The tendering process can be complicated at the best of times and you may be wondering how to avoid all the potential pitfalls that can occur for those new to the world of tendering.

If this is you? Keep reading to find out our top do’s and don’ts for success!

First, let’s start with the basics…

What is tendering?

The tendering process is the process of submitting a bid in response to an invitation to tender (ITT) from the buyer. The bid is typically for the supply of goods and services to the buyer, and the process involves researching the project and preparing a submission, which is then presented to the buyer for evaluation.

The process typically involves drawing up a tender document, including technical and financial details, which is then sent to potential suppliers. The suppliers respond with their offers, and the buyer evaluates the offers and selects the most suitable supplier.

Why is the tendering process so complicated?

The tendering process can be complicated, simply because there are so many factors to consider depending on the industry you are tendering for. But that’s not to say that it has to be complicated!

At Hudson, we help at every stage of the tendering process — even if you only need another pair of eyes to check over your response, a review or an end-to-end writing and submission service, we can help!

Top 4 Do’s

• Read and understand the tender – this is the moment when you need to decide whether your business can successfully meet the requirements of this contract.
• Read the tender specification! – a successful tendering process relies heavily on whether you meet the buyer’s requirements in terms of information provided, and in the style needed. Answer all questions set in a clear and concise manner!
• Clarification – answering questions when you aren’t 100% certain what they are asking, can result in a low score. Make sure you always factor in time for asking questions and direct those questions wherever specified in the tender documents.
• Accuracy – the buyer is trusting you to submit information that is truthful and accurate as to what you can supply. You will also need to provide evidence of important documents such as CVs, financial status etc.

Top 4 Don’ts

• Leaving your submission to the last minute! – Rushing to meet the deadline or late submissions will either result in your response being non-compliant, scoring low or completely disregarded. It is vital that you stick to both internal and external deadlines in order to give yourself the best possible outcome.
• Never assume that all tenders are the same! – every buyer is different, therefore every tender specification you receive will be too! Make sure that you follow each tender’s requirements to a T, avoiding the generalisation of your responses. Always provide evidence and detail!
• Never include irrelevant material! – If you feel like you can’t answer the questions set and want to add evidence even if it’s irrelevant, don’t do it! You won’t score highly or at all depending on relevance. If you are unsure, always ask for clarification or seek advice from expert tender writers.
• Never get overwhelmed! – the tendering process can be both complex and time-consuming, particularly if you are new to it! Make sure to seek out help when you need it and take a look at our services below.

How we can help!

Tender Writing

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

Tender Ready

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

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

Tender Improvement

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

Tender Mentor

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

Contact us:

Contact us to find out how we can help your business SUCCEED!

Additional support:

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

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

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

Discover Elite

Upgrading to Discover Elite can optimise your tendering efforts!

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

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

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

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package

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

Our other divisions:

Vocal

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

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

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

Vocal specialises in:

• Copywriting
• Marketing
• Branding
• Websites
• Design
• Illustration

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:

• How to win a tender
• What is a Bid Writer?
• 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

The post The Do’s and Don’ts of Tendering appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Last updated: Jun 7, 2022 @ 4:20 pm

When writing winning bids, time is a precious thing!

Not only is there an imminent deadline, but if you don’t give it your all, it’s not only time you’re wasting – it’s money! After all, writing winning bids is the sole aim of partaking in the procurement process. Writing excellent, winning quality responses is essential to success.

Writing winning bids may not be rocket science, but there are things you can do to improve your chances of success.

Before you begin, let’s break down what we need to consider when you think about how to win a tender:

Sourcing opportunities

Making sure you are tendering for the right opportunities for your business is vital in ensuring consistent growth. It also allows you to ensure no precious time is wasted. Here are our top tips to sourcing the right opportunities for your business:

• Understand your company’s expertise

This can allow you to streamline your tendering efforts and ensure greater chances of success. For example, let’s say you are a surveying company that specialises in work with heritage sites and listed buildings. Streamlining your opportunity sourcing to fall under this criterion can help you locate opportunities that are right for you. As well as this, understanding your team’s experience and expertise can allow you to understand what areas of tendering you will exceed and stand out from the crowd in.

• Breaking down the opportunity

Whilst streamlining your approaches is a good start, you must break down the opportunity fully to understand its requirements before beginning work. For example, whilst you may specialise in surveying heritage sites, you may also fall short of the mandatory turnover requirements and failing to pick this up in the first instance may mean your responses go to waste.

Find new opportunities to grow your business.

Think about what the buyer wants

Buyers want to see exceptionally written tender submissions. So, to win a tender, you need to submit a bid that demonstrates your understanding of their requirements.

You can do this by shredding the specification in the following way:

• Break down the technical requirements the buyer has stated and form your bid to demonstrate you have the ability to deliver each of these requirements.
• Reference your response back to the Specification documents. Winning tenders are able to provide the key information clearly and concisely.
• Show the buyer that you want to fulfil their specifications and more importantly demonstrate in your tender that how you will do it.

Plan Effectively

To win a tender, you need to plan your response effectively. This is vital to ensuring success as you need to make sure that submitting the tender is the right thing to do in the first place.

The following tools can help you plan your tender submission:

• Storyboarding

Winning a tender can depend on how you write your responses. Storyboarding helps you to formulate a structure for each tender response and maximises its effectiveness. You will be able to write clearly and concisely address the requirements for each question.

• Attend Briefing Events and Site Visits

Briefing events are key to winning a tender. If a buyer hosts a briefing event it is usually for two reasons:

1. They are looking for feedback from contractors on elements of the specifications or scope of works to be awarded.
2. They are giving out key information regarding points of the contract which you need to take into consideration in your tender.

By attending site visits and briefing events you can gain detailed knowledge of the contract you’re bidding for. Use this knowledge to strengthen your tender.

If you’re unable to attend the buyer’s events or site, don’t worry. Nearly every client will disseminate information through the tendering portals to all contractors after the event. If they don’t do this quickly. Be proactive and request the information!

• Use the right experts

If you want to win a tender, you need to know the proposal you submit offers the maximum chance of delivering the buyer’s requirements.

Your company are experts in delivering your service or product. You wouldn’t be tendering for contracts if you didn’t believe in yourselves. So, when it comes to tendering, believe in your people.

Nine times out of ten you will need to name your proposed team to deliver the contract. Use their knowledge, experience and skills to help create your tender.

By doing this, you bring that expertise into the responses and demonstrate to the buyer that you can deliver the contract to their expectations.

• Agree content

Agree as early as possible the content you want to include in your tender. Having a clear plan of what you want to include in your tender means you can focus on creating the best responses possible.

To win a tender you need to be clear in your response. By agreeing early on what you want to say in your tender you can ensure this happens.

Here are 10 tips that will put you on the right path to successful tendering:

1. Know your deadlines when writing a bid

There will have been times in the past, especially if you’re handling more than one tender at a time, where a date may have been mixed up and you’ve realised that the bid is due in 24 minutes and not 24 hours. Read the tender timetable carefully. This will enable you to start planning effectively. Tender timetables are found in the Invitation to Tender (ITT) and look something like this:

2. Assess & digest

Make sure you assess whether or not the opportunity is the best option for you. We have been behind many projects in the past, working tirelessly on content and writing bids on behalf of our clients, when 2 days before submission, they decided it’s not right for them. Don’t waste your time and money – make sure it is right for you by closely digesting ALL of the information. Yes – it may be a 100-page document you have to read through but believe us – it’ll be worth it in the long run.

Check out our ‘To Bid or not to Bid’ for further information.

3. Break down the tender

At this point in the process, you should have seen the opportunity (contract notice) and decided that it looks like a good one to bid for based on the description on the procurement portal.

However, the basic information on the contract notice is not sufficient to determine if you will be able to tender for that opportunity. Methodically breaking down a potential tender is imperative if you want to use your time as economically as possible.

To break down a tender, you should:

• Log in to the relevant portal and ‘register interest’ in the opportunity you are interested in. This will give you access to the tender documents.
• Download all of the documents, even if you don’t think they will be relevant to you yet. Little bits of information can be squirrelled away in documents that you might think don’t hold any immediate significance.
• There is usually a document entitled “Instructions to Tenderers” or similar. Start with this one and go through it carefully. There is always generic content at the top, so it is tempting to skip past that section. No tender documentation is ever exactly the same. Buyers can embed useful information in different places.

Careful examination of the documents should yield you the following critical information:

• Contract value (it is worth noting that usually, even if you have to submit a pricing document, an estimated budget/value is provided. Very occasionally no budget/value is provided, but this is rare).
• Contract length.
• Key dates (i.e. submission deadline, clarification deadlines, site visit dates, etc).
• The scope of works (the exact service that the buyer is looking for, usually including a detailed specification, performance expectations etc).
• Minimum turnover required from suppliers. This is very important – if you do not meet the minimum turnover requirements you will not be considered for the tender, no matter how good your responses are.
• Key requirements of the tender. This can be accreditations that must be held or the experience you must be able to demonstrate, for example.
• Work involved (so if the tender is an SQ, an SQ with quality questions, and ITT if there is a pricing document to be completed, etc).

If the tender has quality questions, read through all of these carefully and make a note of what each question requires. Often you will be asked about the following:

• Staffing or recruitment methods
• Contract management
• Health and safety practices and mobilisation/implementation methods.
• Making a note of all these requirements at this stage will ensure you have all of your ducks in a row when it comes to writing your responses.
• Consider all of the information you have found and your company’s ability to meet these requirements. Sometimes you meet all of the basic criteria on paper, like turnover, but the buyer is clearly looking for a company with extensive experience in their sector.  If that is the case, it is up to you to decide if it is still worth using your time/staff/resources to complete and submit the tender.

4. Shred the specification on the bid

Good news! You have looked carefully through all of the tender documents and decided that you have the experience and commercial viability to stand a chance of winning.

However, writing bids and tenders is as much to do with attention to detail as it is stating your experience. Buyers want to know that you have a good understanding of the work that will be involved if you win. To demonstrate this, you need to showcase it in your tender responses.

9 times out of 10, the tender documents will include a specification. This will list exactly what it is the buyer wants from the supplier.

To make sure that your written responses are tailored to the buyer, go through the specification with a fine-toothed comb. Make a note of which sections apply to which quality question. This will help you to respond to the questions with the needs of the buyer firmly in mind. It will also show the buyer that you have a solid understanding of their requirements.

5. Gantt chart is life

Once you know the buyer’s timescales, now it’s time to get your bid management in order. This is where you create a plan for the tender at hand. No matter the size of the opportunity, whether it’s £10,000 or £10 million. It’s very important to make sure you’re not winging it and have a structured plan in place to manage your time and approach effectively. A Gantt chart is typically used in project management cases for longer periods, detailing responsibilities, activities and timescales. We love a good Gantt chart and feel this is a clear-cut process for managing those all-important milestones when developing and submitting a tender.

6. Create added value

To ensure that you are writing winning bids, it’s not just enough to demonstrate how you are going to meet the buyer’s requirements. You need to show the buyer what you can bring to the table that other suppliers can’t or won’t.

This is a daunting prospect for many tenderers. Nobody wants to put themselves in a position where they are promising the world and then can’t deliver on it.

However, the added value doesn’t have to be anything extravagant. Buyers are really concerned with things such as:

• Environmental considerations
• Working to help their local communities to bring social value.

Even a small business can demonstrate in their responses that they can contribute on this front by:

• Working with local businesses to establish a supply chain for materials. This will stimulate the local economy, benefiting the local community across the board.
• Recruiting from the local community (if appropriate to the tender). This gives you the opportunity to show that you are committed to the idea of helping the buyer achieve their social value aims.
• A focus on helping the environment. No matter your industry or the type of tender, there is always room to show how you are helping the environment by reducing your business’ carbon footprint. This can be achieved by working with environmentally-friendly suppliers/sub-contractors and using environmentally friendly materials.

7. Be specific when writing your bid

Something we see again and again is content that has been written in a generic way. Often, tenderers see that they have a specific word count to meet and worry that if they don’t write enough, they won’t score well. In a way this is true, you should always try to fill the word count, but don’t fill it up with generic ‘fluff’.

Buyers don’t want to read entire paragraphs of well-written prose that doesn’t really tell them anything about what you’re going to do. They want straight to the point, specific information that will tell them exactly how you plan to deliver the contract.

Specificity is key across all areas of your tender. In order to ensure you are writing winning bids, it’s advisable to be as detailed and specific as possible whenever the opportunity presents itself.

For example:

• If a question asks you if you have a Quality Policy in place, don’t just say ‘yes’. Give details about what your quality policy focuses on. This may be ISO 9001 accredited (or similar) and how this is used to influence all aspects of your operation.
• When a question asks if you have previous experience with a specific element, be specific! It’s not enough to say ‘yes’, you need to prove it. Use examples from previous contracts. Include details about the following:
  • When it was done.
  • How it was achieved.
  • If the team members with that experience will be used on the tender you are bidding for.

In short, it is better to write 500 words of specific, detailed content that will show the buyer exactly how you will deliver that service.

8. Know your portal

We’ve liaised with many customers who have never used a specific online portal before, and the submission of their tender documents has been delayed due to their lack of understanding or inability to navigate. We recommend you get to know the portal in the early stages. Have a click around and familiarise yourself before submission.

9. Provide evidence

Being able to evidence your company’s ability in delivering a service is absolutely key to seeing success in public sector tendering. It is standard across public sector tendering for buyers to ask you to evidence at least 3 past contracts that are active or have been completed, usually within the past 5 years. These contracts are also required to be relevant to the service you are tendering to provide. Top tender writing training tips regarding case studies are:

·       Ensure your case studies are well developed

Having detailed, thorough and well-developed case studies is key to success with tender writing. Making sure your case studies are well developed from the outset will ensure you can showcase your company’s abilities in the best possible light. For example, let’s say you are a structural engineering company tendering for consultancy services to bridgework, then having 3 relevant, in date and well-developed case studies relating to bridgework will be key. Ask yourself, is our experience strong enough for this submission? If the answer is no, then it is probably worthwhile re-evaluating before going ahead with developing a full tender response.

·       Ensuring you have sufficient experience

We understand that everyone has to start somewhere and not everyone can have 20 case studies worth of experience under their belt. You may be a small graphic design company that has just started out and you are looking to expand through public sector tendering. It is worthwhile having at least 3 case studies worth of experience before tendering to ensure your responses are shortlisted/ successful. It may be worthwhile contacting your local council and requesting to be considered for framework agreements that may have open as a subcontractor. This will allow you to build upon your company’s experience and sets you up accordingly to hit the ground running in tendering. Tenders can often be very large and extensive, with some construction tenders exceeding 15,000 words. Ensuring you do not fall at the first hurdle can be essential in ensuring your efforts are worthwhile.

·       Referencing your case studies throughout

Buyers want reassurance that you can deliver what they are looking for. Throughout the responses you create it’s vital that you make reference to your experience to back up what you are saying. For example, let’s say you are a tech company tendering for website design for a school. If you have experience operating in the education sector, then make sure this is referenced throughout. If the question is asking for your approach to back-end website design, then make sure you evidence this approach through your past successes. For further information and tender writing training tips, see our tender VLE video on case studies.

10. Check your bid not once, but twice

The importance of checking your finished response before submission cannot be overstated. Remember, it’s rarely as simple as filling out the SQ, responding to the quality questions and attaching the pricing document.

There can be Forms of Tender to be completed, Service Level Agreements, Non-Collusion Certificates and similar.

These are often hidden away as embedded documents within other documents. Before uploading your response to the portal, be sure that you have checked (and re-checked!) all documentation.

Writing winning bids isn’t just about the quality of your responses. It’s about ensuring that no stone is left unturned.

Check, check, check

There are times when you will need to provide information which is outside the scope of the buyer’s needs, e.g.

• Providing case study information where your previous work enabled delivery of similar requirements
• Providing information on previous challenges you’ve overcome
• Submit in time

This is key when you consider how to win a tender. Again, it is a simple concept, but you need to make sure you have set enough time aside to be able to submit your tender.

Submission guidance

Most tenders are submitted through online portals, and most of these are very user-friendly. The buyer will also provide submission information as part of the tender documents you receive when you are invited to tender. This will include details on the support available for you to use the tender portals and how to access it.

Be aware that sometimes a tender needs to be submitted through the post. You will need to make allowances for the postal service you use to deliver your tender.

• Royal Mail tracked services
• Private Courier services
• Hand delivery

Do your best to aim for submission at least 24 hours before the deadline. This will allow you ample time to double (or triple!) check all elements of your submission. Make sure that you are not at risk of wasting days (or weeks) of hard work through having your tender disqualified because of an oversight.

Proofread

If you want to win a tender, work with your colleagues throughout the tender creation process to review your response as much as possible. Having multiple pairs of eyes glance over responses can be vital in ensuring the correct information is included. You may have written a response to a very technical question that is not your area of expertise.

Having members of your team who specialise in this area look over it for any mistakes or added value can be crucial in developing strong responses. For example, you may be a grounds maintenance company writing responses to a sports grounds maintenance tender. Having key experts from your team look over your response will ensure that you are including the correct terminology and methods for providing the service the buyer is looking for.

Remember:

Price

Considering how to win a tender with your price is relatively straight forward. Price your services competitively to maximise your chances.

You are experts in your field. You will know the market price for the works you deliver. Work with your supply chains and subcontractors to price as competitively as possible.

Bear in mind that pricing is the most common reason for being unsuccessful.

Outsourcing can help you win your next bid

Winning bids can be a complex undertaking, especially if you are new to the process. Enlisting the help of a bid writer is an effective way of saving time and submitting a professional tender response. If you are looking to outsource a bid writer for the first time, there are a few things you should consider.

We have been crafting winning bids for almost two decades. During this time, we have supported hundreds of businesses in numerous industries. When working with clients who have never outsourced bid writing previously, we have noticed some common misconceptions.

Implementing these considerations can save copious amounts of time. Before you even begin to look for a bid writing service, make sure you consider the following five points.

1. Consider word counts and time scales before outsourcing

Before approaching a bid writing organisation, there are a few boxes that you should check internally. This will save you from extortionate quotes and potentially paying for poor-quality, rushed work.

Once you have found a tender, it’s important to perform a quick analysis of the work involved. The tender specification will detail the work involved, including word counts and the documents you must provide. Using this information, you can determine the timescales that a bid writer would need to complete the work.

Consider that the average bid writer produces 1,500 – 2,000 words per day. With this in mind, compare the overall word count to the tender deadline. Once you have a rough idea of the timescales, you can approach bid writing companies with a more informed perspective. This will help you to detect unreasonable quotes.

If the deadline is in two days and requires 10,000 words, it’s unlikely that a bid writing company will agree to the work. If they do, it’s important to consider the quality of the submission. You could end up paying an obscene fee, only to lose the bid due to poor quality responses.

2. Most bid writers will assume that you’re eligible to bid

It’s not enough to make your bid/no-bid decision simply based on the title or by skimming the specification. When you approach a bid writer, they will expect you to know that you are eligible to deliver the contract.

Their role is to write winning bids. To do this effectively, they need the maximum amount of time to craft responses that will impress buyers.

To help your bid writer, you should fully read and digest the tender specification, ensuring that you comply with the criteria. If this is not possible (specifications can be anywhere from 30 pages to 100+) you should inform your bid writer.

In the specification, you will find details of criteria such as:

• Turnover requirements
• Necessary accreditations
• Case studies
• Trading length.

If you don’t comply and still wish to bid for the tender, you should make your bid writer aware. An experienced bid writer will be able to advise you on the likely outcome, helping you make your bid/no-bid decision.

3. Expect to divulge company information…in detail

Once your project is agreed upon, your bid writer will commence the work. We can’t speak for all consultancies, but we have a robust way of managing our tender submissions.

When producing winning bids, we believe that the proof is in the planning! That’s why we begin every tendering process with a bid plan. The plan consists of timescales for both us and the client. This ensures that both parties know what is required and we can set expectations from the outset.

If we have never worked with the client before, we will need to gather information from the business. This information will allow us to write accurate bids that showcase your organisation in the best light.

Usually, we will require the following information:

• Examples of similar contracts that your business has delivered
• Relevant company policies and procedures
• Depending on the tender, company CVs could be required
• An organogram
• Design elements such as company logos and fonts.

When the service commences, please be prepared to offer as much information as possible. If you don’t have these documents, our bid designers can create them for you.

4. Likewise, expect to provide technical information

When it comes to your services, you are the expert. Your bid writer will most likely require some technical input from your organisation to accurately answer questions about specific methodologies.

For example, a tender for architecture services will require technical content about the intricacies of structural work. Your bid writer is unlikely to have the answers. To provide specialist information, they will need to gather information from you.

Of course, it is helpful and more efficient if your business has already created methodology statements. If this is not possible, in most cases, your bid writer will be able to gather information over the phone. Once they have this technical input from you, they can begin to create impressive responses.

At Hudson Succeed, we know that winning bids requires technical and accurate details. As multi-disciplinary bid writers, we have acquired some specialist knowledge over the years. However, if the buyer requires technical information, we will always consult with you first. This ensures that your responses reflect the extensive experience and knowledge of your organisation.

5. You are the expert in your field – we are experts in bid writing

As bid writers, the only aspect of your submission that we never involve ourselves in is the pricing element. The reason for this is simply because you are the experts in your business. We trust that you know how much to quote to profit from the contract, should you be successful.

Whilst we have experience in a range of industries, we never claim to be experts in one particular field. We are experts in bid writing. We know how to craft winning bids that can help your organisation grow.

A Winning Case Study

Hudson Helps iLine Technologies

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?

Tendering 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 that could assist them in writing high-quality tender responses.

So, why Hudson?

Our tender writing services are for companies who are struggling to create that winning quality response. 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 a win rate of 87% are highly commended.

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 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 was 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.

Finding business opportunities

One of the key things that Hudson can offer you is the chance to receive the right opportunities from the get-go. You won’t be days behind other competitors – if anything, you’ll be days ahead.

Our Hudson Discover service is the home of our industry-specific platforms. They enable you to view both public and private opportunities all in one place. These opportunities are specific not only to your sector but to your specialism within that sector. Get those all-important opportunities as soon as they’re published, allowing more time to focus on your time management when developing your response[s].

Do you ever feel like you’re getting nowhere fast?

The tendering process requires patience and careful planning. With that said, there is a reason why we recommend twelve months with us on our Hudson Discover platforms.

Being under the impression that within one month your profit is going to have soared and business is going to be worth five times as much isn’t realistic. However, never say never and if you’re seriously savvy and hit the jackpot, you can strike lucky, however highly unlikely the chances are.

External factors

There are many external factors that can influence the availability of tenders. The end and start of a financial year can encourage firms to tender more or less depending on their stance and budgeting at that point in time. Changes in the economy can encourage particular sectors to tighten their purse strings. On the other hand, it could create competition and a surge of invitations.

Particular advances in technology and news reporting on such aspects can also have an impact, dependent on what exactly that is and how influential it is on the sector. All of these things and more are the reasoning behind the need to take a step back and utilise the time and available opportunities effectively.

Spending one month applying for every single tender on the table is most definitely not going to get you anywhere and could jeopardise your ability to write winning bids in the future. This is particularly the case if the client is known to repeatedly release opportunities.

Smart Tendering

The best use of your time will be to apply only for tenders that are relevant to YOUR business. Take a look at our article which is all about things to think about before you tender to get an idea of how to make a decision on what you should bid and not bid for. There are some really good pointers in here that will help your decision-making process.

The superior is to understand what is right for your business and what you’re likely to win. Put yourself in the mind of the buyer and be honest with yourself.

Further support

For more information about how to start writing winning bids, contact our bid writing consultants for specialist 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 Writing Winning Bids – 10 Tips for Writing Winning Tenders appeared first on Tender Consultants.

Not only is there an imminent deadline, but if you don’t give it your all and put everything you have into the bid, then it’s not only time you’re wasting – it’s money!

We’ve provided a few best practice principles to make sure you don’t create unnecessary panic at the last minute and can time-manage your bids more effectively. Understanding the tendering process can help you when tendering for contracts.

1. Know your deadlines

There will have been times in the past, especially if you’re handling more than one tender at a time, where a date may have been mixed up and you’ve realised that the bid is due in 24 minutes and not 24 hours as thought. Read the tender timetable carefully – this will enable you to start planning effectively. Tender Timetables are featured in the instructions to tender and look something like this:

2. Assess & Digest

Make sure you assess whether or not the opportunity is the best option for you. We have been behind many projects in the past, working tirelessly on content and writing bids on behalf of our clients, when 2 days before submission, they decided it’s not right for them. Don’t waste your time and money – make sure it is right for you by closely digesting ALL of the information at hand. Yes – it may be a 100-page document you have to read through but believe us – it’ll be worth it in the long run.

Check out our ‘To Bid or not to Bid’ for further information.

3. Gantt Chart is life

Once you know the buyer’s timescales, now it’s time to get your bid management in order. This is where you create a plan for the tender at hand. No matter the size of the opportunity, whether it’s £10,000 or £10million, it’s very important to make sure you’re not winging it and have a structured plan in place to manage your time and approach effectively. A Gantt Chart is typically used in project management cases for longer periods, detailing responsibilities, activities and timescales. We love a good Gantt Chart and feel this is a clear-cut process for managing those all-important milestones when developing and submitting a tender.

4. Know your portal

We’ve liaised with many customers, who have never used a specific online portal before and the submission of their tender documents have been delayed due to their lack of understanding or inability to navigate. We recommend you get to know your portal in the early stages. Have a click around and know your procedures for submission.

How to make the most your of your bid

1. Planning and research

Planning and research are a couple of the most important aspects when bidding for a contract. You want to make a note of all important dates and what documents you’ll need. These could include:

• Final submission date and time
• Clarification questions deadline
• Site visits deadline
• Documents that need attaching
• Format of submission.

When bidding for a contract, you should double-check that you meet the minimum eligibility criteria. You don’t want to waste resources starting a bid only to realise you don’t qualify on financial standing, for example.

Check that your business:

• Meets the economic and financial standing
• Have enough experience
• Meet the minimum turnover
• Has the resources to carry out the contract.

2. Address what’s in the specification

One of the reasons that SMEs don’t win a tender is that they don’t answer the questions in the specification. That along with not pricing their good or service right. It’s important when responding to public sector contracts that you address all the questions being asked in the specification. The contracting authority is asking them for a reason. These will help them understand whether your business has the capabilities and capacity to deliver the contract.

A buyer will often want you to demonstrate in your public sector contract response that you:

• Understand what they’re asking for
• Have the economic and financial abilities and resources to fulfil the contract
• Hold evidence of a track record delivering similar goods or services to similar standards
• Have a qualified and professional team to deliver the contract.

3. Price your services right

Pricing your services right is a crucial aspect of bidding for a contract. You don’t want to price your services too little as it may result in the contractor questioning your legitimacy. The evaluation criteria of every contract is different and depends on the buyer needs.  The weightings will differ, but generally speaking, you can expect a split between two or three things:

• Price
• Quality
• Social value (for public sector contracts).

The private and public sectors differ in how they award contracts. The private sector is bound and constrained by the same rules and regulations the public sector is. If a private organisation wants to award a contract on price alone, they can.

However, the public sector has certain rules and regulations they must meet to award a bid to a supplier. Public sector organisations will award bids to the most economically advantageous tender, known as the MEAT. The MEAT seeks to achieve the most value for money from a contract. A buyer will take into account a range of factors that will be specified in the tender documents. They’ll evaluate them both individually and in combination. They might include the following:

• Accessibility
• Technical ability
• Ability to deliver on time
• Innovation
• Environmental considerations
• Sustainability
• Customer service
• Quality.

5. Write a high-quality bid response

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

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

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

Tips to writing winning bids:

• Be clear and concise

You want to make sure that your tender response is clear, and the language is concise. If you use complicated language and long sentences a buyer may lose what you’re trying to say. Buyers might not understand your point and you may lose marks. Keep sentences short and to the point.

• Stick to the word count

Word/page/character counts are there for a reason. If a buyer thinks that a response needs a 1000-word answer, write a 1000-word response or as close as you can. A buyer will be expecting a response meeting this word count. Don’t go over and try not to write an answer that’s too short of the word count either. If they’re expecting a 1000-word response and get 300 words, they won’t be best pleased. Often tender questions have multiple aspects within one question. If you write less than the word count, there’s a good inkling that you’ll be missing out important information.

• Avoid overly technical jargon

Often, a buyer won’t be an expert in your industry, hence why they’ve put the contract out to tender. So, it’s important that you don’t use overly technical jargon. Use laymen terms were possible and explain processes in a step-by-step way if you can. When writing bids, it’s important you explain everything appropriately.

• Format your responses

Formatting your response can help you subconsciously get in the reviewers’ good books. Breaking your text up with subheadings and bullet points can help. A buyer would rather see this than blocks of text. This can also help make sure that you have answered every aspect of the question. Tender questions are known for asking three questions in one.

• Leave enough time for a bid review and proofreading

A common mistake that many suppliers make when tendering, is that they don’t leave enough time for proofreading. This is an important part of tendering for work. You want to ensure that your response is free of any grammatical and spelling errors. This may give off the impression of laziness and lack of attention to detail.

In summary

In summary, when writing bids, it’s important that you take into consideration a number of factors. You want to make sure you’re managing your time well. It’s no good writing a winning bid and ending up missing submission due to temperamental technology.

You want to make sure that your bid is the best it can possibly be. If you follow our tips, you’ll be well on your way to writing winning bids.

One of the key things that our group of companies can offer you is the chance of receiving the opportunity from the get-go, meaning you won’t be days behind other competitors – if anything, you’ll be days in front: –

Our Hudson Discover service is the home of our industry-specific platforms that enables you to receive both public and private opportunities all in one place, that is specific not only to your sector but your service within that sector. Get those all-important opportunities from when they are published, allowing more time to focus on your time management when developing your response[s].

Where can I find tenders for my business?

You may be wondering where you can find tenders 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.

Simply relying on CPV codes can result in missed opportunities as they are often mislabelled. Finding a portal that uploads and categorises tenders by keywords, location and budget and more can streamline the process. Our sister company, Hudson Discover, hosts 11 sector-specific tendering portals. One centralised and easy-to-navigate portal can help you save time, streamlining the process.

These sectors consist of;

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

Once signed up, you’ll have access to your own dedicated Account Manager. They’ll be able to answer any more 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.

Need help when tendering for business contracts?

No matter the sector you’re in the quality of your response matters. We understand that running your own business can be fairly time-consuming. You don’t necessarily have the time or resources to write a winning response in house. If this is the case, outsourcing to bid writing experts can help you win your next public sector contracts. Here at Hudson Succeed, we pride ourselves on being tender writing experts.

We proudly hold an 8&% 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. Whether you’re completely new to tendering or need a response proofread before you submit – we can help. Our services on offer include:

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 Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect public sector contract 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 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 public sector contracts.

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 Technology and Healthcare, for example.
• Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
• Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
• Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

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

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

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 WRITING BIDS – TOP 4 TIPS FOR TIME MANAGEMENT appeared first on Tender Consultants.