Most people think writing tender proposals is a black art full of mystery.

The reality is the public sector and commercial buyers are trying to achieve the same outcome...

... the right product/service, at the best price, from a reliable supplier.

The great plus of the public sector buyer is, unlike most commercial buyers, they tell you exactly what they want and how they are going to choose the supplier in the invitation to tender (ITT).

Hence when writing a tender proposal your task is to understand what the buyer wants and then explain in words, in the format they have specified, that you:

·         Have understood what they are asking for and why

·         Are providing what they have asked for

·         Have a clear plan for delivering it to them

·         Have the skills necessary

·         Have done it before successfully

Writing tender proposals really is as simple as that. The problem is, tender writing is a craft, much like playing a musical instrument. It takes lots of practice to become proficient and if you do not play regularly your skills decline.

Writing Tender Proposals - How Public Sector Buyers Think

Public sector organisations operate in a landscape which is politically driven. They spend tax payers' money to deliver services that are designed to support and improve society. Because they are custodians of ‘our money’ they have procedures and policies which set the boundaries within which they must work. In addition because they operate in a political environment, there are many organisations that have influence over the decisions they make.  This means they operate a formal invitation to tender process to ensure fairness and transparency.

What this means for you is that as part of your tender you need to demonstrate successful experience of delivering the same type of work, to the same type of customer in the same geographic area. If you cannot do this you will need to partner with other organisations to fill any gaps.

Successfully Writing Tender Proposals

Successfully writing tender proposals involves more than simply writing a good bid. You need to understand why the buyer is asking for the piece of work i.e. what internal and external policy objectives they are trying to meet and which stakeholder organisations have/will influence the process.

The tender proposal you write needs to explain how what you are proposing will help meet these objectives. 

Size Matters

Typically PSOs like to place contracts with organisations where the project annual spend between 5-30% of their annual turnover. Why? The answer is simple. If the project is too small a proportion of the provider's turnover, the PSO as a customer may not be strategically important to the supplier and hence it will be difficult for the buyer to exert pressure to get what they want.

If the contract is too large a proportion of the provider's turnover, then the supplier is unlikely to have sufficient resources in terms of people, equipment or finances to put things right if they go wrong. One solution is to form a consortia to bid for the contract. Here the combined turnover and capabilities can, subject to prior agreement from the buyer, be collectively counted.

Writing Tender Proposals – One Tip

If there is one piece of advice that we give you it is;

• READ the question
• UNDERSTAND the question
• ANSWER the question

The biggest mistake most people make when writing a tender proposals is they produce text within tender response documents that very accurately answers the wrong question.  When we were at school we were taught to read the question, understand it and answer it.  Somehow along the way in their careers people forget this basic advice. To clearly understand why the public sector organisation has included the questions they have put your mind in their place and ask why would I ask for this?

Tender Evaluation

Finally get your tender proposal evaluated by an independent proposal evaluator who understands what a good answer looks like. Even the best tender writers become word blind and the only way to see the proposal as the buyer will is to pick it up and read it from fresh without knowing anything else apart from what is written on the page.

Writing Tender Proposals – Help and Advice

If you:

• Want help to think through your pitch
• Need extra professional tender writing resource to write a specific tender
• Want someone to evaluate your tender

Then please contact us, we would be delighted to help.