None of us likes to lose, especially when you’ve put lots of time and effort (not to mention bucks if you’ve paid for professional help) into creating a tender submission. Although, as hard as it is to miss out, this is a golden opportunity to seek feedback so you can get some clues as to what you could do better next time.
Not all organisations will provide feedback, but you'll never know if you don't ask! Suppose your tender submission was for a local Council contract. In that case, it's also a good idea to search on the Council website for the minutes of the Councillor's monthly meetings - these are always publicly available and usually include a section relating to the outcome of tenders (aka who won what and why).
The level of feedback offered will vary substantially depending on who issued the tender. Some may offer a face-to-face debrief designed to provide honest feedback and insights on what parts of your tender letter could have been improved. This information is gold for your business, so use it well.
Other tender issuers may provide a ranking score against each evaluation criterion for all tenders received. Sometimes this will list all tenderers and their scores by name, and sometimes this will list all tenderers, with everyone but your business listed with a generic name (e.g., Company 1, Company 2, etc.).
Either way, it’s an excellent opportunity to see where you sat amongst your competitors and what areas let you down. If you don’t get much information, but you do get the chance to ask questions, it’s always good to know:
Who won the tender submissions? It will help you better understand your competition.
How many were received, and where did you rank? It’s always a good thing to know where you sit amongst your competitors so you know your relative position.
How you scored against the evaluation criteria, and whether there were any areas where you didn’t meet the standards required or made mistakes.
What areas the evaluation panel felt you should improve on next time?
Once you have this information, you’ll know what let you down and what you should improve when you start your next tender submission. Any feedback should provide you with valuable insights, and it’s important to share this with your team as soon as you can so they can start working on creating updated content.
If you need a hand, I’m here to help, and I’ve also written my professional tender writing tips, which are free to anyone who wants them - just fill in the form on my home page, give me a call on 0400 514579 or shoot me an email to pauline@tenderwise.com.au. I’m also happy to provide you with a review of your unsuccessful tender - obligation and cost-free.
In the meantime, happy tendering!
Pauline