Concentrate on these remedies and you will solve 80% of your tendering problems

Tendering is a skill that you can learn.  It's like riding a bicycle or typing.  If you're willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every submission you make.

In my last article, I addressed the Number One mistake most people make in tendering, not allowing sufficient time to properly complete their response.

Most mistakes can be avoided by following a few simple rules.  I looked at two invaluable tools that will help you overcome this mistake.

In this article, I address four more common mistakes and suggest what you need to do to avoid falling into these traps.

Mistake Number 2 - Not showing that you understand the requirement. 

So often tender responses open with a trumpet blast – about themselves.  How good they are, unique in fact, world’s best practice, latest technology, leading practitioners and on and on.  But that is not what the Assessors want to see.

What the Assessors want to see is that you understand their requirement and the problem they are trying to solve.  And they want to know right from the time they start reading your tender that you are singing their song.

It is an unfortunate fact that the majority of responses, even from large companies, begin with their song, not the agency’s.  A retired senior Army office who often had to evaluate defence tenders said to me that his eyes would begin to glaze over with the umpteenth rendition of a ME-ME response.

So your response will stand out from the competition if you open with the agency’s requirements.  Sing the Assessor’s song and bring a smile to their faces.

Demonstrate to the Assessors upfront that you understand what they are trying to achieve and only then that you have a solution to their problem.  Show that you understand the outcome the tender or RFP is designed to achieve.  They are not buying your product or service as such.  They are buying what that product or service will do for them. 

You will create a favourable impression in the Assessors mind if you are able to demonstrate a depth of understanding in your opening paragraph.  That means researching the background to the requirement and what lead up to it.

We won a nationwide tender from a Commonwealth agency in part because we were the only tenderer to research the background to the requirement and what the agency was seeking to achieve.  That research enabled us to ensure our Value Proposition matched their requirements.

This is also another reason why you require time to study the RFT – to make sure you do understand the result the agency is seeking to achieve. 

It is an unfortunate fact of life that people in agencies who draft tenders can be inexperienced, just as you can be inexperienced when it comes to responding.  Being inexperienced they don’t necessarily write the requirements as clearly as they should, which can make life difficult for you. 

If the requirement is not clear, then your response may not hit the right spot in the Assessor’s mind.  You may need to seek clarification of the requirement.

Once you demonstrate your understanding of what they are seeking to achieve and their problem, you can move on to show you have the solution, how you will deliver it, and why you are different/better.

So how do you carry out the research 

• If possible, talk to the person in the Agency responsible for the tender.  Even better, go and see them to discuss their requirement.  This has the added advantage of putting your face in front of them.  It will come to mind when they are assessing your tender, much better than being a faceless entity. 
• What has the Agency published on the subject? Their website is always a good source.  It will have details of their various programs.  Can you tie the RFT to a specific program, or to their business plan?  It always helps.

Mistake Number 3 - Failure to analyse the RFT

This is the next step from Mistake Number 2, which is concerned about the overall outcome being sought.  Mistake Number 3 arises from not analysing the specifics of the requirement.

RFTs usually have depths that are only uncovered after rereading and rereading.  The meaning of some phrases and details are not always apparent after the first reading.  If you don’t pick up the real meaning your response is likely to be wrong.

There are three areas to consider: the Specifications or Statement of Requirement, the Assessment Criteria and the Conditions of Tender.  The Conditions of Contract are also important but are usually difficult to amend.  Like it or lump it.  One jurisdiction has 23 different sets of Conditions of Contract for different types of procurement.

Specifications, Statement of Requirements, Statement of Work, whatever they are called are rarely just an overall requirement.  There are usually many detailed requirements which must be met. 

You need to review each specific element of the requirement, making sure you understand each one and are able to deliver as required.  The requirements are not always clear and call for study and consideration.

As an example, in one tender to which I responded included in the list of requirements a series of dot points which all began with “Coordinate ….”  After some study, it became apparent to me that “Coordinate“ had different requirements and different levels of action in the various points.  It would have been easy to assume they meant the same thing.

On another, the details of a requirement were contradicted on the next page and again a page later.

The same approach is required when it comes to meeting the Assessment Criteria.  It is imperative that you understand each Criterion and are able to respond with the evidence required. 

Weightings - The Assessment Criteria are usually weighted but unfortunately the weightings are not always disclosed.  Where they are, it is obviously important to pay particular attention in your response to the most significant weightings.

The Conditions of Tender will state any mandatory requirements such as attending a site inspection, accreditations that you must have, insurance requirements, closing dates & times, and whether alternative tenders may be submitted. 

It would be a pity after all that effort to receive no consideration because you failed to meet a mandatory requirement.

Mistake Number 4 - Not clarifying any questions you might have about the specifications and information required

If you haven’t analysed the RFT properly you won’t uncover the questions that need to be asked, the clarifications required.

In more than thirty years of submitting tenders, I cannot recall a single occasion where analysis of the Requirement or Assessment Criteria did not lead to questions being submitted to the Agency concerned.  And it always amazed me that we were often the only business to ask questions and seek clarification.

It can give you a competitive advantage.

A secondary benefit of asking questions is that it demonstrates you are diligent and keen to win the contract.  It puts your name in front of the person responsible for the tender.  That person is almost always on the Assessment Panel.

As they say, “the only dumb question is the one you didn’t ask.”

A further problem arising from failing to analyse the requirement is that it is easy to fall into the trap of making assumptions from that lack of analysis.  So often I’ve heard the comment “But I thought it meant ….”

In my early days learning about responding to RFQs, when in the aerospace industry, I used to get quite impatient with a marvellous old (as he seemed then) bloke who was our Commercial Manager.  We would go through the RFQ together.  Let’s call him Bill.  Bill would methodically go through the RFQ line by line, the tip of his pen hovering over every word.  He would pause, stop, consider, go back and reconsider.  Exasperating to a young bloke.

Eventually, I realised why.  Bill was making sure he didn’t miss a word, that he had covered and considered every requirement. 

When I coach clients on improving their tendering, I can’t help them on the technical side, they know their trade far better than I ever could, but I can help on the Assessment Criteria.  Getting them to ask questions about the Assessment Criteria so they understand what is needed leads to a significant improvement in their response.

Mistake Number 5 - Lack of attention to detail

This mistake can arise through lack of time.  I’ve addressed that in the last article.  It can come about because you don’t rigorously analyse the RFT.  It can also come about because you view the complex requirements and their seemingly repetitive questions as a bureaucratic burden.

And what is the reaction to a bureaucratic burden?  It is to submit the minimum required to comply with the RFT.  That lack of detail is more than likely to condemn you when the Assessors score your tender.

Put yourself in the Assessors’ shoes and the Assessment Criteria they have specified in the tender. 

First, let’s look at one jurisdiction’s Assessment Criteria.  On the left are their standard headings, on the right are the examples considerations an agency may take into account in determining their specific requirements.

Standard Criteria	Assessment Considerations
Past Performance	Experience and references, Description of work of a similar nature, scope & size Working relationship with agency
Whole of Life Cost	Acquisition cost, Operational costs, Maintenance costs, disposal/upgrade costs
Local Development & Value Adding	Employees and sub-contractors are residents of the state/territory, Local suppliers, regional suppliers Indigenous employment, number of apprentices Employee training initiatives
Capacity	Organisation Chart Experience and skills of key personnel Specialist skills & technical qualifications
Timeliness	Ability to complete the requirement as per RFT, Performance Management, Risk Management
Innovation	Innovative delivery methods proposed that will provide increased efficiency and effectiveness in delivery/completion of the requirement.

Why these criteria?  It is all about minimising the risk to the Agency.  They want to make sure they made the right decision, that they don’t end up with egg on their face because they picked a non-performer.  It has happened, and Assessment Panels like to avoid such decisions at all cost.

Think of it in these terms.  The assessors have a range of possible objections in their mind to accepting your tender.  Your job is to remove those objections to the extent that you are the only logical choice.

The challenge is not to see how little information you can give to comply.  It is about giving them all the information they need to remove any doubts about your suitability for the contract.

Where could those doubts or objections arise?

• Lack of understanding – see Mistake Number 2
• Experience – have you successfully met this type of requirement before, and have you referees who will vouch for you.  You need to provide more information than just naming the jobs.  Give the details of each to show how they were of a similar nature, scope and size.  How did you go about it?  What was the outcome?
• Capability and Capacity – show you have the right people to manage the job.  State their qualifications, skills, experience and role in the project.  Tell the Assessors how you train your employees to ensure they have the skills required on an on-going basis.  Demonstrate the equipment have or whatever is used to fulfill the contract.
• Performance, Risk and Environmental Management – demonstrate that you have the systems and procedures to plan and manage the job, and minimise the risk of anything going amiss. 
• Demonstrate how you will deliver the right result, on time

Funnily enough, these possible objections in the Assessor’s mind are always very similar to the Assessment Criteria.

Once you realise that those annoying Criteria are not a bureaucratic burden but a SALES OPPORTUNITY you will find it much easier to give the Assessors the details they need to remove the risks and objection in their mind.

Attention to detail leads to specifics, and specifics are much more believable and persuasive than generalisations.  Be specific – “most of our suppliers are local” doesn’t have the same ring as “87% of our suppliers are local”.  Or “Blog Pty. Ltd. has many years’ experience in the delivery of widgets” doesn’t have the same rings as “Blog Pty. Ltd has been delivering state-of-the-art widgets for 27 years”.

Specifics move your statements from motherhood statements to evidence.

You are a technical expert in your line of business.  The assessors may have some technical skills but there is a pretty good chance they won’t have yours.  How do you convince them of your expertise? 

With attention to detail and specifics.

It is so easy to avoid these four mistakes:

• Not showing that you understand the requirement
• Failure to analyse the RFT
• Not clarifying any questions you might have about the specifications and information required
• Lack of attention to detail

Avoid them, and watch your tendering success rate take-off.

What do you think about this?

I’d be interested in your thoughts, and the challenges and fears you face when writing tender responses.  What have you found, what are you looking for to help you, and what have you learnt?  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I’m working on a new online course to help people transform their success rate in tendering, while reducing the time and stress involved, and would like to build your experience into the design of the modules.

If you would like to discuss your experience with me, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

And if you would like to understand more on my approach to tendering go to www.catalysnt.com.au.  You might like to download my freebie – “How to Overcome the 10 Most Common Mistakes in Tendering”.

Concentrate on this remedy and solve a major part of your tendering problems

Don’t you just hate it when you put a lot of effort into a bid, and fail.  Whether it be a Request for Tender (RFT), Request for Quotation (RFQ) or Request for Proposal (RFP), all require time, effort, and resources, and then be wasted by a mistake which causes you to lose out. 

Yet most such mistakes can be overcome relatively simply by following a few rules.  For the sake of simplicity, I’ll refer to all types of bids as tenders.  Although there are some differences in the intent of each, they all seek an offer from you.  The mistakes and how to overcome or avoid them are common to all.

Why do you need to avoid those mistakes? 

It’s simple really - money, income, revenue.  Government procure largely through tenders.  And they are big spenders.   

The NSW Government is understood to spend about billions on goods and services each year and a large proportion of these are awarded to SMEs (entities with 200 or fewer employees).  The remaining smaller proportion of these contracts are awarded to non-SMEs (i.e: large entities with 200+ employees).

In each jurisdiction, the state or territory government is the largest single source of contracts. 

It is not just government that procure through tenders.  Businesses do also.  The larger the business the more formal will be its procurement processes. 

There are some differences of course.  The bigger the government decision, the more likely it is to drag.  The private sector is less averse to risk and typically makes their decision in a much shorter timeframe. 

But the more formal the private sector’s procurement processes the more likely the same mistakes are likely to creep into respondent’s submissions.  So, learning how to avoid the tendering pitfalls will make a significant difference to your business.

Preparing tenders and quotations can help you to win big orders, but it can also be time-consuming, cost money and tie up valuable resources.  If you don't get the contract the money and time spent is lost, so you need to weigh up whether a tender is worth bidding for.

So, let’s have a look at the first of these mistakes and what steps you can take to avoid it.

Mistake Number 1 - Not allowing sufficient time to complete your response. 

The later you leave the preparation of your response, the more rushed you will be.  And the more rushed you are, the more likely you are to make mistakes.

The more complex the tender the longer period the agency will give you to respond.  Typically Commonwealth Government tenders allow 25 days.  State and Territory governments often allow 14 days.

And that is where the first mistake pops up.  People think they have plenty of time and so they delay their initial analysis and planning.  Perhaps they might have a quick read and then put the RFT to one side.  But time flies in business and chaos can happen.  Those weeks you thought you had suddenly become days.

So the rush starts, and with the rush:

• Analysis of the RFT is cut short;
• The opportunity for clarification is missed;
• Assumptions are made; and
• elements of the response get overlooked or forgotten.

Perhaps there is information required from another area of your organisation or from a supplier or sub-contractor.  Now they now haven’t time to respond properly, to your detriment.

You may know you need some additional information and say to yourself “I’ll come back to that later.”  But of course, you forget to, and there is now a hole in your tender.

And here is a small example where I made such a mistake.  Referees were requested in the tender and I had an excellent referee to put forward.  The only problem was he had recently been promoted and had a new telephone number, which I didn’t have.  I’ll come back I said, didn’t, and missed the hole in the final check.  We lost the tender. 

In the debrief (always get a debrief) the main factor referred to was that missing telephone number.  The assessors said that it indicated “a lack of attention to detail”.  Now I suspect we were fairly close and the assessors were looking for factors to differentiate us from our main competitor.  That doesn’t help much.  Small leaks sink big ships. 

Why did I make that mistake?  Because I ignored our tendering procedure (yes, we had one) and didn’t allow enough time.

But wait, there is another critical tripwire associated with not allowing sufficient time to respond. 

That tripwire is the closing time.  Note that I said time, not date.

RFTs, but not necessarily RFQs or RFPs, have a specific closing time, for example, 2.00 pm Wednesday.  There are usually a number of ways by which you can submit your tender; physically into the Tender Box, or electronically.

The issue is that at the specified closing time, the Tender Box is locked and the electronic mailbox is turned off.

If your submission is part-way through transmission, too bad, so sad.  You are out of consideration.  No excuses are accepted.

So give yourself time to avoid being cut-off in mid-sentence.

Here is what you must do.

• Write a procedure about how you will respond to an RFT. That procedure should cover:
  • Analysis of the RFT and the Assessment Criteria – you must be able to satisfy the Assessment Criteria. After all, that is how the responses are scored.
  • How to make a Bid – No Bid decision. Remember bidding takes time and resources. You must assess the likelihood of winning with the cost of submitting.
  • Development of a response schedule. I like to use a Gantt Chart for this purpose. Prepare a template you can adapt for each new response.  Remember that close-off time.
  • Allocation of responsibilities – Decide who in your team should respond to which sections and who will have responsibility for co-ordinating the response, who will check etc.
  • A checklist to ensure you have covered all items that must be addressed or signed in your response.
• Have a databank of necessary information you can draw upon to respond. A detailed company profile is a good place to start. There are different types on company profiles; the ones you publish and the ones that are databanks for proposals, quotations and sales letters.  The latter should include:
  • An organisation chart
  • Brief descriptions of key personnel, their role, qualifications and experience, backed by CVs. Often you need to put the brief description in the body of the tender and back that with a CV as an attachment.
  • Capability - what your business does, the problems you solve.
  • Performance Management - How you do it; key processes and procedures by which you deliver the result. You can cover this under Quality Management if you have a Quality Plan such as ISO 9001
  • Capacity – the skills available to deliver those results, how you recruit additional skills when required, the equipment you have available to do the job, how you support that equipment.
  • Experience – virtually all RFTs want to know if your business has done similar work in the past. Sometimes this is referred to as “work of a similar nature, scope and size”. You don’t want to have to go off searching for the best examples. 
  • Risk management – how you identify and manage risks. Sometimes this is referred to as “Contingency Planning” – what could go wrong and how will you handle it?
  • Procurement – “no man is an island entire of itself”. Businesses need suppliers and sub-contractors to deliver. How do you select them and ensure they deliver what you require?
  • Meeting Government policies – Governments can be rigorous over compliance with their (ever increasing) policies with which you must comply. They can include environmental, OH&S, Equal Opportunity Employment, Awards, Fair Work Australia.
  • Insurances – depending on the job you can be required to have a range of insurance policies in place such as Public Liability, Work Cover and Professional Indemnity.

Having this information readily available will save a significant amount of time.

While rushing, people don’t rigorously analyse the requirements, and how the tender will be assessed.  

Taking this step alone will make a significant difference to the success of your tendering.

There is a lot of detail here, but it is a critical first step.  In your next article I will address some more common mistakes.

Tendering is a skill that you can learn.  It's like riding a bicycle or typing.  If you're willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every submission you make.

What do you think about this?

I’d be interested in your thoughts, and the challenges and fears you face when writing tender responses.  What have you found, what are you looking for to help you, and what have you learnt?  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I’m working on a new online course to help people transform their success rate in tendering, while reducing the time and stress involved, and would like to build your experience into the design of the modules.

If you would like to discuss your experience with me, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

And if you would like to understand more on my approach to tendering go to www.catalysnt.com.au.  You might like to download my freebie – “How to Overcome the 10 Most Common Mistakes in Tendering”.

 

I have been discussing what opportunity is there for you from the various governments’ efforts to stimulate their economy through infrastructure and other projects by putting them out to tender.

 

Small businesses, and even medium businesses at times, often dismiss the opportunity to sell to governments.   They may have any number of reasons for this. The benefits of winning tenders go beyond just finding your next contract.

 

Imagine a customer that has a big budget and buys almost every conceivable product or service year after year. They buy during good times, and they even buy during recessions as we now have. Sounds like a great client, doesn’t it? Well, government agencies do just that.  And many contracts run across a number of years.  That makes them an ideal customer for many small and growing businesses.

 

When you decide the grab the opportunity to tender for a project you have the opportunity to grow your revenue, gain repeat business and get some spare time to enjoy.

 

In a previous email, I addressed the issue of being prepared to meet the opportunity when it arises for you.  You need to ensure the Assessors don’t see any risk in giving the contract to you – ticks not crosses!  Your response needs to be both compelling and persuasive, and not risky.

 

In my last article, I identified three factors necessary to get right in your response to reduce the risk in the Assessors’ minds when they review your submission, and detailed the first – the need to draft a well-structured response. It’s more than just a quotation; it’s a Sales Proposal that leads to a logical step; to contract you.

 

Now let’s move on to the remaining two factors to ensure the Assessors are giving your ticks, not crosses.

 

Readability

 

What will your quotation look like, visually that is?  Presentation is important, but so is how it will read.

 

If the Assessors have to labour through your tender because it is hard and difficult to read, and the points you make challenging to understand, then those negative crosses are going to be mounting in the Assessors’ minds.

 

One of the most important things you can do to help your writing is to be able to step into your prospect’s shoes.  Know your prospect’s attitudes, beliefs, concerns, hot buttons and problems, and reflect those in your submission.  Lead them through the logic.

 

The opening headline must highlight this and lead the prospect into the first paragraph.  To do that it must be about them and their problem.  You need to demonstrate that you understand their problem.  It is about them, not you.

 

The first paragraph must lead them to the second paragraph.  Now you might suggest you have a solution. 

 

Then go onto expand on the problem and the difficulties it causes the prospect.

 

That allows you then to expand on your solution.  But make it easy for them to follow.

 

An excellent, readable presentation will make you look so much more professional, and the buyer feel more comfortable about dealing with you.  If the way your industry does things is a simple “price, quality, delivery” quotation seize your chance to make yourself different, and differentiate you. 

 

Here are some guidelines to improve readability:

 

·         Headlines – it needs to stand out.  Size, colour, bolding.  It’s the contrast.  A headline must make the reader want to find out more, and not reveal so much they might not feel they need to read your submission.

 

·         Sub-heads – ditto but smaller.  The same comment as above applies.  Customers often scan a document before they read it.  The sub-heads will guide them and let them know what is coming.  They can be a different font from the headlines or paragraphs which assists the scan. 

 

·         Sentences - make your sentences short. The most natural sentence to take in is only eight words long.  A sensible average is 14 words.  Any sentence of more than 32 words is hard to follow.

 

·         Paragraphs – keeping them short and punchy makes them easier to read.  No more than 2-3 sentences. A long paragraph is daunting.  Keep each to one subject.

 

·         Use "connector" words and phrases at the beginnings of sentences to keep people reading.  Such as Moreover, That is why, In addition, What's more, On top of that, Also and And.  Connector words tell your reader there is more to come. And forget what your teacher told you: "And" is often used to start sentences in The Bible.

 

·         Questions as connectors at the ends of sentences or paragraphs perform the same role.  Why is this? 

 

Because you have to read on to get the answers (and if you notice, the end of the above point and start of this point demonstrates this).

 

You can also demonstrate this by using a word from the last sentence in the opening sentence of the new paragraph.

 

·         Never use a long word where a short one will do.

 

o    Complimentary – Free

 

o    Anticipate – Expect

 

o    Expectation – Hope

 

o    Authored – Wrote

 

o    Transportation – Car

 

o    Purchase – Buy

 

o    Ameliorate – Improve

 

o    Lifestyle – Life

 

o    Marketplace - Market

 

·         Cut the jargon and acronyms – you may understand them but the Assessors may not.  Make your words easy for him/her to understand.

 

·         Begin sentences with benefits (when possible):

 

o    Instead of...Moving your money now will help you avoid major losses.

 

o    Try...You can avoid major losses IF you move your money now!

 

·         Dot points – make it easier to scan and grasp the points you are making, just as I have done here.

 

·         Word graphics – depending on what you are quoting, painting a word picture can help.  (Can you see yourself in that gleaming new, spotlessly clean stainless steel kitchen?) or (imagine if you had all the information you needed for that benches quote). 

 

·         Picture graphics – a diagram or photograph of what you are delivering will help clarify other questions they might have and help reduce the risk and increase the “like” factor.  “Before and after” photographs emphasise the benefits you are delivering.

 

o    Don’t forget the Captions – tell them what the photo is.  More risk reduction.

 

·         Fonts – use no more than 3 different fonts.  Otherwise, they distract.

 

Just remember - as Dr. Johnson remarked over 200 years ago - "That which is written to please the writer rarely pleases the reader." You're not writing for yourself but for the prospect.  Make it easy for them!

 

Presentation and readability play a key role in improving your quotation or tender, turning it into a sales tool to be used for your advantage, improving both your chances and your profitability.

 

Mistakes

 

Mistakes are road-blocks to the Assessors study of your proposal.  They cause the flow of the Assessor’s understanding to come to a grinding, sudden halt.  And you have lost their favourable mindset, no matter how good the technical side of your submission.

 

Mistakes often come about because you have not allowed enough time to develop and review your tender.  And haste leads to mistakes.

 

Let me tell you of a mistake I made many years ago.  It was a tender we were writing for my wife’s business.  We knew we had one major competitor to beat.

 

The mistake related to a referee.  We were asked not just for the referee, but also their contact details, including telephone number.

 

Now Bill, not his real name, had been recently promoted to become the most senior bureaucrat in the Territory.  We had his old telephone number, but not his new one.  “I’ll get it” I said to myself.  But in our haste, I didn’t. 

 

Bill would have been so easily tracked down through the government telephone system, but that was not the point.  We didn’t have it, and that was a CROSS.

 

We lost the tender.  In the debrief (always get a debrief) the missing telephone number was identified as a key factor – “lack of attention to detail” was the comment made, with the suggestion that issue could carry through to the job.

 

Now I suspect we were very close, and the Assessment Panel was looking for issues to differentiate us from the competition, but it does show just how critical those CROSSES can be.

 

What other mistakes can lead to CROSSES.  There are many:

 

• ·         Typos
• ·         Spelling mistakes
• ·         Poor grammar
• ·         Poor punctuation
• ·         Wrong names
• ·         Wrong dates
• ·         Poor examples of experience

 

The more mistakes you make, the more mental crosses accumulate in the Assessors’ minds, and the easier it is for them to cross you out.

 

Review

 

Do leave time to review what you have written, preferably at least overnight.  Fresh eyes spot improvements. And if you can, have someone else check your draft, for logic and typos.  They will also spot the mistakes you miss.  Typos cause the reader to stop. The flow is lost.

 

Tendering is one of those things in which businesses have to keep improving, because the competition is also looking to continually get better, and times are getting tougher, despite the opportunities.

 

And small businesses shouldn’t leave it until they have a tender opportunity in front of them.  Tender turnaround times are becoming increasingly truncated.  You can have as little as 10 working days to complete a response, and usually no more than three to four weeks.  Be prepared.

 

You cannot afford to start your response late!  Most tender responses need three rounds of drafting and editing before they are of a high enough quality to be truly competitive. 

 

You can win such contracts.  And it might be much simpler than you thought. 

 

Last year I ran a Pilot course online - “TenderWins – The Tender Winning Formula”. 

 

I believe now is the time to run it again.  If you would like to explore this further, contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we’ll set up a time for a chat.

 

Good luck only happens to those that get in front of it. 

 

Three Tips

By now, you will have noticed the increased activities governments at all levels are undertaking to breathe life back into their economy through stimulus packages, many of which involve Requests for Tender (RFTs).  I mentioned this is my last message.

There’s no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has a wide-reaching economic impact, so where does that leave suppliers who tender? 

Currently, there is no shortage of tendering opportunities

So you see an opportunity, and decide to tender.  Now put yourself in the Assessors shoes when they review your tender.  They will have a formal scoring sheet, but they will also have mental ticks and crosses popping into their minds as they read through your tender.

You want many of the former, and few of the latter.

There are three broad issues here;

• ·         one is structure,
• ·         then there is readability, and·
•          lastly mistakes.

 Think about it; what will stop the agency selecting you? It is uncertainty, too many doubts or  objections in their mind; a feeling of too much risk. These are the crosses. With no other information to go by the prospective customer will just take the lowest tender, when you want them ticking your boxes.

 Write a well-structured response

The first step is to write a well-structured tender response. It’s more than just a quotation; it’s a Sales Proposal that leads to a logical step; to contract you.

What is going to stop the agency buying? If they were in front of you no doubt they would be asking questions of you before they gave you the order. Those questions are in effect barriers to the sale in their mind, barriers which increase the risk to them. And if you can’t answer the questions then you won’t have removed the risk, and, likely, you won’t make the sale.

The information requested in the RFT reflects the questions they would like answered to remove the risk.

If your goal is to get the sale, you must eliminate as much, if not all, of the risk the buyer perceives. Someone referred to an unanswered question as a ‘void’; if you haven’t filled the void, they are likely put in their own ‘answer’, an answer which might not be favourable to you.   It becomes an objection to giving you the contract.

What could be the risks or possible objections your potential customer might have at the back of their mind? Here are some questions that I’ve come up against over the last thirty years, questions that are really potential objections that must be removed before the prospect will buy:

• ·         Does he really understand what I’m after?
• ·         What exactly am I being offered?
• ·         Why should I choose your proposal?
• ·         How do I know he can do what he says he can do?
• ·         How reliable is this business?
• ·         Are they professional?
• ·         What will happen if they don’t get it right?
• ·         When is he going to deliver?

 If you don’t remove the risk or objection, you are reduced to competing on price. On the other hand, if you can remove the risk, then you are competing on value, and price alone becomes of lesser importance. It never entirely goes away, but other factors enter the equation.

Potential customers are seeking your services because they have a problem they want to be solved. Understanding that problem comes from the questions you ask before you prepare your tender. So the first thing they want to see in your tender response is that you understand their problem. The way you do that is you restate the problem.

You need to identify the real problem troubling the prospect. It is essential to identify the symptoms of the problem, but to then go beyond them to identify the underlying causes if you are to really solve their problem.  That may mean some research

You are providing some initial information that you have expertise and experience in their problem area to start removing any doubts they may have in their mind.

There is one more step here. Tell the customer what this solution will deliver! After all, they are after the result, not just a collection of widgets. Clearly state you will be meeting their requirement.

Show them is a list of benefits that your solution provides.  Note the difference between features (something the product or service has) and benefits (what that feature offers). It is the accumulation of benefits that solves their problem.

Every feature will have a benefit. List the benefits as a series of dot points. This makes it easier to for the prospect to review and understand.

Give the prospect reasons to choose your offering - Now you need to tell them WHY your proposal will deliver the result, and what makes it different from your competition.

Demonstrate why the prospect can trust you

You need to prove your credibility. How does the agency know you can deliver?

The best way to prove that is through providing relevant experience - practical examples that demonstrate to the prospect that you have done work or supplied services of a ‘similar nature, scope and size’ to that requested in the RFT.

Cover all three points.   If they are not, then your prospect will see them as irrelevant and ignore them: more, not less risk.

List the examples, giving sufficient details to make them credible, without giving away any commercial information. Including photographs of the works provides further proof.

List awards and recognition your business has achieved.  Give them feeling you know what you are doing.

Secondly, back demonstrated experience by listing referees they can talk to, having first got the referees permission of course. The very fact you have referees adds veracity.  These should be for the examples of your experience you have just given.

Referees should be real and contactable.  Prospects won’t always contact them, but the fact that they are there provides comfort.

Thirdly add testimonials. Testimonials do make a difference. We tend to think they are “not quite right”, a bit “salesy”, but people who are professional writers of sales material have tested this time and time again. The reason you keep seeing testimonials in ads is that they work.

Testimonials offer further “proof”, thus further reducing the risk in the agency’s mind. The ideal testimonials refer to possible objections/risks such as the difficulty of the job, or the short lead time that people may have in their minds, and counter them by confirming your expertise and performance.

Reliability – the prospect needs to know If you have removed the risk in the previous question you should also have removed this niggle in their mind. Demonstrated relevant experience, referees they can talk to, and testimonials offering proof do this for you.

Professionalism - So what makes you professional? How you go about your quotation and present it is part of presenting professionally.

You have no doubt made the comment yourself about someone; “He is very professional”.

What makes you think that? It is how they go about the job, how they interact with you, promptness, responsiveness, personal appearance, presentation of vehicles, the aesthetics of the job etc. 

But it starts with the presentation of the tender response - a clear structure, discusses the problem, proposes a solution, demonstrates the solution pictorially, backed by experience, provides a validity period and is well presented.

If there were three tenderers for the same contract, you would feel more comfortable dealing with the one that presents most professionally.

And don’t worry about the length of the tender. Worry about answering all possible questions in their mind, the barriers to a sale.

A successful quotation is much more than a product and a price.

In my next article, I’ll address the two other key factors – Readability and Mistakes.

Remember - Tendering is one of those things in which businesses have to keep improving, because the competition is also looking to get better continually, and times are getting tougher, despite the opportunities.

Businesses shouldn’t leave it until they have a tender opportunity in front of them.  Tender turnaround times are becoming increasingly truncated. You can have as little as ten working days to complete a response, and usually no more than three to four weeks. Be prepared.

You cannot afford to start your response late! Most tender responses need three rounds of drafting and editing before they are of a high enough quality to be truly competitive.

You can win such contracts.  And it might be much simpler than you thought. 

Last year I ran a Pilot course online - “TenderWins – The Tender Winning Formula”. 

I believe now is the time to rerun it.  If you would like to explore this further, contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we’ll set up a time for a chat.

Think about this – winning just one tender at this time can provide your business with a good foundation for the next financial year.  Don’t waste the opportunity.

Good luck only happens to those that get in front of it