Beware of Changing Tender Templates

If you’ve been involved in writing tenders, you’ll have most likely encountered a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Invitation to Tender (ITT) that made you want to pull your hair out.

Repeated or confusing questions, obvious grammar mistakes, and/or inconsistent numbering can be very frustrating. You may be tempted to fix errors or provide your information in a more logical order – but proceed with caution – it’s bad practice to alter the template provided.

Often, changing the tender documents can render your submission invalid. Even if your bid isn’t automatically disqualified or made non-compliant, changing the questions can get the procurement team offside and start things off on the wrong foot.

Although you might not like the order or wording of the question, it’s better to just put up with it than risk submitting a non-compliant tender.

Even if the same question is repeated three times, it’s the safest bet to answer it three times than to delete one or leave it blank. If you notice contradictory questions or missing information, your best bet is to submit a formal clarification. Instead of trying to creatively interpret an unclear RFT or ITT yourself, make the Principal’s procurement team clarify what they are looking for.

A good trick is matching your numbering to the numbering in the RFT. This makes it easy for assessors to quickly find answers and demonstrates that you haven’t changed the questions.

Our advice is to keep to their structure and keep your answers clear and succinct to make things as clear as possible to the audience scoring your bid.?

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