Expert Bid Writing

What is 'expert bid writing'? How is it defined?

At what point can you say, "hey, good news, I'm an expert bid writer now". This brief article takes a look.

Defining Expert Bid Writing

What does it take to a bid writing expert?

To be an expert you need to have a special skill, significant knowledge and a high level of experience or training. Your knowledge in the area should be beyond other professionals.

There is also the '10,000 hour rule', which is often cited as the required time and dedication in order to become an expert in a specific area.

When it comes to being an expert in bid writing we would expect:

Special skills: persuasive writing, communication, research, project management, sales, marketing.
Significant knowledge: across bidding and procurement.
Higher level of experience and/or training: bid writing training, bid management, capture planning, bid research, sales, formatting, graphics, tendering and procurement.

Missing anything?

Bid Writing Win Rates for Experts

In our sector, win rates are also a key consideration of course! You can attend every course, spend 20,000 hours on bid writing and still never win a contract... In this case, I don't think you get the badge of 'expert bid writer'!

Win rates should always be taken in context of course. Let's look at 2 quick examples:

Company A. 90%+ Win Rate - Expert Bid Writing Surely

You work for a company as a bid writer. For most of the bids you submit, they are the incumbent supplier. They also perform incredibly well on these contracts. They have market share as a result of a market-beating solution and customer service. It is of course also very difficult to beat their price. They also excellent at relationship building, business development and have a highly refined bid strategy to ensure they only bid when their chances are high. Their investment in marketing, is only exceeded by their commitment to Social Value, which is literally award winning...

As a bid writer your win rate is well excess of 90%. You are surely an expert bid writer!

With everything else that is in place (reputation, performance, price, solution, market share, bid strategy), could a junior bid writer achieve the same win rate? Or could a good bid writer actually get the win rate consistently in excess of 95%? Without needing to be an expert in the field? In this bid writer terrible for achieving these results?

Company B. 25% Win Rate - Terrible Bid Writer for Sure

You work for a company as a bid writer. For most of the bids you submit, they are sent to you quite last minute by a busy director. It has been sent via a tender alert and there is no prior knowledge or engagement with the client or their stakeholders. If you did win it, it would be setting up this new location and certainly any references and case studies you have are only in part relevant and also for the other side of the country. The business is small but successful. Their isn't a marketing, sales or design team and Social Value also sits within your role as bid writer. There isn't time for bid plans, formal win themes nor storyboarding.

As a bid writer your win rate is consistently 25%. You are surely a terrible bid writer!

With everything this bid writer has to fight against (lack of preparation, time, wider support and strategy), could a bid writer be expected to be produce more? Their win rate is 25% but due to the position of the business, their value must be incredible! Any win is down to them and their expertise, knowledge and commitment to work winning! Could a junior bid or simply a good bid writer achieve this?

Bid Writing Expertise and Win Rates: Conclusion

Context is key. "I have a 100% bid win rate". That's amazing, but of course less impressive if this is from one bid, which they supported and added little value in practice.

By offering expert bid writing services, we strongly believe it is about adding value and improving win rates. Getting a benchmark and watching return on investment, tender scores and ROI soar! Adding capacity is also important when it comes to bidding, but an expert bid writer will achieve so much more.

Expert Bid Writing: How Does T&L Compare?

Bid writing is all we have done for nearly 15 years! It is our passion. We have worked with thousands of clients and won billions of pounds of new business. We actively chase feedback and have had this on well over 2000 tenders! Each time we assess, learn and improve.

As a public supply chain expert we advise on both procurement and bidding. We therefore understand the expectations of buyers. In addition, we deliver training on sales and marketing sharing our expertise in selling into the public sector. We have been involved in developing national bidding standards, advising on government procurement procedures specifically around the engagement of SMEs and have delivered bid writing training to over 4000 delegates with amazing feedback!

We employ a team of professional bid writers from different sectors who are encouraged to share best practice and continually improve. They work within our quality assurance and management structure ensuring continual challenged and review, and that our bids are the best they can possibly be.

Our win rates are consistently in excess of 75%. Some of our competitors quote a far higher number, if this can be believed (please check their reviews). Does this make us expert bid writers?

Our focus is helping SMEs win public sector contracts. Our starting point and the reason for our engagement is often a lack of success and general frustration with the tendering and procurement process. Tenders are being missed, non-compliant selection questionnaires, and inconsistent ITT quality scoring. And you can average 75% win rate at Thornton & Lowe? Yes!!!! We are very proud of this. This is not the same across all clients. But across the 600 bids or more we now produce every year, two thirds win!

As a result our clients stay and 90% of our business is repeat. We have hundreds of 5 star reviews and testimonials.

How does Thornton & Lowe compare to our definition of expert bid writing? Pretty well we hope!