3 top tips to improve your next bid

If you need help to improve your bid writing or if you to improve your next bid submission then read on…

1. Don’t leave it to the last minute

Like most things, if you leave it to the last minute to develop and draft a tender response the quality is going to suffer. The reduced quality can be in the form of poor answers that don’t meet the requirements or missing out basic, but vital, documents that demonstrate your eligibility to submit a bid at all.

Missing out vital documents

We’ve seen scenarios before where an organisation has not made it through to the evaluation stage as a result of not submitting a document which demonstrates their eligibility to bid. If there are a large number of bidders then the contracting authority will look for a reason to reduce the number of organisations in contention. Don’t give them a reason to cut you out. Take the time to carefully check that you’ve submitted everything the buyer is asking for.

Bid quality

It takes time to properly consider the buyers’ requirements and draft bid responses.

We’ve read many bids where the answers were poorly worded, contained spelling mistakes and seemed ‘half-hearted’ and, frankly, lazy. Many seem to be stock answers that haven’t been tailored to the specific requirements of the buyer in this contract. If you want to be successful then you need to spend proper time on drafting quality bids. This is highly relevant to the second top tip below.

2. Read the requirements properly

We’ve evaluated many bids where the answers only vaguely reference the buyers’ requirements.

Don’t just skim the headings and the text and consider that copying and pasting a previous answer which helped you win a previous contract is going to work for the next one. Your win rate will go down.

You might get lucky if you copy and paste your answers from a previous bid but if you want to maximise your chances of success then you need to take the time to properly understand the requirements and develop a compelling offer which meets those requirements.

It’s important to understand where the buyer is coming from and whether anything has changed since the last time this opportunity came round. Has anything changed from the last time? Why? Think it through and draft accordingly to make sure you meet buyers’ expectations.

3. Think strategically

We’ve written before on this blog about aligning your offer and approach with the emerging and developing expectations of buyers. This is really important if you want to be successful over the longer term.

If a buyer you want to work with has just released a radical strategy on Net Zero then what is your innovative contribution to that? If a Local Authority has a new vision for place-based provision then what do you need to change in your approach of services that helps the Local Authority realise that vision?

You must be proactive around reviewing your buyer’s expectations, your offer and organisational approach to secure long-term success. Read buyers’ strategies, understand their expectations and do the longer-term work necessary to have a compelling story and offer that you can articulate in your next bid.

If you need help with any of this then please contact us!