Hiring a Bid Writer vs Outsourcing: What Does Each Really Cost?

If your business is bidding regularly, there comes a point when relying on sales teams, directors or subject matter experts to write tenders alongside their day jobs becomes difficult to sustain. The obvious question is whether to hire someone internally or outsource some or all of the bid function.

Cost will usually play a major part in that decision, but comparing a salary with an external quote only tells part of the story. The right solution for your business will come down to a number of factors: the full cost of each model, the capacity it gives you, and what happens when bid volumes rise or fall.

What does an in-house bid writer really cost?

Job titles vary between employers, but Indeed’s UK salary data is a useful benchmark for someone who will own bids from start to finish. As of October 2026, Indeed puts the average Bid Manager salary at around £48,840 a year, with Senior Bid Managers averaging around £62,749. Junior Bid Manager roles, meanwhile, come in at around £32,929.

Salary, however, is only the starting point when calculating the cost of an internal hire. For most employees, an employer also needs to budget for:

• Employer National Insurance
• Workplace pension contributions
• Recruitment and onboarding fees
• Software and equipment
• Training and professional development
• Employee benefits
• Management time
• Periods of absence and staff turnover

For the 2026/27 tax year, employers pay National Insurance at 15% on earnings above the £5,000 Secondary Threshold. They must also normally contribute at least 3% of qualifying earnings into an eligible employee’s workplace pension. Together, those two items push the cost of employment noticeably beyond the headline salary before recruitment, benefits or equipment are included.

Other costs of hiring

Recruitment and onboarding also have a cost, even when they are harder to express as a single annual figure. Finding the right bid professional can take time, while a new employee will need to learn your services, evidence base, stakeholders and approach to bidding before they can work as efficiently as someone who already knows the business.

As CIPD research indicates, staff turnover can be significant, and can create another period of recruitment and knowledge transfer, while existing employees may need to absorb additional work in the meantime.

Capacity is equally important. A permanent hire makes strong commercial sense when there is enough useful work throughout the year. Where tender volumes fluctuate significantly, however, the business needs to consider whether fixed headcount matches the pattern of demand.

Hiring a bid manager: example costs

To provide an idea of how much hiring internally can cost, here's a simple example of a business recruiting a bid manager on a £50,000 salary, using standard 2026/27 rates.

This is deliberately a simple example. Employers may have different pension arrangements, and some businesses can offset eligible National Insurance liabilities through the Employment Allowance. Recruitment fees, additional benefits, software, equipment, training and management time have all been excluded, so the real figure will be higher.

However, it provides a useful reminder that a £50,000 salary doesn't compare directly with £50,000 of outsourced support. You need to take into account additional costs, and ask yourself what level of bid resource the business actually needs throughout the year.

What does outsourced bid writing cost?

Outsourced bid support can be priced in several different ways, most commonly around individual projects or an ongoing package of support. Most specialist providers work on a project basis or through retained packages. You're paying for expertise when you need it, not funding downtime or overheads.

Project fees vary depending on bid complexity, contract value, and deliverables. A straightforward PQQ might sit at the lower end. A multi-stage public sector tender with extensive technical requirements will command more. Outsourced support can cover research, writing, coordination, quality assurance, and submission support.

Retained packages can offer better value for regular bidders, particularly where the requirement extends beyond individual live tenders. Monthly retainers provide guaranteed capacity at lower per-bid rates, often with added benefits like strategy sessions and pipeline planning.

What's included matters. Professional outsourced bid writing services deliver end-to-end management:

• Research and compliance checking
• Strategic content development and writing
• Deadline tracking and project coordination
• Graphics, formatting and document design
• Quality assurance and proofreading
• Final submission support

In most models, your internal team still owns subject matter input and approvals, but the delivery engine (planning, drafting, coordination, QA and production) sits with the provider. Reputable consultants provide fixed fees upfront with clear scope definitions. No surprise invoices, no hidden extras, no ambiguity about what you're getting for your investment.

Project support or ongoing support?

Ad-hoc outsourcing works well when bidding is occasional. You may already have enough internal knowledge and capacity to manage most submissions, but want an experienced bid writer for a particularly important tender. Alternatively, your team might prepare the first draft and use an external reviewer to challenge it against the scoring criteria. The cost is then directly linked to the opportunities you choose to pursue.

Retained support solves a different problem. Businesses that bid regularly can find themselves moving between periods where there is relatively little live tender activity and weeks where several deadlines arrive at once. Hiring enough permanent staff to deal with the busiest period can leave excess capacity at other times. An ongoing outsourced arrangement provides a way to maintain continuity while varying how that resource is used.

What are you actually paying for?

This is where a straight salary comparison starts to break down. A permanent employee and an outsourced bid team provide different types of resource.

There are benefits to both approaches. An experienced internal Bid Manager who understands the organisation in depth can be extremely valuable. They can work closely with sales, operational and technical teams and take ownership of bidding throughout the year. Outsourced support offers different advantages, particularly where you want flexible capacity, wider bid experience or an external team that can complement existing internal resource.

For Thornton & Lowe's contracted clients, quieter periods can be used for work such as opportunity research, bid/no-bid decisions, reviewing tender feedback, developing reusable evidence and preparing for important future opportunities. That changes the comparison from "employee versus freelance writer" into a broader decision about how the bid function should operate.

The cost of unused capacity

Bid workload rarely arrives in an even pattern. A business may have three major tenders open at once in February and very little live activity in March. That doesn't mean an internal bid professional has nothing useful to do during the quieter weeks. Good bid teams use that time to:

• strengthen case studies and evidence
• review buyer feedback
• maintain the bid library
• research upcoming opportunities
• improve processes
• support capture and bid planning
• train colleagues

The more important question is whether the organisation has enough useful year-round activity to justify its permanent headcount. A predictable pipeline does not automatically mean recruitment is the best option. Some businesses still choose outsourced or hybrid support because they want additional expertise, peer review or the ability to vary capacity across an uneven programme of tenders.

When hiring makes sense

Building an internal bid function can be particularly effective when an organisation wants permanent ownership of bidding within the business and has enough ongoing activity to support the role. A full-time Bid Manager may make sense where tendering is a major part of the sales strategy, there is a consistent workload across bids and wider preparation, or the longer-term plan is to build a larger internal bid team.

Internal resource can also work well where the organisation wants somebody involved day to day across sales, account management and operational activity. That can make access to information straightforward and help the bid function build strong relationships with the technical and operational colleagues who provide specialist input.

That doesn't mean all of the expertise needed to write a bid has to sit with the Bid Manager themselves. Even in a fully internal model, subject matter experts will often need to contribute detailed technical, operational or commercial knowledge. For organisations with enough sustained work and a clear reason to keep ownership in-house, those advantages can justify the fixed employment cost.

When outsourcing makes sense

Outsourcing is not limited to businesses with unpredictable pipelines or occasional tenders. It can also make sense for organisations with a clear, predictable pipeline that want access to additional bid expertise, broader experience or flexible capacity without expanding permanent headcount. The important question is whether the external support model matches the way the business bids.

For example, outsourced support can be useful when several opportunities overlap, an internal team needs extra capacity, sales or operational staff are spending too much time writing, or the business wants independent review and challenge. It can also provide continuity during vacancies or help improve bid quality where scores have stalled.

On a retained model, the relationship can be much closer to an internal bid function. A consistent external team can learn the business, understand its services and evidence, join relevant pipeline or strategy meetings and work directly with internal subject matter experts when technical input is needed. That reduces the need to start from scratch or provide a completely new briefing for every tender.

External support can also be used at different levels. Some businesses outsource most of the bid process, while others retain internal ownership and use specialists for writing, review, strategy, mentoring or additional capacity.

The hybrid model

For many regular bidders, the strongest model combines internal knowledge and ownership with flexible external expertise and capacity. The internal team might maintain stakeholder relationships, understand the opportunity pipeline and coordinate approvals. An outsourced partner can then provide additional writing capacity, peer review or specialist input when required. This is particularly useful when an internal team is already busy enough to need help during parts of the year, but the business cannot justify recruiting another permanent employee solely to cover the peaks.

It can also give the internal team more space to work strategically. For example, Thornton & Lowe's ongoing support can include reviewing bid/no-bid decisions, analysing feedback after submissions, identifying evidence gaps and strengthening the bid library when there is no immediate deadline. When an important tender arrives, the external team already understands the business and can move into live bid support.

Some businesses pair an internal coordinator with external coaching and review, which is where our bid mentoring service comes in. The result is a different type of capacity from calling a new freelancer every time workload becomes difficult.

Where the Bid Success Programme fits

Our Bid Success Programme is a 12-month outsourced option for businesses that bid regularly. You get a consistent bid writing team and a single point of contact who get to know your business and work as an extension of your sales team, rather than briefing a new writer for every tender. Pricing starts from £1,950 + VAT per month.

In cost terms, it sits between ad-hoc project support and a permanent hire. The benefits include:

• Predictable costs. The programme spreads the cost across 12 months rather than charging for each opportunity, which makes budgeting simpler than a series of individual project quotes.
• A team that knows your business. A consistent team and one point of contact means less time spent re-briefing writers and re-explaining what sets you apart.
• Stronger proposal content. We help you produce persuasive content that shows off your strengths, and we regularly score over 95% on the quality element of our submissions.
• Skills for your own team. Training and support to improve bid presentation skills means your people develop alongside the live bids.
• Use quieter periods productively. Support can shift towards opportunity research, bid/no-bid decisions, feedback reviews, bid library development and preparation for upcoming tenders when there is less live writing to complete.
• Better results. On average, our Bid Success Programme clients see a 15% increase in overall win rate.

Because the programme combines delivery with capability building, it also suits businesses that expect to bring more of the bid function in-house over time. As our Danfo UK case study shows, working with an outsourced team lets you scale with demand without employing bid writers and administrators in-house.

Cost per year or cost per bid?

Annual spend is useful, but it shouldn't be the only measure. Imagine an internal bid function costs £60,000 a year but supports 30 strategically relevant bids, improves the company's evidence base and helps prepare for future opportunities. That may represent excellent value. Equally, spending £15,000 on external bid writing is not automatically efficient if the business repeatedly pursues contracts it has little realistic chance of winning.

Alongside annual cost, look at measures such as:

• number of serious opportunities supported
• contracts and framework places won
• quality scores
• value of successful opportunities
• internal staff time required
• bids declined because there was insufficient capacity
• recurring weaknesses identified in buyer feedback

This also highlights why bid/no-bid discipline matters. Saving money by writing every bid internally is not particularly useful if the business is spending hundreds of staff hours chasing poorly matched opportunities.

Comparing quality and win rates

Cost matters, but the cheapest resourcing model is not necessarily the one that delivers the best value. An in-house writer might cost less per hour, but if your current approach is producing inconsistent submissions, missed opportunities, or weaker evaluator scores, the financial case can flip quickly.

An experienced outsourced team can bring wider exposure to different tenders, evaluation approaches and sectors, as well as structured peer review and quality assurance. An experienced internal writer has different advantages: detailed organisational knowledge, close access to subject matter experts and a strong understanding of how the business actually delivers.

Quality control is therefore more important than whether the resource sits inside or outside the business. A lone internal writer may benefit from external peer review, while an outsourced provider still needs strong input and approvals from the client. This is also where our bid mentoring service can help businesses that want to strengthen their internal capability while retaining expert review and challenge.

Which model should you choose?

There is no universal answer, but the pattern is usually clearer once you look at workload and capability rather than salary alone.

• Hiring in-house can make sense when you want permanent internal ownership of the bid function and have enough ongoing activity to support the role.
  
• Project outsourcing is useful when bidding is occasional or you need specialist support for selected opportunities.
• Retained outsourcing, such as our Bid Success Programme, can work well when you bid regularly and want continuity, additional expertise or flexible capacity from a team that becomes familiar with your business.
  
• A hybrid approach can combine internal ownership with external capacity, peer review or specialist expertise.
  

You can also move between these models as the business grows. An organisation may initially outsource because it only bids periodically, later recruit an internal Bid Manager and continue using external support during busy periods. Others may decide that recruitment is the better long-term answer from the outset.

How Thornton & Lowe can help

We support businesses across all of these resourcing models. Our bid writing services range from one-off bid reviews and project-based tender support through to ongoing outsourced bid management. Through our Bid Success Programme, we can provide a consistent team to support live opportunities while also improving areas such as bid strategy, opportunity qualification, feedback review and content development between deadlines. If permanent resource is the better option, our bid recruitment support can also help businesses strengthen their internal capability.

The aim is to find a resourcing model that reflects how often you bid, the expertise already inside your business and where additional support will create the most value.

Not sure whether to hire, outsource or combine the two? Speak to our bid experts about your current pipeline, internal capacity and the level of support you need, and we will help you work out which model makes the most sense for your business.