Keeping it simple - practical tips on how to tender for work. So yes, we are talking bidding and tendering!
- Check if you meet the basic requirements for the tender, such as financial stability, relevant experience, certifications, and health and safety records. Can you find proof for each requirement? If so, saved it a file for your bid evidence. Include a date on the title so you know when you need to stop using.
- If it's a really good fit but you fall short in a specific area, think about partnering with another company. Don't waste time on tenders you're not eligible for of course. 4,638,552 tenders in Tender Pipeline, which is our free tender monitoring site.
- Recruit a skilled and committed bid team to work on your tender. The bid or project manager is the key, but they need a willing team to work with them who understand the importance of the opportunity.
- Read the tender documents carefully, noting the scope of work, timelines, evaluation criteria, and submission format. List all questions and requirements, and seek clarifications if needed. Use the specification and wider requirements to create an answer framework.
- Research the client and their industry to identify challenges they face and how your solution can help. We are talking win themes here.
- Do you understand the pricing schedule? Are you confident in your commercials? Ensure your bid writing team understand how the price is calculated and what it means in practice with regards to delivery. Align your strategy with the client's evaluation criteria to maximise your score. The more you bid and have experience in the sector the better your insight on costs and market rates. Of course, ensure you highlight any cost-saving measures in your proposal to justify your pricing. With public sector tenders, quite often you can calculate your competitors' pricing (from feedback... useful for the next one)!
- Structured is the key to a good tender submission. Follow the guidance provides and answer the questions in the order asked, using their terminology. A decent storyboard may even make it interesting!
- Demonstrate your practical understanding and technical capabilities by describing your approach to the project, team's skills and experience, and case studies of similar work. This should be at a granular level but keeping away from jargon.
- By truly considering the practicalities, you will be able to demonstrate likely risks and contract challenges. This isn't saying - 'this could all go wrong!' - but you know about this sector to ensure things are put in place to keep it running smoothly! Collaborate with your team to gather perspectives on potential risks and mitigation strategies. Subject matter experts, surveyors and contract managers, for example.
- Demonstrate your commitment to quality by outlining quality control steps, creating a checklist of key metrics, and describing your method for catching and fixing errors. Who will lead on this activity? How long have they worked in the business? For what other similar contracts do they provide this role? Any further examples of why they, your wider QC team and your procedures are simply ace?
- CSR, sustainability and social value are more than a tick box! They are often now central to winning work! Create a plan, make it specific and easy to monitor and report.
- After submitting your tender - how did it go? Reflect and learn from it. Keep an eye on the portal to ensure you don't miss any alerts (our Bid Admin Service may come in handy here). Be ready to answer questions promptly, and prepare for a possible interview or presentation.
- Seek feedback on both successful and unsuccessful bids to identify strengths and areas for improvement. Create a spreadsheet to track feedback and make concrete changes based on the analysis. Quite often bid no bid processes can be ignored - but alongside, 'see I know we shouldn't have bid...' - can really help make changes.
At Thornton & Lowe we help businesses win contracts! Contact us to discuss: [email protected]
Our in-house bid team are amazing!
We are also now very proud owners of RFPVerse.com:
- For all things bid software related.
- And access to approved freelance bid professionals - without recruitment fees! Our fees are taken from the freelancer at 10%, which even if you do class this as a 'recruitment fee' - it's at least half the price of most fees :) This is BidTalentConnect.
