Creating a winning bid starts earlier than you might think. Like any task – you will need to be organised! If you leave the bid to the last minute you will immediately reduce your chances of success. As soon as you are aware of the opportunity or are invited to tender, start planning! Look at the questions to see:

1) How much time are you likely to need to complete?

2) What information do you need?

3) Where are you going to get the information from?

For example, a 10 question bid will differ in planning to a 30 question bid. Tenders can be daunting but if you plan your bid – break it down in to bite size chunks – you’ll find the whole process much easier. If you need to be getting information  facts and figures from other areas in your business, make sure you contact your colleagues in plenty of time – giving them the time to get the data that you need.

Our security client has just informed us that their Invitation to Tender (ITT) has been a success. As a result they have secured a new contract with a public authority in Yorkshire. We worked closely with the client to develop a professional response to both the Pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) and the ITT.  We’d like wish our client the very best with the new contract and look forward to continuing to work with them.

We have recently supported a number of our clients with adding some branding to their tender responses. This has been from creating new logos and colours, through to development of existing branding. The difference this makes to the final submission is incredible. Not only does the client have a well written response, but it also looks highly professional and serious – really making them stand out from the competition.

Take a look at our services to find out more http://thorntonandlowe.com/services/marketing-and-design

Fantastic news for our domiciliary care client who have found out that their Invitation to Tender (ITT) was successful! We recently provided writing support to the client for a large ITT for a public authority in London. The client was informed of their success and have been asked to deliver a presentation to the authority. We have been speaking with the client recently, providing additional guidance and support with the development of their presentation.

We recently assisted our security client write an integrated services ITT and are extremely pleased to hear that the ITT was successful. The client has recently grown in size and service provision, so this was the first integrated services tender that we had worked on with them. This really is fantastic news for our client, who now is preparing a presentation for the buyer.

One of our clients has recently achieved the CHAS accreditation. Our client is a SME who designs and builds swimming pools. We provided support to our client for them to achieve this. We frequently see requests for CHAS accreditations in PQQs and ITTs, so having this will now open doors of opportunity for our client.

It is essential that you have a robust bid/no bid decision process. Naturally you need to look at the purpose of the service(s) being procured and if this forms part of your core business. However, even if you answer “yes” , your bid/no bid process needs to go beyond this. Tenders will often have specific criteria, such as insurance levels and turnover values. There may also be a requirement for defined accrediations, for example ISO9001. It’s important to highlight that these requirements will vary depending on the value of a tender, but equally they are pitfalls that can mean your bid automatically fails.

So, when reading through a tender as part of your bid/no bid decision, look out for these type of criteria. Some will be clear, stating that the bid will fail unless you meet a certain requirement. Others may not be so clear, in which case always seek clarification from the purchasing organisation.

This time will be value added time to you, as you want to avoid investing time and resources in to a tender for it to fail on a point such as the ones above.

When working with clients, we are able to advise and support on their bid/no bid decision. If you would like to speak to one of our team on how we can support you, give us a call on 0845 862 0154.

When you’ve completed all your responses, we can’t stress enough the importance of proof reading to check for consistency throughout the tender. When we say consistency, we are referring to a consistent message and consistency with all the facts and figures that you are including. We also refer to the simple issue of typeface and Font size. Make sure that if the Font and size has not been specified in the instructions, you keep to one format throughout. Also, check for alignment and unintended additional spaces between paragraphs.

We frequently carry out final checks on documents and tender assessments where we see various Fonts and sizes being used. You need to remember that your tendering is a competitive process, and you need to do everything that you can keep the assessor’s attention.

When approaching your tender, you should always think about what additional information is being asked for to support your responses. This type of information may be facts and figures, or specific documentation, such as an organisation chart. This information will help maximise your scores, so therefore it is essential that you spend sufficient time collating this. It may be worth writing yourself a checklist at the very beginning of the tender project and tick the items off one by one.

Make sure that your documents are current and up-to-date. For example, any accreditations such as a CHAS certificate are valid.

Brilliant news for one of our domiciliary care clients who have been awarded on to a Framework Agreement with Rochdale Council.This client is new to the tendering process and we provided support with writing their Invitation To Tender (ITT). It’s always brilliant news when a small business is successful with a public sector bid.

If you would like to discuss how we can help you with your tenders, give us a call on 0845 862 0154