For a Great Tender Submission — DIY or Get Professional Help?

So, you’ve got a tender that looks just right for your business and want to give it a shot. If it’s your first tender submission, you’re probably wondering how to go about it, if you’ve got the time and energy to put into it, and whether you should just get an expert to do the hard work for you.

Writing a tender that ticks all of the boxes can be a pretty complex business, and it’s not just about answering questionnaires or filling in forms. It’s about constructing a rational and compliant submission that tells an incredible story about your business so you can win that lucrative contract.

10 Reasons to Get Professional Help

If you choose to go down writing the tender response the DIY route, well done to you and good luck — here are some tips that will help you do a great job.

But if your writing skills are a bit on the ordinary side, here are ten reasons why we think you should use the services of a professional tender writer.

1. Tenders can be Intricate Documents 

For this reason, your response needs to showcase your expertise, experience, and, of course, your proven track record. Mass amounts of documents usually come along with the tender pack. 

So, a professional tender response writer can evaluate which of those documents need to be included in the response and whether there’s any tricky stuff lurking in the depths of the requirements.

2. It’s Time-Consuming to Write Them

Typically, a professional tender writer will complete your submission much faster than most business owners for whom writing is not a core skill. Completing a full tender is very time-consuming if you have to do it yourself.

Tender writers are very experienced in the terminologies used in a wide variety of complex tender submissions, including Government and Corporate tenders.

 3. Great Value for Your Money

Once a professional tender writer has completed your tender, you’ll have a well-written document that you can use parts of in your response for your next tender. 

Typically, you should be able to use around 50% to 70% of the existing text to cut and paste into your new tender. That means great value for your money as you can reuse the text over and over again.

 4. It’s Reusable

You can use a big chunk of that information that the professional tender response writer had put together for other purposes, such as advertising and sales materials, brochures, flyers, websites, etc. 

That represents more savings as you no longer have to make a separate investment for all those purposes.

5. Writing Tenders Requires Skills and Experience

Creating awesome tenders requires the skills and experience of an excellent and professional tender writer. 

Depending on the frequency of your need to create tender responses, you can hire an internal tender writer dedicated to doing tenders, or you can outsource someone with such skills and expertise on a per-need basis, like TenderWise.

6. Tenders have to be Compliant

A professional tender writer ensures that your tender complies with each Request for Tender (RFT) requirement. Failure to adhere to these requirements is the major reason why many tenders don’t make it on the first attempt. 

If no one within your organisation has this expertise, investing in a professional tender response writer might be a good idea.

7. A Professional Tender Writer can Complete all Documents

Most tenders want to see evidence of your Health & Safety, Environmental and Quality Management Systems. If you don’t already have these, a professional writer can usually get the full suite of documentation for you that’s aligned with all of the required ISO standards.

8. They Need Trained Eyes to Review and Proofread

Aside from writing, tenders need to be reviewed and proofread thoroughly by a set of trained eyes. The review process performed by a professional tender response writer can be the difference between a winning and a losing submission. 

Without this process, you are at risk of non-compliance and other errors that could easily cost you the bid.

9. Ultimately, it's all about establishing teamwork. 

The professional tender writers' first task is to understand your business. Secondly, they will know why you think you should win. They will bring you invaluable objectivity that internal personnel could have without bias. Since this is the case, they will be able to challenge you to identify facts to support your answers for each question accurately.

10. It’s Cost-Efficient

In the words of Red Adair, the world-famous oil well firefighter – “if you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, hire an amateur”, and see how much that costs you.

My Final Thoughts

If you would like to make sure to make the most out of your investment for your winning tender submission, TenderWise can help. 

We've written loads of winning tenders across a wide range of industry sectors, including cleaning tenders, construction tenders, professional services tenders, security tenders, and more. We can help you, too. Just give Pauline a call or a chat on 0400 514579, email me at pauline@tenderwise.com.au or contact us here.

Want to know what my clients say about my services? Check them out here.

8 common mistakes I see in DIY tender submissions - Expert tips

As a tender response writer who has written hundreds of tender submissions, I often see tenders my clients have prepared for earlier bids that didn't win business.  Although many factors are taken into account when appointing the winning bidder (and obviously, price plays a huge part in the mix), I come across a number of common mistakes when reviewing previous submissions.

If you feel comfortable writing your own tender responses, here's a little advice from my experience:

1. Even if you've done loads of work for the tender issuer and they know you well, don't assume that the tender review panel will consider this when evaluating your submission. The members of the review panel may or may not know you, but generally speaking, most tenders will point score to assess the suitability of your response. In short, write your tender submission as if you are entirely unknown and include detail substantiating your reputation. 

2. It's not enough to refer to previous work you've done - to truly demonstrate that you're an expert in your field, you need to articulate how you achieved what you did clearly to demonstrate your experience.

3. Don't include broad statements that are off the point. Use the right words, and stick to the questions and answer them thoroughly.

4. Never cut and paste information from previous tenders or marketing information without confirming it's relevant to the current tender.

5. Don't deviate from the response template or response format requested. You might already have a generic tender submission that contains lots of excellent information. Still, if you don't present it in the format requested by the tender issuer, you'll lose valuable points when your submission is evaluated. Keep in mind that formatting is important.

6. Make sure you fully understand the requirements of the tender. Your submission should demonstrate that you know the problem and what the tender issuer is trying to achieve. Never submit generic motherhood-type statements that don't show how well you understand what is being asked for.

7. Presentation matters - make sure your tender is clearly laid out, use headings and subheadings, always include a table of contents and add a visually interesting cover page.

8. Never submit a tender response with a cover letter for tender submission that summarises everything that makes your business the best company for the job.

That's my top 8 tips based on the common mistakes I see small businesses repeatedly make when making their own tender submissions.  

If you'd like a hand with your tender, I'm here to help - just call Pauline on 0400514579 for a chat, or shoot me an email at pauline@tenderwise.com.au.