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Over 75% success rate!
Push your business to the next level!
Procurement compliance, contract management & value for money services
Taking the stress out of organising your current bids and planning your pipeline
Helping you to produce a comprehensive and compliant CRP
Our specialist bid recruitment division
Stand out from the competition
Manage your company’s bids & start a bid pipeline
Finding tenders that suit your business
Boost your reputation and credibility with awards
A range of standard Bid Templates, produced by our experts for your sector
How to sell your goods and services to UK government agencies
We have over 75% win rate and strongly believe our role is not simply to 'write' or to respond to tenders but to support our clients to win contracts. We specialise in helping our clients win contracts in the public sector; for central and local government, education, housing, council, NHS and blue light services.
At Thornton and Lowe we are proud to have a wealth of experience working in all the main industry sectors from Construction right through to Office Furniture. Our strong team of tender writers work closely with you throughout the tender and bid writing process to ensure you stand out from your competitors and have the edge in the bidding process.
Get bid supportIf a business has completed a draft and is looking for an expert, external view point we will often provide a bid review service for our clients. This can take many forms including:
This is a lighter touch review where we look at compliance, response structure, unique selling points and added value. We review the draft documents and provide comments and guidance on how our clients can improve their proposal or tender response.
This requires more time as when we take the draft we then manage the bid to completion. We collect further information, re-write and develop.
This is the same as the ‘review and improve’ above but with the addition of our involvement at the start of the process. We agree with you the storyboard, structures and win themes of the bid prior to the development of the draft. This means when we get sent the draft (which will be closer to the deadline) there should be less development work required as we are working from agreed starting point.
Many of our clients ask us to develop or redevelop their core bid library of information and bidding collateral. As part of our gap analysis we will assess your previous bids and their requirements, along with our best practice sections to ensure when a contract is advertised you spend time tailoring your information and adding value rather than having to find it. This covers everything from Executive Summaries to Case Studies and CVs, as well as all your frequently asked PQQ and tender questions and answers.
Get bid supportThe National Careers Service defines a Bid Writer’s role as preparing ‘documents used to pitch for contracts to provide services, or to apply for project funding’.
We see Bid Writing as a key role within the sales and marketing function for any business involved in formal tenders or contract opportunities. Due to the procurement rules of the Public Sector, many Bid Writers as often tasked with responding to purely these detailed and often lengthy Government tender opportunities.
For some organisations, a Bid Writer sits within a larger Bid Team, which may also include Bid Coordinators, Senior Bid Writers, Bid Managers, Work Winning Managers, Capture Managers and Bid Directors. However, for some and often smaller businesses, the bid writing and management of the tender response process belongs to the Senior Management Team or is dispersed across regional sales staff.
Bid Writing is a key skill in an emerging market due to the increasing requirements for value for money, accountability and transparency in the Public Sector. This more formal approach to engaging with suppliers is also becoming more frequent within larger private sector organisations, further increasing the demand for a talented Bid Writers or the need for external bid support consultancy or outsourced bid writing.
We have been offering outsourced Bid Writing and Bid Management Solutions since 2009. Ensuring our SME clients have access to a consistent, high performing and reliable Bid Team, but on an adhoc basis. For those clients who have an in-house Bid Team we are often asked to provide training to improve their performance and win rates.
Speak to one of our bid experts!
We offer several Bid Writing Review options, covering both live tenders, previous submissions or wider reviews of your Bid/Tender Library.
If you have already drafted a bid response to the tender you are working on, you could ask Thornton & Lowe to review the procurement pack, along with your quality answers. We will complete a review of tender for compliance, as well as highlighting areas you can improve for each section, adding value and proposing suggestions which we know buyers like to read.
We will make comments throughout your response document, highlighting these suggestions, referring back to the instructions, evaluation criteria and specification, as well as our knowledge of what scores well. These comments will help your Bid Team improve their tender response prior to submission. We produce a brief report, which is discussed over video call to further guide your team.
Depending on the timescales involved, Thornton & Lowe could also offer to ‘review & improve’ your bid response. To do this we review the information, highlight any further evidence and clarity we require, and return an updated draft for you to consider and submit. This also provides a better base response for your team to use for future bids.
Quite often, whether you win or lose a tender can be dependent on scoring a few extra points. Our Bid Review Service ensures an expert, third-party assessment, which can challenge your answers quickly and without concerns over internal politics.
Our Bid Success Programme (BSP) was developed 8 years ago as a solution to the common challenges of using outsource or freelance bid writing support.
BSP clients have over 15% higher win rate, when compared to ‘adhoc’ clients.
We provide a single point of contact, supported by a consistent team, ensuring high quality and consistent responses, continuous improvement and continuity for your bids.
As a contracted customer, we become your Bid Team, which means we can move away from purely fire-fighting when a live tender arrives. We can plan, develop a pipeline, improve systems, monitor your return on investment, and have time to really understand and get ‘under the skin’ of your business.
We can also monitor tenders for you, provide bid administration support and guide your sales and marketing efforts, prior to a live tender, to maximise your win rates.
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