10 top tips for winning tenders

Following on from our blog about how to make sure your bid is the winning bid I I thought it would be useful to share my 10 top tips for preparing winning tenders.  These are the 10 things we make sure we do in relation to all bids. 

Tendering for new business takes up time and resources. At BDS we are constantly looking for ways to improve the success rate for tendering. Here are ten valuable tips to help your business to win more tenders.

1.    Read the tender documentation carefully

Make sure you read the Invitation to Tender documentation.  It is likely there will be: contract notice; specification; pricing schedule; contract and instructions about how the tender is to be completed. 

 2.    Make sure you meet the minimum requirements to tender

The minimum requirements will be laid out within the contract notice. This will detail insurance requirements, any requirements of minimum turnover and any memberships of trade or professional registers required. 

 3.    Understand how the tender will be scored

After reading the evaluation methodology make sure you understand how the tender will be scored.  This will normally be split into commercial (pricing) and quality.  However when prices are set by the buyer the scoring will be 100% quality. 

 The public sector does not buy solely on price but will look for the most economically advantageous tender.  This means that quality will be considered alongside price.  

 If you are not clear how the tender will be scored ask using the Q&A (Clarification) function. 

 4.    Make sure you understand all tender requirements

There can be a lot of technical information.  It is essential you understand what the specification of the goods or services to be delivered and that you are confident you can deliver this.  

 If you do not understand then ask a question.  Again there is a facility to ask questions within the tender portals, make use of it.  Also make a point of reviewing the responses to questions other people have posed.  

 5.    Don’t assume those evaluating the tender know about you and your business

It may be that you are well known to the tenderer.  They can only mark/assess you on what you have submitted in your tender responses.   

6.    Be realistic in your tender responses about how you will perform the contract

It is really important that you are confident you can fulfill the requirements of the contract.  It could damage your business in the long term if you are awarded a contract that you cannot deliver.  However, if you are delivering on a smaller scale and are capable of up-scaling, go for it.

 7.    Within your tender responses include and make reference to relevant examples

By including examples of how you already do this you are demonstrating your ability.   This is one of the key aspects the tender is likely to be scored on.  

 8.    Within your tender responses only include information you have been asked to provide

This means you should not include general promotional literature.  Don’t include leaflets, brochures, hyperlinks, etc., unless you are asked to.  These are unlikely to be considered as part of your bid.  

 9.    Ask someone who has not been involved in the tender to sense check your response

Writing your response will take a considerable amount of time.  It is likely that you will live and breathe it during this time.   It is important that someone who is removed from the process to check your responses make sense and that you are answering the questions asked.  This is particularly important if you cut and paste.

 10. Don’t miss the submission deadline for the tender

Make sure you are clear what the submission deadline is.  The deadline will be published on the contract notice.  Normally deadlines are 12 noon but recently I was working on a tender that 4 pm deadline.  You will be unable to submit after the deadline so make sure you know when that is.   

It is recommended that you submit a response ‘in good time’.  Recommendations vary from 72 hours prior to deadline to 24 hours, however often we’re working very close to tender deadlines.  

Next time you are tendering remember these top tips.  Get in touch to discuss how we can help you with your next tender submission.