How do you use SWOT and PESTLE analysis to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses for a bid?

SWOT Analysis is the framework which is very important before we actually bid for any opportunity. This should be done in the competitive intelligence phase where we get to know of the opportunity and before investing any resources to the Bid. Also, gate decisions are most helpful to cater to these scenario. It help in assessing our internal capabilities and external factors that can affect your bid success. We should use this analysis for finding out the USPs, Differentiators and Discriminators, Advantages to help position positively in front of customer.

In my opinion a SWOT analysis should be ran from the point of the project and against the requirements. I’ve seen a lot of situations where a Weakness was actually an Opportunity, if addressed against the details of the project.

Considero a análise SWOT e PESTLE fundamentais para avaliar nossos pontos fortes e fracos em uma licita??o. A análise SWOT nos permite identificar nossas for?as, fraquezas, oportunidades e amea?as, fornecendo uma vis?o clara de nossa posi??o competitiva. Já a análise PESTLE avalia os fatores políticos, econ?micos, sociais, tecnológicos, legais e ambientais que podem impactar a licita??o. Juntas, essas ferramentas oferecem uma compreens?o abrangente do cenário, ajudando a formular estratégias mais eficazes e a mitigar riscos, aumentando nossas chances de sucesso na licita??o.

I would integrate PESTLE into the SWOT. So opportunities or threats arising from the external environment would become part of the SWOT analysis, which in turn links to the bid strategy. However, for large and complex tenders, I can see the benefit of having a specialised focus on PESTLE, before the integration into SWOT.

PESTLE is again one more framework which is used to analyze the external environment which can impact the bid decision and it is better to be used with SWOT analysis. Ultimately you are wanting to pursue only that opportunities that add value to your company and improve the overall chances of winning. In Trunkey/Large Bids or construction Bids the overall policies related to government, economic, social, technological innovations, Legal and environment's issues effect the overall bid outcomes.

PESTLE is quite relevant in Bid Writing and this can impact the Bid in many ways to identify the Bid opportunity, Industry or Domain and Client. To fill details we can make use of various places to get information. We can divide all the factors into six domains: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental. Every factor is important and we need to leave out any other information where we do not have much details.

SWOT and PESTLE Analysis if used combined can add wonders in Bid writing. We need to align with the customer's strategy and requirements. Utmost care should be taken to match the evaluation criteria of the customer and should have various proof points to show strengths, differentiating qualities, USP and what discriminators make you stand out from the rest of the competitors.

SWOT and PESTLE helps any organization to find out about the overall dynamics of any bid and adds various facets to the Bid which are very important for going ahead and major points where management should have attention about. While you consider all facets the chances of winnability increases and improve profit margin.

I appreciate this article falls within the "Bid Writing" page, but SWOT and PESTLE should be used way before any writing starts. For example: - When working with the client to influence and shape the RFP (or encourage the client not to go to RFP if you're the incumbent). - When qualifying the opportunity (bid/no bid decision) - When discussing win strategy (either as part of a kick-off workshop or as a separate win strategy session).