[Last modified: July 2021]

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

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

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

How do you know if you need a critical friend?

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

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

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

Common mistakes when you don’t ask for help

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

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

1. Inconsistencies

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

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

2. Spelling and grammatical errors

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

3. 500 words of waffle

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

How can a critical friend help you win bids?

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

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

Acting as the buyer 

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

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

Advising if this is the right bid for you

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

1. Your eligibility

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

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

2. Demonstrable experience

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

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

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

3. Your capabilities

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

Contract title: Home care support packages

Budget: £500,000

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

Deadline: 01-02-2021

Initial considerations you should make:

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

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

Tender Mentor

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

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

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

More bid writing support 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Last modified: July 2021]

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

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

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

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

Don’t panic! Let’s break this down

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

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

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

2. Set internal deadlines

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When responding to the buyer’s questions, consider;

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

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

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

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

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

2. Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes

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

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

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

3. Evidence, evidence, evidence

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

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

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

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

Should you be tendering for work now?

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

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

Do you need support with an ITT?

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

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

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

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

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

Could not recommend higher”

– Nick Steiert, Managing Director at Invasion Ltd.

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

– Matthew Meanie, Managing Director at MJ Support Staffing.

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

– Dave King, Director at Imagine You Can.

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

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

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

– Nick Sheehan, Sales Director at iLine Technologies.

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

– Samantha Reid, Director at APM Cleaning Ltd.

Find more client testimonials.

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

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

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

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

[Last modified: July 2021]

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

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

Why listen to our advice?

Allow us to introduce ourselves.

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

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

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

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

The public sector

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

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

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

Supplies & Services (except subsidised services contracts)

Schedule 1 bodies £122,976

Others £189,330

Subsidised services contracts

All bodies £189,330

Works (including subsidised works contracts)

All bodies £4,733,252

Light Touch Regime for Services

All bodies £663,540

Small lots

Supplies and services £70,778

Works £884,720

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

Types of public sector tenders 

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

• Open procedure 

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

• Restricted procedure

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

• Competitive negotiate procedure 

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

• Competitive dialogue

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

• Innovation partnership

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

• Design contest

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

Top tip:

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

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

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

The private sector

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

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

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

Top tip:

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

Flying through the pre-qualification stage

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

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

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

Top tip:

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

Managing the workload and saving time in the future

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

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

1. Start with a bid plan

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

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

2. Create supporting documents in advance 

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

3. Creating a library for the future 

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

4. Taking accountability for bid quality

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

Are you adding value?

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

What about social value?

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

This is good news for SMEs!

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

Further support

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

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

1. Tender Writing

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

2. The Tender Ready programme

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

3. Tender Mentor

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

4. The Tender Improvement programme

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Last modified: July 2021]

The submission of bids is, arguably, one of the most daunting elements of tendering for contracts. You have spent so much time and likely used many resources to get this far. Due to the digital world we live in, most submissions take place online. Buyers will often refer you to a portal where you can download information and upload your response.

This blog is the first in our Getting Ready Series, which will run throughout December. The series will focus on preparing yourself for the tendering process and submitting a bid. Whether you are a seasoned professional or new to tendering, prepare to pick up some top tips and expert insight.

1. Tendering for work in December

Firstly, we need to dispel the myth that you should wait until January to bid for contracts. We don’t know where this ideology came from, but we need to throw it out.

Our experts at Hudson Succeed always recommend tendering for contracts whilst you’re delivering current work. This is the case at any time of year. It means that once your current contract comes to an end, you have a ready-made pipeline to move onto.

We see so many businesses making the mistake of letting their development take a break in December. Your development strategies shouldn’t get annual leave! They should be a continuous process throughout the year.

December is the time to start building your pipeline. Secure your income for next year and get ahead of your competition.

2. Are you really ready to submit your bid?

When it comes to submitting your bids, we always advise completing a thorough proofing process beforehand. Ask yourself: am I 100% happy and confident in this tender response?

When working so closely with a project, it’s easy to miss mistakes. Even proofreading your own work isn’t thorough enough! You’ll likely read it as you think you’ve written it and gloss over any mistakes. An impartial pair of eyes is always the best way of ensuring error-free work.

We’re not only referring to spelling and grammatical errors. When asking someone to proofread your work, they should do so in line with the specification. They should analyse your work as if they were the buyer. This is the best way to guarantee that you are directly addressing the specification and answering questions.

Don’t get us wrong, it’s great to talk about how amazing your organisation is. With the passion you have for your business, it’s tempting to fill the tender response with accolades of your organisation. However, this isn’t the best way to win a tender. Buyers want to see in-depth responses that answer the question. Ensure you’re doing this by breaking down the questions before putting pen to paper (or fingers on keys).

When your impartial proofreader analyses your work, they should be ruthless. Ask them to not hold back and highlight any areas that could be removed. However, when removing content, it’s important to replace it with key information. Don’t submit 100 words if the question asks for 800, for example. Keep your bid writing concise and the information rich.

3. Different types of submission

If you have tendered for work before, you’ll know that each bid is slightly different. When reading through the tender documents to make your bid or no-bid decision, the submission section is equally as important. Make sure that you understand how the buyer has requested the final submission to be made. And of course, check and double check the deadline!

Submitting bids electronically

When the submission of bids takes place electronically, there are a few things to consider.

1. Firstly, consider the portal. Just because you submitted bids in the past doesn’t mean that you will immediately be able to navigate any portal. A new buyer might use a different system. This means that you have to be prepared. Even if you consider yourself to be “tech-savvy”, it’s vital that you familiarise yourself with the system in advance. Don’t leave it until the day of the submission to start looking at how to actually upload and send your responses.
2. Secondly, you should check how to attach your documents and the editing functions. See if you can edit the documents once they have been uploaded. Some portals will allow you to upload your responses, then go back in before the deadline and make changes. This is helpful if your team is working remotely on different sections. However, not all portals will allow this, so it’s best to get to grips with the system in advance.

Postal submissions

Believe it or not, some buyers will still request a postal submission. Sometimes, the buyer will even ask for both an online and a postal submission.

When submitting your bids through the post, consider the following;

1. Check with your local post office to ensure you leave enough time for your submission to arrive, in advance of the deadline. There’s nothing more stressful when submitting a bid than knowing that your tender will arrive within a hairsbreadth of the deadline time.
2. We recommend bringing all your internal timescales forward when working towards a postal submission. Disregard the final deadline and set a much earlier deadline for yourself and your team. This will help to alleviate any stress further down the line.
3. Take printing into account when planning your bid. Do you need to attach appendices or other documentation? Make sure you factor this into your bid plan before commencing the work.

Submissions over email 

Some buyers might request that the submission of your bid takes place over email. Here you should consider;

• The size of your files. You may need to compress your files or send the work in multiple emails. If this is the case, you should check with the buyer via a clarification question first.
• The reliability of emails. Even though email is a seemingly reliable source of communication, don’t be too assuming. How often have you heard “I haven’t received it” or “Is it in your junk?” around the office? Sometimes even emails can let us down. For this reason, it’s important to pre-empt any potential technical problems and send your work in advance.
• Remaining professional. This might sound simple, but you’d be amazed by how colloquial some people are over email. Remember, you’re still trying to sell your services/goods to the buyer. You still want them to pick you. Remain professional, you’re still representing your business.

4. How to prepare for a submission

Congratulations! You’ve finished your bid writing. But unfortunately, you’re not quite done yet.

Here is a quick checklist to complete before the submission of your bids.

1. Have you completed all the elements that the buyer asked for in the specification? This can be a simply ticking exercise. Go through the specification and tick everything you have created to ensure it is ready to go.
2. Have you thoroughly proofread your written responses? Are you sure there aren’t any spelling or grammatical errors?
3. Have you directly answered all the buyer’s questions, addressing the specification in detail?
4. Have you easily labelled and attached all appendices and supporting documents?

Depending on the individual tender, there may be more to assess before you submit. Luckily, there is support available to you.

5. Need a second pair of eyes before the submission of your bid?

The submission of your bids should bring about a sigh of relief. The bid has gone, and the outcome is now out of your control. However, if you need some support, look no further than Tender Mentor.

We designed our Tender Mentor service to act as a second pair of eyes before pressing the submit button. Re-reading and assessing is a time-consuming process, and you have already spent enough time creating the bid.

Simply upload your work and the accompanying tender documents. Our team of expert Bid Writers will assess your responses in line with the specification. They will check for any spelling or grammatical errors as well as ensuring your answers meet the buyer’s requirements. Once they are satisfied that the bid will impress the buyer, you can press submit with confidence.

Why trust our Bid Writers?

Our team at Hudson Succeed have been helping businesses to grow through tendering for almost two decades. They proudly hold an 87% bid success rate and work across a multitude of industries. From Construction, to care, to website development, our Bid Writers are experts in winning. They know what makes a compelling, successful bid, and they are trusted by over 700 businesses, globally.

Further support

Need help writing a bid, support to increase your success rate or with the submission of bids? Get in touch for a free consultation. Our experts will assess the needs of your business and help you prepare to win more work, ready to reach your goals in the new year.

There’s no time like the present. Don’t be the person who says, “I’ll start in January”. Your competitors are starting now.

Stay tuned for the next blog in our Getting Ready Series, focussing on writing tenders and proposals, destined for success.

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

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

The post The Getting Ready Series part I: 5 things to know about the submission of bids appeared first on Tender Consultants.