How to prepare a tender document

Last updated: Dec 17, 2021 @ 10:27 am

Are you a supplier, seeking to grow your business?

Are you new to the tendering process or not seeing success from your current bids?

If the answer to these questions is ‘yes’, then this blog is for you.

Tendering for contracts can be an effective way of reaching your growth goals. However, if you are new to tendering, there are a few things that you should know about how to prepare your tender documents.

What are tender documents?

‘Tender documents’ is a blanket term that usually refers to the literature you will need when tendering for work.

Sometimes, buyers will refer to their specification as ‘the tender documents’. However, in this context, the term refers to the documents that buyers may require from you.

Why do buyers request tender documents?

When tendering for work, it is important to provide evidence. When responding to the tender questions, it is vital that you can validate your answers.

Preparing your evidence in advance of the tender is possible, to a certain extent. There are ways to pre-empt the evidence you will need. This can be done prior to finding the exact tender that you would like to bid for.

The good news is that you decide which contracts you’re going to bid for. This means that, internally, you should have certain criteria that you look for in tendering opportunities.

For example, consider a care company looking to deliver care services to young adults. To bid for these contracts, they will likely need to have evidence of previous young adult care experience.

Ultimately, buyers use these tender documents to assess the capability of your company. They want to see that you will be able to deliver the contract to the standard that they require. Providing evidence helps the buyer to assess this in a measurable way.

Which documents will you need?

When we are asked how to prepare a tender document, it’s impossible to say exactly which documents you will need. Every tender is different, and every buyer has different requirements. The service you are delivering will also influence the documents that the buyers require.

In general, especially in the public sector, there are some documents that you are more likely to be asked for. these include:

• Company CVs

Here, buyers are looking at your team. They want to see who will be delivering the contract, should you be successful, and what experience they have. We advise spending time on preparing these CVs and trying to keep the style (both branding and language) consistent. It is crucial that you take this opportunity to shine a spotlight on each member of your team and demonstrate their capability.

• Policies & procedures

Buyers may ask to see your company policies and procedures, in relation to the tender. This means that they want to assess your processes for managing certain circumstances that may arise during the contract period.

Once you have established which services you will tender for regularly, you can ensure that the associated literature is ready. As mentioned in the previous ‘care company’ example, it is possible to pre-empt what the buyer will want to see.

• Case studies

At Hudson Succeed, we have almost two decades of experience tendering for work in the public and private sector. During this time, we have seen the vast majority of buyers ask for relevant case studies. In general, the golden number is three.

With this in mind, we would highly recommend preparing at least three case studies for use in your tender documents.

Tender preparation support

If this sounds like a lot of work, don’t worry. We understand that pre-empting, compiling and branding these documents can drain resources. Depending on your company size and in-house capabilities, creating these documents to a high standard might not be possible.

Introducing the Tender Ready programme

Tender Ready was created to support businesses who are:

• New to tendering and not sure how to prepare a tender document; or
• Already tendering for work, but don’t have the required documents to be successful.

Through our Tender Ready package, our Bid Writers will help you establish the contracts that you should be bidding for. From here, they can create the necessary corporate literature that you will need.

Our team will also help you to identify tendering opportunities. In addition, we will provide you with 12-months access to one of our tender tracking portals.

As part of our Hudson Discover offering, we operate the following 11 sector-specific tendering portals:

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

You simply select the portal that is relevant to your business and use the system to track opportunities.

Our portals were designed to save your business time and resources when finding tendering opportunities. We know that this is a full-time job because our team of Opportunity Trackers do this daily. They search thousands of sources and upload new tenders to the relevant portals. To provide even more support, we also send you an email alert when new contracts are uploaded.

Finally, as part of the Tender Ready package, we include a full bid writing service. Once you have identified the opportunity you would like to bid for, our Bid Consultants can write your tender responses. Alternatively, they can guide you through the process of two future bids.

Further support

We hope this blog has helped you understand how to prepare a tender document. However, if you have any further questions or require support with your tender preparation, please get in touch.

Our team have been supporting businesses of all sizes for almost two decades. Hudson Succeed are a team of multi-disciplinary Bid Consultants. They have worked with clients in numerous sectors from care to construction and IT to cleaning. They support over 700 businesses globally and they proudly hold an 87% bid success rate in bid writing. 

Call us for a free phone consultation, or email the team for more information.

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.