conducted by someone externally. This way, they are more likely to see the response more critically. They can identify areas where you might ramble or not answer the question fully. This review allows you to see which areas you can improve, and in turn, you can increase your chances of success.

We have a Tender Mentor service to help you if you’re seeking to outsource your bid review. Our Bid Writers will go over your bid, ensuring that the bid you’ve produced is of the highest quality. This is an external guide and review service. Our service allows you to eliminate any mistakes and generally improve your final response before submission.

What if you don’t have these skills or the time? Who can help you win tenders?

If you are worried that you don’t have the time or skills to complete a bid, then help is available! You can turn to the experts for bid writing help. Professional Bid Writers have these skills and the experience needed to take on any tender. Here’s why it can be more beneficial to hire a Bid Writer to win tenders:

They have the experience to win tenders – Having experience is a huge benefit as Bid Writers know what works and what doesn’t.
They have the skills – Bid writing professionals have all of the skills mentioned above. So, they know how to write a high-quality proposal.
Bid Writers save you time – They take the project off your hands so you can focus on your usual responsibilities.

Summary

So, now you should know a few of the key skills needed to win tenders. Let’s recap what we covered!

What are tenders?

When an organisation require certain goods or services, they’ll likely rely on a supplier. They will send out a contract to deliver these goods/services, and suitable suppliers can bid. The best suited supplier will be awarded the contract to carry out the work.

Where can you find tenders?

To find a tender, we suggest using a tender tracking portal. Our sister company have 11 sector-specific portals, they are:

Our portals are unique as we don’t use CPV codes to find opportunities. This means we never miss a tender due to an error in the code. You can rest assured that we can provide all the most up-to-date contracts available for you to bid for.

How to win tenders:

Professional writing and communication skills – These are crucial for getting your ideas across to the buyer.
Bid management abilities – You need to be organised to ensure you get the proposal completed on time.
Editing and proofreading skills – Your bid needs to be of exceptional quality, so it must be proofread.
Bid reviews – As well as being proofread, your bid should also be reviewed. This is a process specifically to assess how successful the bid is likely to be.

Who can help you win tenders?

If you don’t have the time to complete a bid, you can turn to expert Bid Writers. These professionals have years of experience and know what it takes to win tenders.

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

Our services

Tender Writing

Tender Mentor

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.

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 Win Tenders: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed appeared first on Tender Consultants.

PQQ Tenders: What Are They and How Can Bid Writers Help?

John Hudson — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 09:19:48 +0000

Here’s everything you need to know about PQQ tenders and how Bid Writers can help!

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

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

What are PQQ tenders?

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

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

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

How can Bid Writers help with PQQ tenders?

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

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

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

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

What skills do Bid Writers have?

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

1. Bid management skills

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

2. Expert writing and communication skills

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

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

Summary

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

What are PQQ tenders?

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

How can Bid Writers help with PQQ tenders?

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

What skills do Bid Writers have?

Bid management skills
Expert writing and communication skills.

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

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

Need help searching for tenders?

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

Tender Writing

Tender Mentor

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.

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

City of London Bids and Tenders: Everything You Need to Know

Georgie Morgan — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 07:00:03 +0000

City of London bids and tenders explained

Applying for City of London bids and tenders is a great way to grow your business. Local London authorities spend approximately £9billion annually on a wide variety of goods and services.

As an SME, you shouldn’t be missing out on City of London bids and tenders. If you’re thinking that these contracts are only awarded to big companies, you’d be mistaken. As a matter of fact, 23% of government contracts up for bid are awarded to SMEs. This gives you a good chance of competing if you’re a smaller business.

The City of London bids and tenders target outcomes are:

Sustainable cost assurance guaranteed for the future
Key people across the organisation being upskilled in commercialism, contract management and procurement
Their services provide what’s needed and are easy to use
Opportunities to leverage responsible outcomes are maximised

There can be many advantages when applying for City of London bids and tenders. Below are just three ways tendering for contracts can benefit your business:

Prompt Payment

If you become a supplier to the City of London, you will have guaranteed and prompt payment. This is because The City of London takes part in the Chartered Institute of Credit Management’s (CIMC) Prompt Payment Code. That means they pledge to:

Pay suppliers on time

The City Corporation aims to pay undisputed invoices that quote a purchase number within 10 days of invoicing. This applies to the invoice arriving anywhere in the City Corporation for SMEs.

Give clear guidance to suppliers

All invoices should be attached when contacting the Accounts Payable team and include the following information:

An identifying number
The supplier’s name, address, VAT number
Time of supply
Date of issue
Type of supply (E.g. sale, hire, loan, etc.)
Description of the goods or services supplied
Customer’s name (or trading name) and address

The City of London prefers to pay their suppliers via BACS. It’s encouraged that as a supplier, you include your bank details and valid email address on all invoices for remittance.

Secure a pipeline of work

Bidding for City of London bids and tenders can help you secure a pipeline of work for your business. Particularly if you secure a place on a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) or framework agreement. These tendering processes are often used within an array of sectors including construction and healthcare. The benefit of these is that they can run for years at a time. Some even have the possibility of an extension.

Build experience

City of London bids and tenders are a great way to gain experience as a business. Buyers will require 2 – 3 case studies of past contracts you have delivered. They need to be within the last 3 – 5 years. They should be similar in scope and style to the one you’re applying for. Securing smaller contracts can help you build up that experience. The more experience you have, the bigger the contracts you can go for. The bigger bids you can go for, the bigger your business can grow. Securing a place on a DPS or framework is a great place to start.

Where can I find City of London bids and tenders?

So, you now know some of the advantages of City of London bids and tenders. Next, you may be wondering where to find them. As they’re offered for pretty much every sector it can be hard finding the right one for your business. This is where a sector-specific portal could help optimise your search.

Simply relying on CPV codes could result in you missing out on up to a third of relevant opportunities. This is because we researched that up to a third of them are mislabelled.

Our sister company, Hudson Discover, hosts 11 sector-specific tendering portals. You are able to filter the results and search by keyword, budget, location and more. This streamlines the process, making it easier to find government contracts.

These sectors consist of;

Before you apply to any tender, you should ask if your business:

Is able to deliver the work
Meets the economic and financial standing
Have the resources and time to fulfil the contract
Has the necessary experience
Is able to write a winning response before the submission deadline

Remember to be the MEAT

Like all government contracts, the contract will be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT). The buyer will be looking for bids that provide the most value for money while delivering the contract. The MEAT means that the buyer is looking at more than just the price. The cheapest bid does not win here. You should consider a range of factors including, but not limited to:

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

Each buyer will be wanting something different depending on their needs. This will be outlined in the specification. You should demonstrate added value in your response. This is because government authorities want to be assured that they are getting the most for taxpayer’s money.

Don’t skimp on social value

There is now a minimum mandatory weighting of 10% on social value for public sector contracts. In some cases, it can be as much as 30%. This means it is not something you should consider as an afterthought.

The promises you make in City of London bids and tenders are contractually binding. Therefore, you should be making promises you can keep. Social value is the social, economic and environmental aspects that you’ll consider while fulfilling the contract. It was launched with five key themes in mind that should be addressed where possible. These are:

Supporting COVID-19 recovery
Tackling economic inequality
Fighting climate change
Improving equal opportunities
Showing commitment to health and wellbeing.

Social value is an opportunity for SMEs to differentiate themselves from their competitors, adding commercial value to their bids.

So now, you should be more aware of what’s expected from City of London bids and tenders. Following this advice should help you get on the path to success and winning your next tender.

Need assistance when writing your next City of London bids and tenders?

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

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

Tender Writing

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

Tender Ready

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

Tender Improvement

Tender Mentor

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

Discover Elite

Upgrading to Discover Elite can help optimise your tendering efforts – even when you’re busy. Our two new time-saving tools can improve your competitor awareness and success rate when bidding for a contract.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

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

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

All of the above.
Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. Our Global Bid Director will manage the bid strategy.

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

The post City of London Bids and Tenders: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Tender Consultants.

How to Win Public Sector Tenders After a Pandemic

Charlotte Jarvis — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 07:00:03 +0000

How to win public sector tenders in the current climate

Last updated: Dec 17, 2021 @ 10:22 am

As UK businesses focus on getting back on track, we have witnessed extraordinary changes in interest towards public sector tenders. According to Google Ads, the average monthly search queries for ‘public sector tenders’ increased by almost 50%. This search volume was compared between June 2019 and June 2020.

It would seem that more businesses are looking to use tendering in the public sector as a vital element of their business development strategy. If you have never tendered for contracts before, you might find yourself frequently searching queries such as “how to win public sector tenders”.

Don’t panic! Our team has been helping businesses to secure both public and private sector contracts for almost two decades.

In this blog, we’ll be offering our tips and advice on tendering for work after a pandemic. This information is based on the effects we’ve seen, first-hand, and stories we’ve heard from our clients.

Which sectors are seeing success?

By now (August 2020) we’re all aware that some sectors have emerged from the pandemic in a better position than others. Unfortunately, social distancing and hygiene measures have had devastating consequences on the hospitality and tourism industry. However, as we move into the next phase of recovery, we have seen tenders for these industries begin to increase.

For example, our Hospitality Tenders portal sources tendering opportunities for these industries. Our team reported a 70% increase in the volume of tenders over the last 30 days, compared to April 2020.

Some sectors reported huge profits during the pandemic. For example;

Online retailers

As more countries began to enforce lockdown restrictions, more of us moved our shopping online. Retailers such as Amazon were said to have seen astronomical sales figures. In April 2020, The Guardian reported that the retail giant was making $11,000-a-second.

Digital solutions

If you’re a fellow office worker, you will know that the word of 2020 is “Zoom”. Now used as a verb, e.g. “can we Zoom?”, the video conferencing platform has re-invented meetings and even events. According to Forbes, the platform surpassed previous industry leaders, GoToWebinar and Cisco, during the pandemic.

Supermarkets

Supermarkets remained open throughout the lockdown as “essential businesses”. Many stores experienced unprecedented stocking issues during the beginning of the quarantine amid fears of shortages. Many of us decided to recreate our own restaurant favourites. This flooded social media with homemade baking posts and recipe ideas. For supermarkets, this was an opportunity for profiting without incentives such as coupons and deals.

PPE and sanitising products

A more obvious industry to benefit from the pandemic was suppliers of protective equipment and sanitising products. Already established providers of PPE and hand sanitiser were accused of increasing prices during the uncertain time. Manufacturers of goods such as events merchandise were forced to be adaptable. Some re-structured their businesses to provide more essential products such as PPE.

Streaming services

During the first quarter of 2020, Netflix reportedly welcomed almost 16 million new subscribers. This was the largest jump in the company’s history, since its inception 13 years ago. In the UK, nightclubs, concert venues and some theatres are yet to re-open. As long as this continues, it doesn’t look as though Netflix’s popularity will be slowing down any time soon.

Why social value is more important than ever

In terms of the future of tendering, social value will be more crucial than ever. When considering how to win public sector tenders, one of your top priorities should be on social value.

Councils and public sector bodies will look for businesses that championed social value during the pandemic. They want to see how you added value to your community. Helping those around us during this time benefited our wellbeing, community relationships and the economy in ways that were previously unimagined.

If you are new to tendering, you might be asking “what is social value?”

In a nutshell, social value is the positive impact that the actions of your business have on society. This can be demonstrated to buyers in the form of;

Policies and procedures;
Spending;
Training;
Volunteering;
Community engagement;
Or mentoring, for example.

Sometimes, delivering contracts through public sector and council tenders can help to deliver a positive social impact. It is beneficial to support your local communities and, in turn, increase business engagement.

Read our “Adapting Your Council Tenders” blog for more information about adapting your social value examples in the current climate.

Get familiar with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Put simply, corporate social responsibility is the duty of businesses to consider the societies and environments impacted by them.

CSR can be proven by demonstrating that your business goes beyond the minimum legal standards of compliance. Your actions should be voluntary.

In the current climate, both buyers and consumers have a vested interest in your CSR. However, the way that you demonstrate this will vary from business to business. For example, larger companies will be able to make bigger impacts than SMEs. They simply have more resources at their disposal. However, every business needs to play a part, no matter their size.

At first, many businesses saw CSR as a form of philanthropy. Now that it has evolved, more companies are beginning to recognise the benefits CSR can add to their growth.

The most common methods of businesses demonstrating their CSR include;

Environmental benefits e.g. working to reduce the business’s carbon footprint or implementing cycle-to-work schemes;
Business benefits e.g. improving the quality of work for staff and supply chains;
And charitable benefits e.g. contributing to charity donations or volunteering within the local community.

What was public sector tendering like before Covid?

To help you get a better insight into public sector tendering before the pandemic, we’re sitting down with our Head of Bid Management, Daniel Hall.

Q1. As far as public sector tenders in the UK go, what is the most difficult sector you have come across, and why?

Answer: “Construction. The reason for this is due to the writing requiring a lot of industry-specific technical knowledge and skill. There are many regulations and legislative examples that you need to have in-depth knowledge of in order to develop compliant responses. Generally speaking, other areas of public sector tendering tend to be a lot more straightforward. This is not to discredit other sectors. Construction contracts are often much larger in nature and involve multiple suppliers operating collaboratively under one agreement. They usually require the delivery of very technical and high-cost work.”

Q2: What is a consistent trend in public sector tendering in the UK that SMEs should be aware of?

Answer: “Social value. This is a key consideration, especially in the current climate when submitting responses to local councils. It is vital that you show how you will contribute to local communities with strong economic partnerships. It goes without saying that a supplier who can showcase what they can bring to local economies will definitely perform better than those that don’t. But what companies need to remember is that this needs to be a promise that is within reason and of course, deliverable. It is no good stating that you will hire 45 people within a ten-mile radius of the contract when you haven’t got the means to actually deliver this. Tendering holds no place for fantasy, keep your promises tangible and doable.

Another trend I am noticing within public sector tendering in the UK is ethical supply chain management. Now although this is usually geared towards larger conglomerates if SMEs showcase that they have strong supply chain management processes in place they will definitely stand in better stead than their competitors. Just because something is not a specific requirement does not mean you shouldn’t have this in place. Where reasonably achievable, going above and beyond is crucial in public sector tendering in the UK.”

Q3: What advice would you give someone who is new to tendering and looking to get on the ladder?

Answer: “Contact your local councils, ask about second-tier opportunities and subcontracting opportunities. Ask your local councils about large frameworks they have in your sector and ask if they need any additional subcontractor SMEs for additional assistance. This will help you get contractual experience which is absolutely essential when tendering in the UK. 99% of buyers want to see what experience you have before even considering your tender responses. Spending days on end developing detailed responses can be a waste of time if you have no experience to back them up.

Also, get your policies together, before you need them. Look at what accreditations you can be working towards, such as ISO 9001. Whilst this may not be a requirement for all tenders, this isn’t to say it won’t help. 60% of the public sector tenders we have worked on, require you to have this or at least have this in place prior to contract commencement.”

Q4. Are there any technologies you would recommend businesses invest in to strengthen their tendering efforts?

Answer: “Software can undoubtedly be beneficial for many companies when developing responses to public sector tenders in the UK. Whether we like it or not, technology is a massive part of everyone’s lives today. Tendering is no different. Often times, buyers will request that you outline what software you use. This is usually with reference to evidencing the completion of work in a remote fashion. In the facilities sector, this is very big.

For example, manned guarding and cleaning companies will definitely benefit from investment in software. For example, in manned guarding and cleaning, ECM systems such as Servicetrac can be massively beneficial. Not just with regard to your internal processes, but also with reference to your tendering efforts.”

Q5. Daniel, you and your team write a lot of facilities management bids. Are there any common trends you are seeing consistent throughout this sector?

Answer: “Although its important across multiple sectors, a consistently vital trend for businesses which fall within the facilities sector is being able to substantiate your claims. You must demonstrate that your company complies with all relevant legislation and regulations. For example, within cleaning it’s not sufficient to say you simply provide Health and Safety training. More and more suppliers are being expected to provide evidence of this. Evidence can be in the form of things such as Health and Safety policy, sample training logs, sample method statements, or similar.

Tendering is certainly coming to rely more heavily on evidence within the facilities sector. This is why ensuring your policies and company literature is in place is vital.”

To summarise, Daniel concluded:

“Bid Management is always important when tendering, but when it comes to public sector tendering you need to ensure that all bases are covered before you start.”
“Ensuring that your policies and company literature are in place before you start writing responses will save you time in the long run.”
“Look at meaningful ways you can tangibly bring social value to the contracts you are tendering for. This is emerging as an increasingly important part of public sector tendering. Refining your approach to this will get you ahead of the game.”

Common Trends in Public Sector Tendering

We think it’s safe to say that every year, something new happens in the world of procurement due to the ever-changing landscape that buyers and suppliers constantly find themselves in. Here are, in our opinion, a small collection of common trends across UK Public Sector Tendering as of late:

Brexit

The word coined to fill the hearts of many with either progressiveness or ultimate decline. The word in our opinion is met with uncertainty, especially in the way procurement will be running long-term. It has been recorded that “since Brexit, the total value of tenders has risen”, implying that there is more work than ever before up for grabs.

However, how long will it last? – well, there are no immediate changes due to the EU regulations being merged with primary UK legislation. However, we can expect a lot more focus on cost-effective supply chains that are held locally, given our departure from European partners. Risk assessments and the holistic management of contracts will surely be examined a lot more in technical questions based on the happenings of BREXIT.

Modern Slavery

Have you come across it yet? The question on an increasing amount of PQQs asking if you abide by Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015? What you may not know is that the act contains a clause on ‘Transparency in Supply Chains’, which addresses the role of businesses and what they do to prevent modern slavery from occurring in their supply chains and organisation[s].

As per Section 54, it states that if your organisation has a turnover of over £36 million or more you must confirm adherence and publish a ‘slavery and human trafficking’ statement annually on your company’s website. This must state what you are doing to prevent this. We find that SME’s tend not to worry about this, as it remains non-applicable 99% of the time, but still, it is something that is commonly being asked across the board. Don’t answer it incorrectly!

Social Value

What are you doing for your community? What environmental aims does your company have? Do you work with apprentices? These are just a few of the questions that are becoming increasingly asked in public-sector tenders. Even if you are the smallest company around, it’s advised that you to think of your corporate and social responsibility. If you’re wondering how to win public sector tenders you cannot skip on social value. Consider how this is positively changing the world – or at least your local area. Every little helps!

We advise you do liaise with charities, apprenticeship providers, assess long-term goals and ensure that social value (aligned with a local authority and government initiatives) crops up one way or another. This is becoming a key contribution to finalising scores in ongoing tenders.

SME Focus

By 2020, the UK government has promised “big opportunities for small firms” as they are set to spend £1 in every £3 with small businesses/SMEs. One thing a lot of SMEs don’t have that bigger companies do is experienced and well-educated internal Bid Writing professionals. This means SMEs will see a surge of utilising external support functions and help to win public sector tenders. This will help ensure their tenders are of the highest quality.

We are one of those companies! Our aim is not to just write high-quality bids, but support you with understanding the procurement world. From opportunity tracking (using our elite and secure Hudson Discover platforms, related to each UK industry), tender training (using our upcoming FREE virtual learning environment with regular VLOGs) and eventually supporting you to maintain/develop your ongoing content for tendering (using Tender Bank). The increased use of Framework Agreements and Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS) and getting onto these, require rapid and high-quality responses to ensure longstanding work is won and sustained.

Where to find public sector tenders?

When asking yourself how to win public sector tenders, the first obstacle is finding the right opportunities. We emphasise ‘right’ because there are numerous ways of finding public sector tenders. Extracting the best opportunities for your business is a different story.

Before you begin searching for public sector tendering opportunities, you should first implement a checklist. This checklist represents your ideal contract. For example;

Which buyers do you want to work with?
Where do you want to deliver the contract?
What is the maximum budget that you will be eligible for?
Which services will you be delivering?

Once you have established these answers internally, you can begin to search for tenders efficiently.

Hudson Discover

If your organisation is concerned about how to win public sector tenders, it all starts with identifying the right opportunities.

Hudson Discover is another arm to our business, under the Hudson Group. This is where we house our 11 sector-specific tendering portals. These portals were established as a response to how time-consuming the tender sourcing process can be.

When conducting research, we found that a third of tender notices were tagged with incorrect CPV codes. This means that even if you use a tender sourcing software, you will still see irrelevant opportunities. They use algorithms that read CPV codes and categorise the contracts based on this information.

We decided that our tendering portals would be different. None of our portals rely on codes or algorithms to source tenders. Instead, our team of Opportunity Trackers manually search thousands of sources daily to ensure our clients never miss a notice. They then upload each tender individually and tag them with industry-driven keywords.

This means that you can simply login, enter the keywords (services you offer) and instantly find relevant opportunities, making the tendering process much easier.

Extra support

Not only are our portals excellent time-saving tools, they also offer an abundance of expert support. When joining the portal, you won’t just be left to your own devices. You will be assigned an Account Manager to support you. Your Account Manager is there to answer any portal or general tendering-related questions. They can also refer you to our Hudson Succeed Bid Writers should you need support with responding to the tenders you find. You will also be entitled with 20-minutes of free phone consultancy every month. This allows you to speak to one of our consultants about;

Responding to a particular bid;
How to improve your bid success rate;
What you need to have in place before you start your first bid;
Or general queries about the tendering process.

Find your portal

Find the perfect portal for your organisation and book a free live demo. The demo will allow you to login to the system, see the current opportunities and understand how the portal can help your business.

Need help with your tender responses?

Are you new to tendering or are you not seeing success from the bids you’re submitting? If you’re wondering how to win public sector tenders, our bid writers can help.

At Hudson Succeed, our team has multi-disciplinary experience. We are experts in writing bids and we proudly hold an 87% bid success rate.

To ensure that we can support a varied range of businesses, we offer five dedicated services.

Tender Writing is our ad-hoc bid solution.

This service is perfect for businesses that only require one-off bid writing support. We understand that you might not have the internal resources to complete a reactive bid. Sick leave, maternity leave and furlough can massively impact your capabilities. This service includes the production of your tendering responses and the final bid submission.

Tender Ready is a unique programme for first-time bidders.

The service was designed for businesses that are new to tendering. During the programme, our Bid Writers will work with you to create all the corporate literature needed when tendering for work. Our team of Bid Designers will ensure that your organisation stands out. They will professionally brand your documents to showcase your business in the best light. Not only this, but our consultants will also help you to find your first tendering opportunity. Then, they can either write this bid on your behalf or guide you through the first two.

Tender Improvement can help you see more success.

The programme was developed to help businesses who are already tendering for work but not seeing success. We know that this can be frustrating. The tendering process can be incredibly time-consuming and consume your resources. Initially, our consultants will assess your previous bid responses. From there, they will provide recommendations for improvement. They will also analyse your corporate literature and create more effective documents where necessary. The package also includes a bid writing service for your next tender or guidance for your next two bids.

Tender Mentor will ensure an error-free submission.

This is our guide and review service. If you have already written your tender responses but need a second pair of eyes, this service is for you. Our Bid Writers will read your responses and check for any spelling or grammatical errors. They will also assess the content to ensure that your responses answer the specification in the most effective way. Instead of changing your work, our consultants will provide feedback for areas of improvement before you submit the final bid.

Further support

For more information about how to win public sector tenders, please call or email us. A member of the team will respond as soon as possible with more information.

All our bid writing services require an initial consultation. This will be conducted contact-free and usually takes place over the phone, or via a video call if preferred.

The Hudson Succeed team is proud to support over 700 businesses globally. Throughout the pandemic, we have been thrilled to work with almost 100 new clients. We have been working tirelessly to support these businesses with their tendering strategy during this difficult time.

Find details of our previous successes in our testimonials area.

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

The post How to Win Public Sector Tenders After a Pandemic appeared first on Tender Consultants.

How to write a tender: The Complete Guide

Alex Holt — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 09:00:16 +0000

The complete guide on how to write a tender

Last updated: Mar 17, 2022 @ 3:56 pm

It’s safe to say that tendering for contracts is a great opportunity to develop your business, providing services for the public sector. With over 150 tenders uploaded to our 11 portals each day, there is an opportunity for every business – including yours.

Once you’ve found your opportunity, you’re going to want to make sure you maximise it. So, in this blog, we’re going to run through how to write a tender properly.

Don’t just jump in

One of the more exhaustive, yet essential processes before writing a tender is to make sure you know what you’re writing about – not to mention this process is often overlooked by many taking on tendering for the first time.

Yes, it’s easy to quickly jump in and try and answer the question in front of you without a moment’s hesitation, but this can quickly snowball into missed requirements and drafting something that doesn’t answer the question.

More often than not, those who are new to tendering can often end up ensconced in their own echo chamber – putting down the answer to the question they think the evaluator should be asking, not what they’re actually looking for.

This approach to writing tenders will, more often than not, score poorly.

Know what you’re writing about

Before you start writing bids – make sure you can actually fulfil the criteria as set out in the specification, avoiding wasted time. Consider:

Do you meet the minimum financial criteria?
Can you feasibly meet the requirements of the buyer?
Do you have the required accreditations and memberships?
Do you possess the relevant experience to undertake the contract?

From here, you can make a bid/no-bid decision – if you can’t meet the likes of the above, you’re likely to be excluded from the process altogether or end up scoring poorly.

PQQs/SQs

So now we can get into the fundamentals of how to write a tender. So, we’ve evaluated the specification, and now we’re ready to tackle the submission.

PQQs or pre-qualification questionnaires (or sometimes referred to as selection questionnaires) typically ask questions regarding what you have done in the past previously and are used as the first stage of selection, as part of the restricted tender procedure – open procedure tenders seldom use PQQs.

As discussed in the previous point, we are going to want to explain how our experience makes us suitable for delivering the contract.

Typically, completing a PQQ involves:

Filling in basic company information, such as registration numbers
Confirming that you haven’t breached legislation, or became a James Bond villain overnight
Technical and professional ability – or case studies (see next section)
A declaration and contact details

Some PQQs are different than others, however, this is the typical process. Some PQQs, such as PAS91s in the construction sector, consist of several additional sections, which often entails a far more detailed, evidence-based approach.

Case studies

Normally included in the PQQ section under ‘Technical and Professional Ability’, case studies ask you to describe 2-3 contracts of a similar nature that you have completed, or are currently undertaking, in the past five years.

These case studies are an opportunity to sell yourself and demonstrate previous successes, and how you can bring similar results for buyers.

With word counts typically within the 500-word mark, you could consider:

What is the scale of the contract? For example, how many properties do you renovate within a given period?
What is the nature of the relationship? How did this start?
How did we mobilise and deliver the contract?
Have you had any key challenges, and how have we learnt from them?
To summarise, what are the results? Did you finish on-time and within budget, and has the contract been renewed or extended?

ITT section

Now we move to the ITT section. This is where knowing how to write a tender will come in handy, as this is the proposal section. This is what we WILL do.

Typically, questions in a tender may cover the likes of:

Quality management
Health and safety
Environment and sustainability
Social value
Mobilisation
Service delivery
Experience
Complaints handling
Continuous improvement
Supply chain and subcontractor management

Deconstruct the question

Tender questions are often made up of several key points which a buyer will want you to address, with marks distributed equally across each section. Consequently, to maximise your marks, you should always deconstruct the question in such a way that all points are addressed. You can’t know how to write a tender without first breaking down the individual elements of the tender questions. Let’s look at this example:

The principal contractor must provide details of how you propose to manage your sub-contractors and supply chain (including placement of orders to ensure appropriate lead times).

In your response, please include details on the below:

Provide 2 examples of a problem which occurred completing similar work and how did you overcome this?
Provide 2 examples of problems you have faced with sub-contractors in the past and how did you overcome this?

So – let’s deconstruct this one. The bold sections are the mini-questions, shall we say, which should inform our structure. Note, the buyer has been kind to us on this one also, with some bullet points to point out some other points they want to see covered.

We could, therefore, adopt the following headings and subheadings:

Management of our subcontractors and supply chain
Placement of orders to ensure appropriate lead times
Problems occurring during similar work
Problems with subcontractors

As such, this clearly highlights to the buyer that we have addressed each point of the question, making their life easier. Not to mention it makes sure we cover the points they’re asking!

Make life easier for the buyer: be concise

Buyers will, potentially, have hundreds of tender submissions to evaluate, and as such, you want to write content that is easy-reading and clearly highlights conformance with the specification. Some pointers to make your submissions as easy reading as possible include:

Use headings matched to the deconstructed parts of the question
Don’t use filler or fluff content, this doesn’t add anything of value, and instead could frustrate an evaluator
On a similar note, be to the point – if you can say something in fewer words, do it
Bullet points are your friend – they are easy to read, and can often allow you to say a lot more with tight word counts

You still want to make sure that, even when you’re being concise, that what you’re writing both:

Is coherent, makes sense and answers the question
Is grammatically correct, free from colloquialisms and mistakes

The above will leave a negative impression with the evaluator; we’re all human, so we don’t want to put them in a bad mood. An unhappy evaluator is one that is more likely to deduct marks.

Avoiding filler content

This idea of being to the point is especially important when we consider word counts. It’s not uncommon to see these restricted to as little as 200 words, for example, whilst asking for several things to be covered in a response. Here, being concise and avoiding ‘filler’ or ‘fluff’ content is vital – see the example below:

‘Here at Tendering Company Ltd, we are passionate about quality and strive to implement quality into all we do’

This is a particularly empty statement which doesn’t answer the question, especially in the context of a short response. Think about it – this is 19 wasted words, nearly 10% of the word count saying absolutely nothing. No company is going to say they don’t care about quality, right?

Review and proofreading

So, once you’ve written your response, you should always make sure it has been proofread. After all, spelling and grammatical errors reflect badly on your submission, highlighting a lack of attention to detail.

Ask a colleague, a manager or director – an additional pair of eyes will always prove useful when:

Identifying mistakes, such as sentences that do not make sense
Contradictions or points which may come across negatively
Additional content or points that could be fed in

For example, here at Hudson Succeed, we use a three-stage checking process for all tender responses:

The writer will conduct a self-review before sending it for proofreading
This will be passed to another member of our bid team for review
Our Head of Bid Management, or Bid Manager, will review the content before finalising

Submission

Tender submissions can be requested by buyers through a variety of means:

Email submission
Postal submission
Uploading to a procurement portal

The latter is, by far the most common. To mitigate the chance of any potential IT errors, it’s always best to ensure you handle the submission in advance – usually days – to eliminate the chance of any last-minute mistakes and stress. Late submissions – even by 1 second – are often disregarded and won’t be evaluated. So, plan ahead, and get it submitted in good time. We always try to get tenders submitted at least a day prior to the submission deadline.

Sit down with our Managing Director, Jill Hudson

Jill has over 20 years’ experience with Tender Writing. She knows how lonely it can get when you see rejection in the early days.

I quite quickly went from a success record of <15% in my very early days of tender writing to >70% just by spending the time needed to digest feedback and eliminate silly mistakes. Mistakes I seemed to be making all the time without evening realising I was doing it.”

The thing you need to realise very early on is that feedback is the route to success.

No one really likes reading the feedback of how they’ve missed the point of the tender document. The response didn’t hit the mark – at all, or you’ve forgotten to proofread and your response to a question is littered with mistakes. Queue – kick yourself under the table and put the kettle on. It’s important to get back to the ‘Tender Basics’ every time you’re writing a bid.

However, without this feedback, you will continue to make these mistakes. The most common mistake you will make is not understanding the time it takes to respond to a bid correctly. Assuming you’ll write a winning submission in 2-hours is unrealistic whilst ABC Ltd are using all their resources.

Tender Basics:

You need to quickly realise that the only way you will start to win is to get back to the tender basics:

Believe you can win it – ensuring you have the right credentials.
Do your homework – research is key.
Spend the time needed to write a winning submission.
Don’t leave it until the last minute – this is how mistakes happen. Time Management when tendering is key.
Ensure you understand the point scoring mechanisms to ensure you are maximising your answers to the questions asked.
Answer the question with the information they have requested, not the information you believe they should know about your business.

We’re sure you’ve established that our main piece of advice over the many blogs we have written, is to be sensible with your expectations. If you turnover around £100,000 per annum, you’re not going to win a £2,000,000 contract. Nor should you want to put all your eggs in one basket like that. So, if this is the course of action you’re taking you will continue to receive the rejection letters.

Tender writing is an art form. It isn’t for everyone but you will reap the rewards if you spend the time learning and assessing what you need to in order to win.

Jill states “I’m a firm believer that the only person you should ever be in competition with is yourself. That way you will always get better.”

Eliminate the noise and … focus!

The 6 most common mistakes made when tendering

Throughout our 60 years of bidding experience, we have seen many mistakes made by suppliers who don’t understand how to write a tender. We want to share these with you to ensure that you never fall into these traps.

Not answering the question that is asked

Many companies answer a question based on what information they think the tendering company should know about their business, their processes and their experience. Instead of what they’ve actually asked for. If you are being asked to submit a response to a question, double check you’ve answered what they’ve asked of you.

Not doing your research

Research is king! The tendering organisation will want to see that you’ve taken the time to do your homework. Your tender response will be stronger for it.

Not taking the time to submit your best response

If you’re not going to give it your all, it’s pointless submitting a bid. Someone else will put all of their company efforts into winning this work, and is it really the impression you want to leave for your business? We’ve all been there when we’ve seen the tender response 24 hours before its due, but sometimes it really is best to pass than to enter a response that isn’t your best work.

Missing the deadline, but sending it anyway

This shows a lack of respect for the tendering process, making it look like you can’t or won’t achieve the deadlines. Your tender response would be disregarded anyway, so if you’ve made a mistake and missed the deadline, don’t send in your response and use it as a learning experience.

Ignoring the requirements of the Invitation to Tender

Many tender documents will ask you to complete the tender documents in a specific way. Don’t ignore these requests. If the ITT asks for you to submit your response using their pre-defined questionnaire, don’t ignore this, use it. The client may fail your response for not following the guidelines provided. It’s a lot of work to get your tender dismissed.

Bidding for absolutely everything

So many businesses make the mistake of tendering for absolutely every piece for work and wonder why they don’t win anything. You’re so much better off responding to five tenders extremely well, then 15 tenders quickly and rushed. Create a tender checklist that gives you an understanding of the tenders you would like to win, can deliver well, and stick to it.

Need Support?

Using these tips and pointers, you should be well on your way to figuring out how to write a tender properly and take control of your Bid Management. If you’re struggling with writing tenders and need a bit of help – we offer four tender writing services.

Our Success

Bidding for tenders is a vital process for securing new contracts and growing your business. Depending on your industry, it is likely that your competitors are bidding for the contracts they’re securing. As well as other strategies such as marketing, tendering is one of the most effective ways to grow your organisation.

Hudson Succeed is a Durham-based business development consultancy. We were founded by husband and wife team, Jill and John Hudson. Jill has been supporting global organisations with their business growth efforts for almost two decades. Hudson was founded based on her experiences of tendering and procurement.

Across the Hudson Group, our mission is to make tendering a fairer and more transparent playing field for all businesses.

Whilst working with the 700+ businesses that we support, we noticed a common misconception from SMEs in particular. It seems that some SMEs are under the impression that they are too small to tender for work. This is not the case.

Our Head of Bid Management, Daniel Hall, said:

“You have to be realistic when making your bid/no-bid decision. You should always consider the contract value and assess the experience requirements before bidding.

However, there are advantages to being an SME when tendering for work. For example, the UK government has a target to spend £1 in £3 with SMEs. This means that public sector organisations want to work with smaller companies.

SMEs also have the advantage of not competing with industry giants on smaller projects. Larger businesses tend not to bid for contracts with smaller values, therefore increasing your chances of winning.”

Since launching our Hudson Succeed suite of bid writing services, we have been thrilled to work with businesses around the world. However, as a company with strong roots in the North East, it is always a pleasure to support local businesses.

Securing 4-years’ income for Imagine You Can UK

Imagine You Can UK is a leading provider of the National Citizen Service (NCS) in Redcar and East Cleveland. They also work across the North of England, delivering opportunities for personal development and employability skills for young people.

The company’s Director approached the Hudson Succeed team and enquired about our bid writing services. They required support with the submission of a tender for the provision of additional delivery partners to provide capacity for delivering an NCS programme.

Challenges

When bidding for tenders, there will inevitably be challenges that you didn’t foresee. With experience, these obstacles become easier to mitigate. Due to the nature of this tender, we knew that we would encounter challenges with sensitive information. The work required detailed information regarding Imagine You Can UK’s safeguarding and data management procedures.

Tight deadlines also posed an issue to our time management. As the company was a new client, we did not have a bank of information at hand, as we do with returning organisations. This meant that the team had to extract the necessary information in a short timeframe to ensure maximum quality marks.

A detailed communication procedure was therefore created to obtain the information needed. The team then underwent a thorough bid plan, outlining the necessary activity for both parties.

Due to the deadline of the tender, work was allocated across our team of bid writers. They proactively took charge of each response and produced high-quality, well-researched and detailed tender responses.

Results

Our team produced 5,000 words within a little over 24 hours of the work being commissioned.

As a result, Imagine You Can UK were successful with their endeavour and they were accepted onto the framework. This secured them sustainable, ongoing income for the next four years. Due to this success, we have developed an excellent relationship with the company, and we look forward to working with them in the future.

“Daniel and the team gave me excellent instructions on the content they needed to complete this tender. The whole process was seamless and I’m glad to say we were accepted onto the framework. It was a pleasure to work with Hudson and we look forward to collaborating in the future.” – Dave King, Director at Imagine You Can UK.

Find more case studies.

Winning a DPS place for APM Cleaning Ltd

APM Cleaning provides commercial and domestic cleaning services on a national scale. The company contacted Hudson Succeed for support after identifying a tendering opportunity. They expressed concerns with developing the quality responses and providing the evidence required to win a place on the framework.

After our initial consultation with APM Cleaning, the Hudson team found another contract opportunity using our Facilities Tenders portal. The team made the client aware of the second opening which was a Facilities Management DPS with Prosper Housing.

Once the work was agreed upon, our team began working on both tenders for the client.

Challenges

The deadlines were very close together which meant that both submissions needed to be developed in tandem, necessitating splitting the workload between two bid writers. This, combined with ongoing tenders we were already compiling for other clients, posed a challenge to our time management.

APM was also a new client with Hudson Succeed which meant that required company details needed to be extracted.

Through the creation of Hudson’s staple bid plan, a communication procedure was implemented between us and the client. The two assigned bid writers collaborated effectively to ensure no overlapping in requests for information from APM.

Once completed, the tender response underwent a thorough, internal review process. Our Head of Bid Management took the lead on all stages of content development.

Results

Both tenders were signed off and submitted four days ahead of the deadline.

As a result of our team’s combined efforts, we successfully secured APM a place on the second DPS. We were successful in all the LOTs applied to.

We are still awaiting the results of the initial tendering opportunity.

Due to this success, we are pleased to say our working relationship with APM Cleaning has continued. We have since supported the submission of four more tenders. One has been successful. We’re awaiting the results for the others. We also look forward to working with the client on a future bid, later this year.

“The Hudson team was very reactive in their ways of working and handled all communications very effectively and efficiently. This partnership is credit to the recent win for the Prosper DPS for Facilities Management, which we were successful on all LOTs applied. We would recommend Hudson to any company who require bid support of any kind!” – Samantha Reid, Director at APM Cleaning Ltd.

Find more testimonials.

Advice for SMEs

We understand that bidding for contracts can seem daunting during a pandemic. However, it is important to remember that businesses are still actively seeking suppliers.

Understandably, some SMEs don’t know how to tender for work. The practice is more prevalent in some industries than in others. In construction, for example, most businesses are either actively tendering or have been involved in the process before.

However, bidding for tenders does carry advantages. For example:

Public sector contracts guarantee pay

It might seem strange to sign a contract and not be guaranteed pay. Unfortunately, we hear of this happening in the private sector more often than we would like.

The Crown Commercial Service’s Prompt Payment Code means that this won’t happen in the public sector. The code stipulates that invoices must be paid within 60-days. This gives suppliers peace of mind, knowing that income is guaranteed, and the profit can be accounted for.

Build your experience

If you’re a relatively new business, building a portfolio of experience is crucial before you go after the big contracts. By securing smaller value projects, you can demonstrate relevant and impressive experience when the time comes to “bid bigger”.

Also, building a portfolio of experience means building a bank of contacts. Bidding for tenders helps to connect you with buyers that you may not have had access to previously.

Frameworks can help your sustainability

Winning places on long-term frameworks increase your chances of securing contracts sustainably. Some frameworks can last up to 10-years or more. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to bid for this work as the projects are published.

So, time to get cracking

Our team of experienced bid writers and managers are on-hand to provide whatever level of support you require with your qualitative submissions, from writing bids, to help with the tending process.

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

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

The post How to write a tender: The Complete Guide appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Hudson helps iLine Technologies

Robyn Crawford — Wed, 18 Mar 2020 09:00:39 +0000

Bid Management Case Study

Last updated: Dec 17, 2021 @ 9:53 am

Who are iLine?

iLine Technologies is a member of iGroup conglomerate – involved in all things trenchless.

Founded in 2012 in Northampton by Gary Houghton and Nick Sheehan, iLine is the UK’s leading specialist in culvert and gravity sewer. Relining works include:

Highways;
Rail;
Local authority;
Infrastructure;
Process industries.

What did they need?

The tendering process can be time-consuming for a specialised industrial company such as iLine. Unable to sacrifice other business commitments and insufficient bid capabilities in-house – there was only one option.

iLine required a bid management company to help their business grow. They needed a company that could help them access and source tendering opportunities. They required a company which could assist them in writing high-quality tender responses.

So, why Hudson?

Our tender writing services are for companies who are struggling how to win a tender. Or for those who do not have enough time to examine an extensive specification.

Nick Sheehan, Managing Director of iLine, discovered Hudson via a simple Google search. Thanks to the work of our fantastic marketing team.

Initial contact was made to Hudson Discover via a phone call with our Client Engagement Manager, Jamie Peacock.

After iLine’s specific tender writing requirements were established, he was transferred through to our Head of Bid Management – Daniel Hall. Daniel heads our Hudson Succeed team.

Our Hudson Succeed team is made up of the following roles:

Head of Bid Management;
Bid Coordinator;
Bid Management team;
Tender Writing team;
Bid Design team.

iLine could not have chosen a better bid management company to assist them. Our extensive knowledge, fantastic resources and win rate of 87% are highly commended. Our bid writers on hand to help with tendering for contracts.

TASK

What were the project specifics?

Leicestershire County Council released a tendering opportunity in November 2019. This was for ‘Bridge Arch Strengthening with Structural GRP Segmental Lining at City of Three Waters’. The anticipated contract value of this was a whopping £150k!

Super competitive, right?

iLine absolutely wanted to win this contract. Therefore, they required our specialised bid management services to assist with creating those compelling quality responses.

Responses that stood out from their competitors.

With every tender opportunity comes an elongated specification. And this one was no different!

With the preliminary stage of the contract due to start in January 2020, the tight deadline was approaching FAST.

What challenges did we face?

One of the most common challenges every bid management company does face is stringent deadlines. This was the main challenge during our partnership.

Nick Sheehan, our initial main contact, was on holiday during the major stages. Around the time of the submission date, iLine had multiple staff absent.

This made it difficult for the Hudson Succeed team to extract the relevant technical information from iLine within the timeframe. Technical information which could affect the quality responses significantly.

Action!

In order to work around the demanding deadlines of this bid submission, we formed a standardised but comprehensive bid plan. We complete this at the initial stages of any bid, so we can break down each question – what is it really asking?

By doing this, we could then accurately highlight exactly what technical material we required from iLine. The best contact within the company to gather that information was identified.

Leicestershire County Council set out quality questions that required information on iLine’s;

Health and Safety policies and procedures;
Resources;
Staff training methods;
Method statements;
Innovative methods;
Business continuity.

Health & Safety – example

Health & Safety is a huge factor in any construction tender opportunity. This is due to the construction sector being so high-risk and prone to hazardous situations. Hazards include:

Working at height;
Moving objects / machinery;
Slips, trips and falls;
Manual handling;
Asbestos.

The first question within this tender was;

‘Briefly describe how your H&S policy is communicated to staff’.

Okay. From this question, we could work out exactly what material was required from the specialists at iLine. Essential information to create that compelling answer.

We needed to ask iLine questions such as;

Can you provide your Health and Safety policy?
Who is your designated Health and Safety Officer?
What Health & Safety induction training do you offer staff members?
What ongoing training is provided?
Can you provide risk assessment examples?
How changes in Health & Safety are communicated to staff, i.e. toolbox talks, staff meetings.

We take this methodical approach to all questions asked. Ensuring the question is fully answered and all the relevant points are covered. This process gains maximum points and produces that winning answer.

The finished bid plan was sent to iLine within 48 hours of them deciding on this opportunity. After giving iLine over 24 hours to digest the bid plan, we arranged a telephone interview.

We retrieved all of the technical information required for the quality responses, from the specific questions we asked. After this initial phone call, Hudson Succeed was able to leave iLine to get on with their day-to-day business commitments. We required no further input until the review stage of the process.

RESULT!

Our tendering efforts and expertise won iLine an impressive £100k contract with Leicestershire County Council. By being organised and determined, the Hudson Succeed team gathered all technical material in enough time. We turned that material into a high-quality narrative. A narrative that fully adhered to the specification requirements and aligned with the evaluation criteria.

We submitted this bid 24 hours before the deadline.

iLine were so pleased with our Hudson Succeed team and our bid management company as a whole. They wanted further assistance with new opportunities.

iLine came across a new business opportunity on our Hudson Discover Construction Tenders portal. This was to be awarded by Vale of Glamorgan Council for Surface Water Sewer Re-lining and Restoration Works.

We are still waiting for this result. But we are extremely optimistic.

Testimonial

Nick says: “I came across Hudson via Google search on ‘tender assistance’ as our company were struggling to put together the quality submission when presenting a bid. From my first contact, Hudson were brilliant. After a few questions, they grasped the basics of our business and the industry sector we operate within. They took the stress and hassle of putting together the supporting documentation which now goes with the final submission. They left me to get on with what we do, and they needed very little support or input. In fact, they manage the whole tendering process from start to finish, and even submitting the bid. Jonny, in particular, drove the submission and was wonderful to work with. And on the first venture together, we were successful on a £100k tender. Highly recommend these guys”. – Nick Sheehan, Director at iLine (iGroup).

For more client testimonials, see our testimonials page.

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The post Hudson helps iLine Technologies appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Myth Buster: How to bid for a tender – Private and Public Sector

Emma Nelson — Mon, 02 Sep 2019 08:00:22 +0000

Myths Surrounding Private and Public Sector Tendering

Knowing how to bid for a tender is more than just understanding the basic tendering process. Understanding procurement as a whole, including the subtle differences of how to bid for a tender in the public and private sectors, is essential to being able to see consistent success.

There are several myths surrounding private and public sector tendering, most of which play a significant part in putting SME businesses off of tendering. Despite what you may have been told, most of the bad things that you will have heard aren’t anything like the reality of tendering.

If you’re interested in finding out how to bid for a tender, then read on to find out why some of the common myths shouldn’t be putting you off investigating the tendering route.

Public Procurement Myths

Myth #1 – “SMEs aren’t wanted in Public Procurement”

This is not true at all and should definitely not be putting you off of tendering. In fact, the government has overhauled the way it buys goods and services, specifically with the aim of helping more SMEs to bid for contracts.

For instance, some of the legislation that has been brought in to make sure procurement is fairer to SMEs includes these rules:

It is now a legal requirement for public bodies (i.e. schools, hospitals, local councils) to pay suppliers within 30 days of invoice.
Selection Questionnaires are no longer compulsory if the contract value is under the EU threshold (this currently stands for Supplies and Service contracts at £118,133 for Central Government; £181,302 for the wider public sectors and £65,630 for Small Lots).
Large contracts are to be split into smaller Lots to create more opportunities for smaller businesses (this often takes the form of Frameworks or Dynamic Purchasing Systems).

Myth #2 – “The company able to offer the cheapest price will always win”

I can easily imagine that the first time somebody looks at what is involved in how to bid for a tender they could easily make the mistake of assuming that price is the most important factor, and that larger business will always be able to undercut the market and win.

This may have been true once upon a time, but these days all tenders in public procurement are evaluated using the MEAT method (Most Economically Advantageous Tender) which means that the quality of the technical response is weighted against the pricing to give an overall score. For a full explanation of what this means and how it works, check out this video on our free-to-use learning resource, Tender VLE.

Something else that is incredibly important to buyers in public procurement, is Social Value. If your company is small, but you can demonstrate that you make an impact within your local communities (and that you will be able to do the same for the communities associated with the contract), this will go a long way.

In fact, 85% of public sector organisations have confirmed that they consider the social value to have a high or medium impact on their procurement strategies. So, if you are thinking about learning more about how to bid for a tender, make sure you do your research into ways you can create social value as an SME.

Myth #3 – “The same suppliers win the contracts again and again”

Again, this is just no longer true. While it is true that the incumbent provider (i.e. the company currently holding the contract when it goes out to re-tender) has an advantage in knowing the demands of the contract, if another supplier’s tender scores are better over quality and price, then they will win it fairly.

Private Procurement

Myth #1 – “There are no rules or governing principles for the private tender process”

It might seem that way compared to public procurement, but luckily this isn’t actually the case! Although considerably less stringent that pubic procurement (which is governed by strict rules and regulations) there are still important legal principles which apply to private procurement, especially when turning over a specific amount.

Myth #2 – “You have to be on the inside to get access to private sector opportunities”

It’s easy to understand why people might think this is the case, as private opportunities aren’t as easy to find as public ones. Private opportunities are a little more hidden away, but luckily our talented team at Hudson Discover are skilled at finding tender opportunities from even the private sector and putting them up on 1 of our 10 sector-specific portals for our clients to find with ease.

If you want to try looking for yourself, then it’s worth checking the websites of private companies, who often list tendering opportunities, or may provide information about where you can find them.

Myth #3 – “Private sector tenders don’t use structured tender processes”

This is not strictly true. Just like public procurement, private tenders can use basic ITT formats, RFPs, RFTs or similar. The big difference, is even if the contract is worth more than the EU threshold, you are not lawfully required to fill out a Supplier Questionnaire/Pre-Qualification Questionnaire or an ESPD (European Single Procurement Document). You may be asked to fill out a simplified form concerning your basic company information, but it is highly unlikely to be as detailed as the requirements for public procurement.

So, if you are concerned about how to bid for a tender in the private sector, then don’t be. At best, it should be a simpler process than tendering in the public sector, and at worst it may be a little less structured.

Further Support

If you are still unsure about how to bid for a tender in either the public or private sector, then check out our free, online learning resource; Tender VLE. There are numerous videos covering all kinds of different information on tendering, with more being added regularly.

If you have any real concerns or queries about how to bid for a tender, then contact our Hudson Succeed team today for a free chat about tender opportunities, procurement protocol and (if you’re still not convinced!) tendering myths that may be putting you off.

Need assistance when writing your next bids and tenders?

Tender Writing

Tender Ready

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

Tender Improvement

Tender Mentor

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

Discover Elite

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

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

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

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

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The post Myth Buster: How to bid for a tender – Private and Public Sector appeared first on Tender Consultants.

tender writing consultants Archives - Tender Consultants

How to get a bid consultant?

How to get a bid consultant!

What is a bid consultant?

Why do I need a bid consultant?

Do I need a bid consultant for the public sector?

What do we do?

We offer four packages:

Tender Writing

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

Tender Mentor

What can we bring to the table?

Unique writing skills

Professional process

Remote work

Understanding documents

Higher chance of success

Cost-effective

Experience

Okay, so I need a bid consultant… Where do I find one?

Additional support:

Discover Elite

Our other divisions:

Vocal

Alpha

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

Win more contracts with a tender consultant

Improve your win rate with a tender consultant

What are tender consultants and how can they help you?

A tender consultant has industry knowledge

Tender consultants are experts in their field of writing

Communication is second to none

Tender consultants have controlled project management abilities

How can a government tender consultant help you?

They understand the complexity a government contract can bring

A government tender consultant understands the importance of social value

A government tender consultant understands the MEAT

Let’s Summarise

Want to improve your win rate? – Enter Hudson Succeed

Tender Writing

Tender Mentor

Tender Ready

Tender Improvement

Need help with 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?

Discover Elite

Vocal

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:

Win Tenders: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed

Want to win tenders? Here’s how you can increase your chances of success!

What are tenders?

Where can you find tenders?

Tender tracking portals

What makes Hudson Discover unique?

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

Want to save even more time looking for tenders? Try Discover Elite

The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool offers your business:

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

How to win tenders

1. Professional writing and communication skills

2. Bid management abilities

3. Editing and proofreading skills