Work winning through extra special bid management

Pulling together a winning bid is more than words on a page. It comes with detail, relevance, professionalism and going the extra mile. Whilst we have been known to answer a SOS with just a few hours until the submission deadline we prefer to take a more scenic route to make sure your bid is the very best it can be. We can take the tender on in its entirety, work on specific areas such as costing or compliance, or we can complete a strategic review before you press send.

Tenders take time, concentration and the ability to focus at a high level from beginning to end. This takes rare skill, not only in knowing what information to include, but to have the patience and staying power to see it through successfully. We have a team of multi-skilled writers, designers and specialists who do just this - and they have construction sector knowledge for intelligent sense-checking and context.

Here are a few comments from our team that highlight some of the important considerations for putting together a winning bid:

• Understand what the evaluation panel is asking for and ensure you are a good fit – we have been on the panels so we know what we’re looking for

• Create a timeline of deadlines and deliverables, not only for the tender, but for the project you want to win

• Know how to demonstrate your skills, linking them with the ones the client is looking for

• Write succinctly, clearly and relevantly – don’t waste words or use padding

• Appreciate how many tenders the assessors have to read through so make yours different visually or in tone

• Know when to take a break from the tender and come back to it with renewed energy

• Take the time to reply in depth, with impressive detail, even when it feels onerous

• Always get someone (who hasn’t seen it before) to proof-read it

Importantly, all of the work that we put in together is an investment towards future submissions. We will have gathered all of the salient points and main highlights; and taken the time to understand your business, including your people and culture. Whilst we absolutely don’t advocate a cut and paste approach there will be parts of your tender that are evergreen – so making sure you have paragraphs you are proud to re-use will be invaluable for other bids.

With NEC, JCT and bespoke contract knowledge we include detail that is sometimes overlooked including:

• Governance and reporting

• CVs and organisation charts

• Method statements

• Answer mapping and story-boarding

• Involving writers who have delivered major construction projects for depth and insight

• Bids that balance contract requirements with pricing and payments

• Sector understanding from family run SMEs to PLCs and Tier 1,2 and 3 suppliers

• Bill of Quantities management

• Negotiation support

We put work winning at the heart of all we do – from scanning 1900 portals weekly to find appropriate opportunities, to helping you assess suitability, putting together the tender submission and resourcing your winning bid.