The Hidden Costs of Recruiting the Wrong Bid Writer
For many businesses the quality of your bid writing team can make the difference between real growth and costly missed opportunities. At Thornton & Lowe, we regularly work with businesses who have underestimated the true impact of poor recruitment decisions when it comes to bid writers.... We provide a quick fix with our outsourced bid writing services, but if the business requires their own team - we then help them recruit and and train it!
Understanding the True Financial Impact
When calculating the cost of employing a bid writer, many organisations focus solely on the base salary or a day rate. However, the reality is considerably more complex. A typical experienced bid writer commanding a salary of £40,000, for example (often much more of course) actually costs your business significantly more when you factor in the complete financial picture.
Beyond the basic salary, employers of course have National Insurance contributions, pension payments, workspace costs, IT equipment, software licenses, training, and cover for holidays and sickness. These of course add up! Actual cost - £60k for this role? It can't be far off - especially when you consider training and management on top of this.
When Recruitment Goes Wrong
The financial implications become even more concerning when we consider what happens when recruitment goes wrong.
If a company does not have a developed process or in-house expertise on bid writing - it's a really tough role to recruit so quite often the wrong bid writer gets the job. You have the costs - we detailed above. But if they don't perform the impact can be more substantial than many roles of course! This is because they are working on your biggest contracts - your largest and long term tendering opportunities.
When a bid writer lacks the necessary skills, knowledge or cultural fit, they don't just fail to add value - they actively destroy it by damaging relationships with potential clients and even missing crucial/ must-win opportunities.
Need bid support? Recruitment support?
Contact us todayBuilding vs Outsourcing: Making the Right Choice
For many businesses, the question becomes whether to build an in-house team or partner with specialists. The answer depends largely on your tender volume, sector complexity, 'typical' tender requirements and internal capacity.
We can discuss your business goals and advise on what we think is best. We have worked with thousands of businesses and seen many different strategies - good and bad. We are happy to help - hello@thorntonandlowe.com
When Building an In-House Team Makes Sense
If your organisation regularly bids now, is successful and is looking to scale. With the right processes in place - you are in a great place to start recruiting a dedicated team. The role is also key! If they will be expected to work on policies, strategies, monitor all tenders, frameworks, portals from existing wins, respond to live PQQs, manage all tenders - design, format and submit the bid - it's a big ask for one person. Some can - but it's rarely sustainable!
See some of the skills of a technical bid writer and recruitment tips here. You may also be interested in 'what to consider when recruiting a high performing bid team'. This goes beyond purely the bid writing role and looks as bid coordinator, manager, research, 'head of' etc.
The Power of Professional Bid Writing Services
For many organisations, working with professional bid writing services offers several advantages - and it can certainly help a business balance their initial ROI ensuring they get both the strategy, process and system right from the start! With nearly 50 experienced professionals on our team at Thornton & Lowe, we provide expertise that would of course be impossible to replicate with a single hire.
Our clients get access to sector specialists, bid designers, dedicated coordinators, and robust quality assurance processes.
Finding the Right Balance for Your Business
The most successful organisations often adopt a hybrid approach - combining targeted in-house resources with specialist external support during peak periods or for particularly complex opportunities.
This combined with areas which do not add value being in-house and are more costly - such as tender monitoring or bid administration. Our bid admin service starts are £1000 per month! Our Search & Selection service costs less than £400 per month for most clients.
Developing Your Bid Writing Capability
Whether you choose to build an internal team or partner with specialists, developing bid writing capability is increasingly essential for sustainable growth (or we think so...). At Thornton & Lowe, we support businesses throughout this journey - with capacity, expertise, training and bid management software.
Training and Development
For organisations building their own teams, our comprehensive bid writing training courses provide the foundation for success. These programmes, complemented by our bid mentoring service, ensure your team develops the specific skills needed in your sector.
Systems and Processes
Effective bid management requires more than just writing skills. Our Tender Pipeline and Tender Library software solutions help organisations bid better! Ensuring performance, efficiency and 'bid continuity'.
The Thornton & Lowe Difference - Bid Writing Services
With over 15 years of experience in delivering bid writing services across multiple sectors, we understand the challenges organisations face when building bid capability. We have been through them ourselves! We we were founded in 2009 and have recruited our PAYE / directly employed team - learning lessons along the way. Our comprehensive approach - combining technology, training and expert tender services - helps clients achieve sustainable success. Being able to 'hit the ground running'!
Don't let poor recruitment decisions limit your tender success. Contact Thornton & Lowe today to discuss how our tried and tested approach can strengthen your bid capability and deliver measurable return on investment from day one.
