14 Aug 7 Stage Tender Process
We are in a time when there are processes and procedures for just about everything, some more effective than others. So we have come up with a 7 stage process we follow for Effective Tendering:
- Being Bid Fit/ Making the Bid No Bid Decision
Ensuring that you are bid fit/ready is the key first step in going onto win contract work. Second to this is then ensuring you pursue and proceed with the correct bids, ask yourself the following questions and if the answer is yes carry on the process if the answer is no then more planning is required.
- Are you ready to complete the bid, do you have the resources and time?
- Can you meet the requirements of the Tender?
- Do you want to deliver the work?
- Resources and Timeline
In order to complete each tender response, you need to ensure you have a clear established team structure with identified responsibilities. Do those in your team have time to complete the tender in question and by setting out a bid timeline to identify tasks, priorities and requirements of each individual so they can factor work in around other tasks they are responsible for.
- Know your market and the client.
With all your time and focus spent on completing the response don’t forget to set aside some time to determine your position in the market, what are your unique selling points in this tender, who potentially are the competition and how do you compare with them against the client requirements
- Documents
Your tender submission can potentially be the first interaction you have with a prospective client so it is important that your document is both compliant with the requirements of the bid but also shows your business off. Think about format, layout and investing in professional presentation and graphics.
- Quality answers
You can have the best presented responses but without a well-structured, comprehensive and concise client focused response it isn’t going to be high scoring, so this is key.
- Reviews
Throughout the process you need to be reviewing your submission, have a number of people briefed and prepared to review your document. Give them guidance on what it is you need them to review – is it content, is it compliance, is it proof reading and editing. These areas all take different skills and hard to cover off in one review alone. Factor this into your timeline.
- Aftercare
Once you have completed your response and hit the submit button, it is important to make sure that you monitor the portal or communications in case the client asks clarifying questions or invites you to interview. Also take time to review your internal processes, what worked well and what could be improved on for the next submission.
Following our 7 step process you have the foundations of creating winning submission. Easy!
