Introduction to Bid Writing Consultants
As a professional in the health and social care industry, you may already recognise the essential role bid writing consultants have in tendering for care services. These professional skills are now essential for business growth when looking to win a place on a domiciliary care framework, for example. Outsourced bid writers, like Thornton & Lowe, use their procurement expertise, healthcare bidding experience, along their industry know-how and writing expertise to craft persuasive, compelling bids that significantly boost your chances of winning tenders and frameworks. They work meticulously, studying the tender requirements and your business offerings, to create a bid that is not only compliant but also distinguishes itself from the competition.
Bid writing or bid management consultants are essentially your secret weapon in the competitive landscape of tendering for care. They understand the intricacies of the tendering process, are well-versed with the language and terminologies specific to the industry, and possess an intuitive grasp of what the tender evaluators are looking for.
Below, we will dig deeper into the world of bid writing consultants, exploring their role in tendering for care and how they can be your game-changer in securing health and social care tenders. For information can be found in our Ultimate Guide to Winning Health & Social Care Tenders, which includes ‘Common Mistakes in Health & Social Care Tender Writing.’
What is Health and Social Care Tendering?
Health and social care tendering is the process where providers bid to secure care contracts from public sector organisations, often as part of a framework. These contracts could range from providing home care for the elderly, to operating a community health centre, or offering specialist healthcare services.
Tendering is a highly competitive process, often necessitating specialist knowledge and experience. This is where the services of bid writing consultants become invaluable. They understand the care contracts landscape and can provide strategic guidance to help you navigate the complexities of framework tendering.
The tendering process includes several stages, such as the pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) or selection questionnaire (SQ), the invitation to tender (ITT), and the contract award. Each stage requires a detailed response, and bid writing consultants can assist you in crafting high-quality responses that maximise your chances of securing care contracts.
The Role of Bid Writing Consultants in Healthcare Tendering
Bid writing consultants play a pivotal role in healthcare tendering. They have the skills and experience to craft high-quality, persuasive bids that meet the tender requirements.
Firstly, bid writing consultants know what is expected, know what a good tender looks like, and will have won, many contracts before! This experience offers a considerable advantage. Their experience is supported by efficient procedures developed to reduce the burden of bidding and ensuring a streamlined process. This includes from the start fully studying the tender documents to understand the scope, requirements, and evaluation criteria. They then work closely with your team to gather the necessary information about your organisation, services, and key differentiators. Thornton & Lowe has considerable experience and contracts wins for care contracts, but what makes a winning bid is a practical and detailed offer, supported by evidence and based on your solution. So, while, we work to reduce the impact on your team, crafting a winning bid is still a joint effort.
As bid writing consultants also ensure that your bid is compliant with all the tender requirements. This includes making sure that all necessary documents are included, that the bid is formatted correctly, and that all questions are answered in a comprehensive and compelling manner, following the instructions detailed within the tender pack.
Advantages of Employing Bid Writing Consultants for Healthcare and Social Care Tenders
Employing bid writing consultants for your healthcare and social care tenders can offer several advantages.
- They bring a wealth of experience and industry knowledge to the table. This allows them to craft bids that are not only compliant but also persuasive and compelling
- Bid writing consultants can save you a significant amount of time and resources. By taking over the bid writing process, they allow you to focus on your core business operations
- Bid writing consultants also provide strategic guidance. They can help you identify the best opportunities, develop a winning bid strategy, and improve your overall tendering capabilities
- At Thornton & Lowe, while we have supported hundreds of care contract wins, we do also work in other sectors. Our multi-sector and UK wide operation means we are able to monitor procurement trends and tender requirements in order to ensure our clients stay ahead of the game. We can drive innovation and make your bid stand out from the competition as a result of our wider experience and procurement insight
- Many of our clients are small and medium businesses; challengers in the market place bringing much required innovation and energy into the sector. Frequently, however, this also means they do not require a full time dedicated Bid Team or bid writer. They simply require a high-performing, proven and consistent Bid Team, but available when required or on-demand. This has been the foundation of Thornton & Lowe’s bid success partnership offer for nearly 10 years.
For a breakdown of the costs involved, see our blog on The Cost of Outsourced Bid Writing for Public Sector Tenders
Key Tasks of Healthcare Bid Writers
Healthcare bid writers work closely with your team to develop a winning bid strategy. This involves identifying your key differentiators, understanding your competitors, and crafting a bid that effectively highlights your strengths and capabilities.
Where we see real growth and scale, is when our healthcare bid writers provide ongoing support throughout the tendering process and beyond. This includes responding to any queries or clarifications from the tender evaluators, and making any necessary revisions to the bid, for example. But also sourcing additional opportunities, monitoring portals, reviewing competitors frameworks and market procurement solutions as routes for growth.
How Bid Writing Consultants Can Boost Your Chances of Winning Domiciliary Care Tenders
Bid writing consultants can significantly boost your chances of winning domiciliary care tenders. With in-depth knowledge of what is required a domiciliary care agency and how to get clients for domiciliary care in the UK, they understand the specific requirements and evaluation criteria for these tenders, and can craft a bid that effectively meets these requirements.
Bid writing consultants also understand the unique challenges and opportunities in the domiciliary care sector. Utilising a domiciliary care contract template and aligning with CQC policies and procedures for domiciliary care, they can help you highlight your experience, expertise, and capabilities in this area, and craft a bid that stands out from the competition.
Finally, bid writing consultants can provide strategic guidance to help you navigate the tendering process. This includes identifying the best opportunities, developing a winning bid strategy, and leveraging home care framework agreements to improve your overall tendering capabilities.
Understanding the Process of Social Care Bid Writing
Social care bid writing involves a range of tasks, from understanding the tender requirements within a social care framework opportunity, to gathering information about your organisation and services, to crafting compelling responses.
With Thornton & Lowe, this starts with the quoting process. If a new client shares a care tender or framework they need support with, we will review the requirements, discuss any gaps, highlight red flags, essential pass/fail questions which are required in order to bid successfully. If further clarity is needed we propose clarification questions you can ask at this stage. This is to allow you to further understand the opportunity before accepting our quote. It is of course essential your team ensures it is a good fit for your business and growth strategy.
Social care bid writers focus on both compliance and competitiveness. Some care frameworks only require compliance, especially with staffing shortages. This still involves making sure that all necessary documents are included, that you will create a pass, the bid is formatted correctly. Competitiveness is how your bid, or your offer and solution can be better than your competitors. What makes you the provider of choice? Part of a social care bid writers role is interviewing your team, extracting and challenging this content, comparing to what we know is expected and developing it wherever possible in line with the evaluation criteria.
Importance of Bid Consultancy for Home Care / Domiciliary Care Frameworks
Bid consultancy is highly important for home care and domiciliary care frameworks. These consultants bring a wealth of experience and industry knowledge to the table, which can significantly enhance your chances of success in securing a care framework.
Thornton & Lowe, is a proven and high performing outsourced bid writing consultancy. We specialise in public sector procurement, which offers significant advantages for clients outsourcing their domiciliary tender writing tasks. By directly employing our own Bid Team (currently 36), we can offer our clients a consistently high quality service, available on demand.
Experience is key; understanding the requirements and legislation for home care tenders, alongside wider health priorities is the base. Then using this knowledge and experience, alongside bid writing expertise and capacity, and in collaboration with an ambitious provider, creates a proven path to success.
How to Choose the Right Bid Writing Consultant for Your Healthcare Tendering Needs
Choosing the right bid writing consultant for your healthcare tendering needs is crucial. The right consultant can significantly enhance your chances of success, while the wrong one can lead to wasted resources and missed opportunities.
Firstly, look for a consultant with a proven track record. Do they understand the requirements of the tender and what you are looking for?
Choose a consultant who takes the time to understand your organisation and services. They should work closely with your team to gather the necessary information, and craft a bid that effectively highlights your strengths and capabilities.
Choose a consultant who provides ongoing support throughout the tendering process. This includes responding to any queries or clarifications from the tender evaluators, and making any necessary revisions to the bid.
Thornton & Lowe - Your Bid Writing Consultants Helping Your Business Grow Through Winning Health & Social Care Tenders
At Thornton & Lowe, we are your dedicated bid writing consultants, committed to helping your business grow through winning health & social care tenders and frameworks. This team also leads on GP services and dental tenders and frameworks.
With a wealth of experience in the healthcare sector, our team of skilled bid writers understand the intricacies of the tendering process within the care framework. We work closely with your team to craft compelling, high-quality bids that effectively highlight your strengths and capabilities.
Our goal is not just to help you win tenders, but to also enhance your tendering capabilities. We provide strategic guidance, help you identify the best opportunities, and offer ongoing support throughout the tendering process.
If you have any questions or would like to speak to one of our team, please contact us!
Key benefits of using Thornton & Lowe
Expertise: We write over 500 bids per annum, with a consistent win rate over 78% (including framework wins). With the nature of many of our SME clients this is excellent performance and why 90% of our projects are from repeat customers. We understand the intricacies of procurement and what public sector buyers are looking for. By monitoring tender portals, we can ensure you do not miss opportunities and have enough time to prepare your must-win bids. By working in partnership, we are also able to inform your bid strategy and use of frameworks as a route for business growth. We have worked with health and social care clients for the last years, offering bid writing consultancy, procurement advice and wider bid writing services.
Time Efficiency: Composing tenders internally can be time-consuming for senior management. Our service is designed to minimise client disruption. We can manage the entire tender process, from writing to submission, allowing clients to focus on core business activities and pricing.
External Critique: We understand bid and tender expectations. We can offer a fresh look and insight into your tender responses and bidding processes. For those with in-house bid capacity, we offer a bid review service, which acts to both improve your bid submissions and further train your team, as well as bid writing training workshops.
Budget Control: Quoting a fixed fee allows our clients to manage their budgets effectively. We work efficiently to maximise your performance and ROI from our service.
Contact us now - Contact us to discuss how we can support your care tender or framework submission. Let Thornton & Lowe be your secret weapon in winning health & social care tenders!
