A bid writer requires many skills, that's for sure. A project coordinator, policy interpreter, compliance focused sales guru, procurement driven solution maker, business content creating superhero... And they write proposals (RFPs) - they respond to tenders.
A bid writer develops convincing content to maximise the chances of winning new business. They often work hand-in-hand with sales and marketing managers, as well as operational and technical departments. 'Sales' focusing on relationship building, the operations team explaining how it will be delivered, and the bid writer, staying well-back but absorbing every key piece of information. Allowing them to craft a document which fully meets the buyers needs, adds value and makes it very clear why they should win the tender.
A bid writer, proposal writer or tender writer all typically provide the same role. They create persuasive and compelling content on behalf of their customer or employer to help secure a tender, contract or business opportunity.
The ‘bid’ or offer they put forward can be within a formal quality response document, like completing a questionnaire, which is often associated with ‘bidding’ for Public Sector contracts. Or from a more informal ‘brief’ (scope of requirements) whereby they have the flexibility to provide a written proposal, which is often designed and looks more like a marketing document, though developed for the specific opportunity. This is often associated with private sector contracts, though there is overall across the two.
A bid writer creates persuasive and compelling content on behalf of their customer or employer to help secure a tender, contract or business opportunity.
At Thornton & Lowe, we have developed our business, structure and team to be exclusively focused on the role and benefits of a bid writer. We offer bid writing services across the UK.
The world of freelance bid writing offers businesses a flexible approach to tender support that many find invaluable in today's competitive landscape. Freelance bid writers work independently with multiple clients, bringing a wealth of cross-sector experience while providing support that can be scaled up or down as your needs change.
Unlike permanent bid staff, freelancers operate on their own terms – they manage their own businesses while helping yours to grow. Most work remotely but can integrate with your team when needed, offering a blend of independence and collaboration that suits many organisations.
Many businesses turn to freelancers when they face occasional bidding needs that don't justify a full-time salary. Small and medium-sized businesses particularly benefit from this arrangement, accessing professional bid expertise without committing to permanent headcount. Even larger organisations with established bid teams find freelancers helpful during busy periods when multiple tenders land at once, stretching internal resources thin.
Finding the Right Match for Your Business
What makes freelance bid writers particularly valuable is their adaptability. The best freelancers quickly tune into your business voice and values, translating your capabilities into language that resonates with evaluators. They'll take time to understand what makes your organisation special, then craft responses that highlight these strengths in relation to the buyer's requirements.
Sector experience often plays a crucial role in this process. While bid writing skills generally transfer across industries, someone who understands your field will grasp the terminology, compliance requirements and buyer priorities specific to your sector. Construction bid writers, for instance, understand how to present complex project management methodologies, while those specialising in healthcare know how to address patient outcomes and clinical governance frameworks.
The working relationship with a freelancer usually begins with them reviewing the tender documents to understand requirements and advise on the viability of bidding. They'll then develop response plans that address evaluation criteria before writing compelling submissions that combine your organisation's information with their bid expertise. Throughout this process, good freelancers maintain open communication, ensuring they're capturing your organisation's approach accurately while meeting the tender requirements.
Beyond the Words on the Page
What often surprises businesses working with freelancers for the first time is the additional value they bring beyond writing. Many act as informal bid consultants, offering insights about buyer expectations, helping prioritise future opportunities, and suggesting improvements to your overall approach to tendering.
The flexibility freelancers offer extends to working patterns too. When deadlines loom, many will work evenings or weekends to ensure your submission is ready on time – something that's harder to arrange with permanent staff. This flexibility, combined with their focused expertise, often results in higher quality submissions than might be achieved by stretching generalist staff across bid writing alongside their day jobs.
Cost considerations also favour the freelance model for many businesses. You pay only for the time and expertise you need, without employment costs such as pension contributions, holiday pay, or equipment. This arrangement means even smaller businesses can access professional bid writing support for important opportunities without breaking the budget.
At Thornton & Lowe, we've built relationships with skilled freelance bid writers across multiple sectors. Whether you need occasional support, help with a specific high-value opportunity, or regular assistance with your tender responses, we can connect you with writers who understand your industry and bidding needs.
Contact us today to discuss how our network of freelance bid professionals could help your business win more contracts.
Bid Writer: The Professional Behind Winning Government Contracts
What Does a Bid Writer Do?
A bid writer is the professional responsible for crafting compelling, persuasive and compliant responses to formal tender opportunities. Far more than simply writing text, bid writers are strategic professionals who translate a company's capabilities, experience and unique selling points into powerful proposals that meet the exact requirements of potential clients.
At Thornton & Lowe, bid writers form the backbone of our business. We employ bid writers more than any other role, maintaining a directly employed bid team so many of our clients don't have to. This approach allows us to cultivate exceptional bid writing talent while offering our clients consistent quality and reliable expertise without the overhead of permanent bid staff.
The Day-to-Day Life of a Bid Writer
The role of a bid writer is diverse and dynamic, with each day bringing new challenges and opportunities to make a difference to clients' business growth. A typical week might include:
Monday
The week often begins with bid kick-off meetings for new opportunities. The bid writer reviews tender documents, discusses strategy with account managers, and creates initial response plans. They'll identify which questions require input from the client and which they can draft based on previous successful bids.
Tuesday
Today might focus on drafting responses for several live bids. This involves researching the client's capabilities, reviewing case studies for relevant experience, and transforming technical information into clear, compelling narratives that address scoring criteria. Bid writers might spend several hours crafting a single response to ensure it perfectly balances detail, evidence and persuasion.
Wednesday
Mid-week often involves client calls to gather additional information or clarify technical details. Bid writers need excellent interview skills to extract the right information from subject matter experts who may not understand what evaluators are looking for. They'll transform these conversations into polished responses that showcase the client's capabilities in the best possible light.
Thursday
As submission deadlines approach, bid writers often shift into review mode. They'll proofread their colleagues' work, check compliance with tender requirements, and ensure consistency across all responses. They might also be involved in formatting documents according to client branding guidelines or tender specifications.
Friday
The end of the week might bring both bid submissions and new opportunity assessments. The bid writer ensures final documents are ready for submission and supports the handover process. They'll also begin reviewing new tender opportunities, advising on strategic approaches and developing response plans for the following week.
Throughout this varied schedule, bid writers maintain meticulous attention to detail while never losing sight of the strategic goals that drive successful bids.
The bid writing profession offers clear progression paths for talented individuals:
Entry Level: Junior Bid Writer
Typically joining with some relevant writing experience, junior bid writers learn the fundamentals of bid strategy while developing responses under supervision. They might focus on specific question types or sectors while building their knowledge base.
Mid-Level: Bid Writer
With 2-3 years' experience, bid writers take responsibility for complete bid responses across various sectors. They contribute to strategy development, manage client relationships, and mentor junior team members.
Senior Level: Senior Bid Writer
After 4+ years, senior bid writers lead complex, high-value bids and develop winning strategies. They provide quality assurance for the wider team and serve as subject matter experts for specific sectors or bid types.
Leadership: Bid Manager/Director
The most experienced bid writers often progress to management roles, overseeing teams and developing bid functions. They might specialise in bid operations, training, or strategic bid consultancy.
This progression reflects the depth of expertise that can be developed in the profession, with each stage building on the foundations of exceptional writing, strategic thinking, and tender knowledge.
What Makes Thornton & Lowe's Bid Writers Different
Our bid writers benefit from a unique working environment that emphasises both professional development and personal wellbeing:
Professional Development
Regular training on emerging bid trends and best practices
Exposure to diverse sectors, from healthcare to construction, IT to social care
Mentoring from experienced bid professionals
Opportunities to specialise in areas of personal interest
Clear progression pathways based on capabilities and ambition
Team Culture
We've built a diverse team of bid writers who bring their whole selves to work. Beyond their professional capabilities, our team includes readers, bikers, climbers, amateur chefs, dog lovers, film enthusiasts, linguists, sports fans, volunteers, and much more. This diversity of interests and perspectives strengthens our work and creates a vibrant workplace culture.
Work-Life Balance
We understand that producing exceptional bid content requires both focus and recovery time. Our approach includes:
Realistic workloads that allow for quality without burnout
Flexibility that accommodates different working styles
Social events that build genuine connections
Recognition of achievements both large and small
Support during challenging periods, both personal and professional
If you're excited by the prospect of a varied, challenging role where your writing directly impacts business success, we'd love to hear from you. Our bid writers take pride in helping clients win contracts that transform their businesses, and we're always looking for talented individuals to strengthen our team. We recruit for both our bid writing team and our clients via Bid Resource.
Don't be hesitant about making a change – sometimes moving on is exactly what your career needs. If you have questions or want to learn more before applying, we're happy to discuss the role and our company in more detail.
Interested in becoming part of our award-winning bid team?
Email your CV to: Hello@thorntonandlowe.com
Call us for an informal chat: 01204 238046
Within our bid writing team structure you can see how key areas of the role have been split into departments:
Bid Writing and Tendering
Within Public Sector tendering, a bid writer will often be tasked with responding to the initial shortlisting stage - pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ), Selection Questionnaire (SQs), European Single Procurement Document (ESPD), for example, which is focused on financial stability, insurances, references and accreditations. The invitation to tender (ITT), quality or award questionnaire, which goes alongside the pricing. The bid writer rarely gets involved with the commercial envelope or pricing but instead focuses on creating quality content to respond to questions from within the tender.
To do this effectively, they will need to be an excellent writer with a key eye for details and an effective coordinator who can often manage highly complex technical data quickly. They will need to understand the specification, buyer’s instructions, requirements and the questions they are responding to but also crucially why the business or employer they represent is the best place to win the contract. What are their discriminators and unique selling points specifically related to the tender they are bidding for.
To do this they need to work closely with others, the subject matter experts, who might be the Senior Management Team to understand the solution, or a Contracts Manager, but also HR, Finance and IT, for example. They will deconstruct a question and create a storyboard which they then use as a base to collect the information they need in order to develop the answers. As they are developing a draft for a question or section from within a bid they will share this with the wider team who will review, make comments and challenges, for the bid writer to then assess and amend.
Depending on the size of a business, a bid writer will often be part of a Sales or Marketing Team or within a Bid Team. A typical structure for a Bid Team for a company that is regularly bidding and for higher value contracts is:
Bid Director / Head of Bids
Bid Manager – multiple
Bid Writer / Senior Bid Writer – multiple
Bid Designer
Bid Coordinator / Bid Administrators
Within a smaller company, the bid writer could also cover the Bid Coordinator, Bid Manager and Bid Designer roles, reporting to a Sales or Marketing Manager or Quantity Surveyor, who would often work on the pricing side of the tender document.
Existing Bid Teams who have reached their own in-house capacity for tenders
By acting as a Bid Partner for businesses who do not employ their own Bid Team or bid writer / Manager. This will be due to their size or the volume of bids does not warrant a full time Bid Professional
Improve win rate performance. Often a bid writing company is asked to review and critique a draft bid or Bid Process due to a lack of performance. They may then take leadership of this division until it improves, which can often involve training the existing team, developing bid strategy and providing additional bid writing services.
The benefit of Thornton & Lowe, a Bid Writing Consultancy, is that you get a consistent and highly performing Bid Team but on an adhoc basis. We directly employ the bid writers and Bid Managers, providing continuity and accountability. Still, we fully appreciate you will not always need us as you may have peaks and troughs in bidding. We need to invest time to understand your solution, to understand what is different about your business so that we can be ready for your next live tender. We also employ Bid Administrators who can monitor tender portals for you, download the documentation and produce an Opportunity Summary to allow you to assess whether it is right for your company quickly.
Have a live tender and need a bid writing quote? Contact us - 01204 238046 / hello@thorntonandlowe.com
Yes, a bid writer can be an amazing career. It offers opportunities for creativity, strategic thinking, and contributing to the success of organisations by winning contracts. It can also provide a rewarding career path with options for management, freelancing or consultancy.
How Much Do Bid Writers Get Paid
The cost of outsourced bid writing can depend on the role and complexity of the project. As a guide a bid writer or consultant working on a day rate in the UK will charge between £450 and £750.
As a bid writing consultancy, we quote on a fixed fee or via our monthly contracted tender subscriptions. Also, offering specialised bid recruitment services for both temp and perm bid writers, our fees will depend on the role.
As an employed bid writer, or junior bid writer, salaries typically start at £25,000 but can increase quickly for high performers. It is reported the average salary for a bid writer is around £36,000. Beyond this and like at Thornton & Lowe, there are then career progression opportunities, with senior bid writer and Bid Management roles.
Do Bid Writers Take a Percentage?
In commercial, business to business or business to government tendering, rarely would a bid writer take a win fee or percentage of the contract. This happens more with funding to balance up the risk for smaller charities. When freelance bid writers bid writing companies charge a win fee it is usually at the request of the customer as a further incentive to maximise their performance or commitment to a project.
This is of course different to a bid writer working on a no win no fee basis. A bid writer is of course only part of the puzzle to winning a tender. They rarely price, nor having control of the solution being put forward, or the qualification of the opportunity which is being bid for. Bid writer win rates will also depend on the sector, the size of the client and their market share, whether they are the incumbent or not. There are many variables at play, so it's a rather bold (or questionable) move for a bid writer to work on this basis.
Bid Writer Courses and Qualifications
As detailed within our bid writer job description above, there are not any specific qualifications required to be a bid writer. However, it is an increasingly competitive area and at Thornton & Lowe, we are looking for the best. We offer many bid writing courses.
Once you have been vetted and approved as a freelancer in the industry, Thornton & Lowe will showcase your availability to clients in need of bid support.
