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When writing a response to a procurement tender, you want to make it stand out from the crowd. There may be tens of other applicants competing for one tender.
You want to persuade and demonstrate to the buyer that you’re the best business for the job. Producing a winning bid takes time. You don’t want to be rushed or leave it last minute.
The average bid takes 23 hours to complete end-to-end. Therefore, it’s best that you get on the case as soon as possible. This can help you avoid unnecessary stress and account for any unexpected delays. Working back from the submission date can help you form a timeline. Remember to consider time for proofreading and revisions.
If you don’t have this time to hand, there are options. You can outsource it to a bid writing professional who will also have a better win rate.
When you complete a procurement tender, you can expect to be asked quality questions. The actual weighting of evaluation will likely be split between price, quality and social value (for government tenders).
Quality questions will be assessing your competence. For these, you can expect to demonstrate your capabilities and experience. You should break the question down into subheadings to make sure you’re answering every aspect of the question.
Include any relevant qualifications or accreditations that you and your staff hold. How much combined experience do you have? What other contracts have you fulfilled that’s similar in scope and style.
Each procurement tender is different. There is no winning formula that will work across the board. This is because each buyer has different needs. You should be tailoring your tender response to the specification and the buyer’s needs.
Reading the tender documents can help you gain a better understanding of what the buyer is expecting and wanting. Within them, it will detail certain things you need to include. It will give you a better idea of the aim of the contract and what the buyer is trying to achieve. It’s up to you to write the best answer including this information to win the contract.
Every procurement tender will require you to have a bank of experience ready to show. Buyers will require up to three case studies of past contracts you have delivered. These will likely need to be within the last three to five years.
They should be similar in scope, scale and complexity to the one you’re applying for. Including key challenges you encountered can strengthen your bid. This shows your flexibility and problem-solving skills. Both of which are essential to tendering for work.
It shouldn’t be surprising when I say that a winning bid from three years ago may score poorly now. Procurement legislation is always changing and it’s essential that you keep up to date with best practice.
You should be reviewing your approach to responding to procurement tenders to stay ahead of the curve. Due to the changing nature and priorities with government procurement, it’s best to pay attention. For example, social value wasn’t compulsory before 1st January 2021 – but for public sector tenders, it now is. If you submit a procurement tender for the public sector without addressing social value, you will lose marks.
When tendering for contracts, continuously ask yourself how you’re going to add value to the buyer. It’s not enough to just say how you meet the requirements. You need to state how your goods/services/business will benefit the buyer.
This may be via reducing carbon emission targets or using eco-friendly cleaning products. Including added value can help you write a winning bid. Government buyers have certain targets and initiatives they need to meet. Do your research and say how you can help them meet these.
For public sector contracts, the tender will be awarded to the MEAT. This stands for the most economically advantageous tender. It’s when a buyer will assess tender responses on more than just price. You should consider:
Half the battle is finding the right procurement tender for your business. There are hundreds of websites posting multi-sector contracts opportunities. Filtering them out can be a challenge and relying simply on CPV codes can lead to missed opportunities.
Ideally, you should be looking for a sector-specific portal that posts all tendering leads from your industry. Our sister company, Hudson Discover, hosts 11 sector-specific tendering portals.
What makes it unique, is that you’re able to filter search results by location, keyword, budget and more. This helps you find the right procurement tender for your business – streamlining the process and saving you time. They also host public, private and unique tendering opportunities, giving you more choice.
Our portals cover the following industries:
Once you’ve found the right bid for your business, you should ask yourself the following before you progress:
If you’ve answered yes to all the above questions, then it sounds like the right opportunity for your business.
Hopefully, you now have a better idea of what to expect from a procurement tender. You want to ensure that you make your tender stand out from the crowd. Demonstrating your business capabilities is essential to success. Think about how you can present added value to the buyer and read the tender documents carefully.
Keeping up to date with the ever-changing procurement legislation can help. Remember how things might differ with private buyers over the public sector. When looking for sector-specific tendering opportunities, one of our 11 portals can ensure you find the right tender.
If you don’t have the resources in house to submit a winning tender, we can help. Here at Hudson Succeed, we pride ourselves on being procurement tender writing experts. Our Bid Writers have over 60 years of collective bid writing experience and an 87% success rate.
You may not need the whole bid written for you. You may simply need it proofread before you submit it. We offer four bid writing support services:
Once you’ve found the perfect bid for your business, send it our way. Our Bid Writers can take care of the whole thing for you they’ll even submit it on your behalf. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown.
Our Tender Ready 4-week programme is perfect for businesses that have never tendered before. A Bid Writer will work with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully. They can also help you better understand the tendering process. Tender Ready offers your business:
If you’ve been tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts, our Tender Improvement package can help. Our Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents. They will work with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to a Hudson Discover portal and additional tendering development services.
If you’ve written your own tender response and need it double-checked for errors, Tender Mentor can help. A Bid Writer will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They will also ensure it’s in line with the specification before you submit. This can help you formulate a winning submission.
Additional support
If you only need the assistance with PQQs or SQs we can help. Send the information over to us and we can provide you with a quote for the work involved.
Upgrading to Discover Elite can help optimise your tendering efforts – even when you’re busy. Our two new time-saving tools can improve your competitor awareness and success rate when bidding for a contract.
The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:
The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:
Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.
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