Responding to Tenders ?– Part 1 Personalising your solution

Now being on the receiving end of numerous tender returns I have greater insight into the levels of ‘personalisation’ that goes into them, I am still really surprised at the lack of it. I am fortunate to work with both the larger providers and SME’s and whilst most of the time the larger organisations absolutely nail this, more often SME’s can fall short of it. This undoubtedly, will come down to resource levels but what I would advise is bid less but put more effort into those that you do. That said, we do see feature dumping still from the larger organisations, whether it be relevant or not!

Before I go any further, I must say that I am not a bid writer, there are people far better qualified than me on this subject! However, I do read the output, I can be reading in the region of 6-8 responses to procurement exercises.

Whilst there is not the expectation that new material is written for every bid; it is expected that responses be tailored to the client in question. Obviously, there are many ways to do this, review websites, ask the right questions, understand the clients’ current challenges and pay attention during any site visits and on the site visits. Use the visits / meetings and any opportunity with direct client engagement to understand the drivers, what is not working for them and what is and relay this in your response with a solution. Also, note things about the buildings, are their any unique features or values that stand out, e.g. a stained glass window which may require specialist cleaning, a new sports hall that has been recently refurbed that needs to be maintained to a certain standard, community engagement initiatives etc the opportunities to demonstrate your alignment to the client are endless!

Why am I pointing out the obvious you may ask, highlighting surely what everyone does for every bid – well because whilst I believe that 90% of the time this work is done, less than 90% of the time do we see this translated through the bid submission.