Tender responses are essential for any business. They are advantageous in maintaining clients and bringing business. Most big companies have in house professionals to deal with these. However, small businesses often miss out on many opportunities due to the lack of expertise in tender writing. Tenders are meant to be competitive to attract clients. Writing and submission of such tenders require knowledge of their workings and tons of preparation. One should be well versed in what to include and how to be concise. A competitive tender is always to the point and compelling.
What Is a Tender?
Tenders are used in large companies, corporations or the public sector. These are made when these organisations require some service or goods. Tenders publicise these requirements where other businesses can bid on them. Some organisations need a kind of prequalification for bidding. These are often called selection questionnaires. Once the bids are shortlisted, those businesses would be invited to tender.
Businesses who are looking to get these projects under their belt often create a tender response. This ‘bid’ is used by the entity requiring services to evaluate the business and consider its proposal. Companies compete on such bids to quickly secure projects.
The public sector has its own rules on the whole process. These rules are there to ensure that everything is fair and transparent. Being economically advantageous is the way to go in most cases, without much compromise in quality. These tenders are the ones that are shortlisted. This establishes the importance of a tender response. It is the only way for the entity requiring services to assess what the business has to offer. Winning on bids can also help enterprises to secure other future deals. This is due to the large size of the organisations that post these tenders. They are very well known, and successfully competing for their tender can add credibility to the business.
What Is Tender Writing?
Tender writing or bid writing deals with charting up competitive tender responses. In a way, these responses are work applications, and robust applications are a must. One is required to be familiar with the tender process while working on such bids. These processes include planning, writing, and improving the offer with the help of a team. Having a team is also essential as this allows a new set of eyes to look at the proposal before submission. Preparation can exhaust one person, and they may miss out on certain aspects due to it.
How to Plan a Bid?
The first thing to consider while preparing a tender response is the deadline. This sets the timetable at which the team should work. Having a plan ensures efficient workflow. There are many factors that one needs to consider when applying for such projects. The service should be within the capabilities of the business, with the budget not being an interference. The company should also be able to play it to its strengths due to the competitiveness of the whole process.
Prioritising the bid can help with deciding how much importance should be given to the response. Once this is figured out, one should focus on the win themes. These are the aspects of the business that should be highlighted. These are supposed to make the response compelling. One should also think about who will be reviewing these bids. This decides whether technically complex jargon should be broken down into simple terms.
