14 Jul How To Use The Art Of Persuasion In Your Bid Writing Strategy
Bid writing skills go beyond simple spelling and grammar. Your bid needs to grab your reader’s attention by being engaging and above all, persuasive. Remember, you don’t just want your readers to consider your bid well-written and interesting; you want them to feel compelled to hire your business too.
In order to persuade your potential client to use your company, you have to convince them that you are a better option than any of your competitors, and can not only meet – but exceed – their expectations.
In this article, we will address how to use persuasive writing in your bid responses, while avoiding becoming too ‘salesy’ or cliched.
Step 1: Do Your Research
To persuade your buyer effectively, you must fully understand their business and what they want from a supplier. For instance, make sure you know all the following details:
- What type of business do they run?
- What are their company goals, ethics, and values?
- Why are they commissioning the work? And what do they need from their contractors?
- Understand their background: what contractors have they hired before?
- What added value does their business need to offer the wider population – for example, do they need to show they are eco-friendly or community-focused?
Step 2: How Can You Meet These Needs?
Once you have identified what your buyer needs from a supplier, you can begin to consider how your business can effectively meet those requirements.
For example, consider the following:
- Have you completed contracts for similar companies in the same sector?
- How can you help the buyer achieve their business goals? And how do your own business ethics and values align with theirs?
- What unique selling point (USP) do you have that means your business can serve the buyer better than your competition?
- If the buyer has used your company before, what successful outcomes did you deliver that prove the value of your work?
- What benefits can your business provide to the wider community, and how does this align with the buyer’s priorities?
Step 3: Collate Your Evidence
Your evidence needs to be just as persuasive as your writing style. Without clear and compelling evidence, your reader is unlikely to believe any of the claims in your tender submission.
Your evidence should be up-to-date, relevant to the contract and the buyer you are appealing to, and – most importantly – varied (i.e. a mix of case studies, testimonials, and data from both internal and external sources).
This approach not only demonstrates that you are using evidence which applies to the contract up for grabs, but by showing your reader that you have personalised your evidence to their business, you are much more likely to keep them engaged throughout the bid.
Step 4: Plan Your Bid
If you want to keep your buyer engaged throughout your bid response, structure is everything. Just like if you were telling a story, your bid should have a clear and defined beginning, middle, and end, with section headers that relate to the questions posed in the tender document.
Remember your English lessons at school? They may have taught you that every narrative should slowly build to a climax – i.e. the point at which the reader is most engaged in your story – before wrapping everything up in the ending.
This also goes for your bid! By adopting a narrative structure, you can ensure that your reader remains engaged throughout your bid and is satisfied with the conclusion.
You can do this by planning your bid to start with a ‘hook’ that initially seizes your reader’s interest in your business. Then, slowly drip-feed your points, becoming more and more compelling until you reach the height of your argument. And finally, you need to summarise your points in your conclusion to reiterate them clearly and concisely.
Step 5: Write Your Bid
Once you have outlined the structure of your bid and planned which points to include in each section, you can begin writing the bid. If you are working as part of a bid team, you will need to designate each section to a different team member.
To keep the tone of your bid consistent, ensure you are clear with every member of the bid writing team regarding the voice and tone you require. For example, do you want the bid to have a strictly professional tone, or something a little more smart casual?
Meanwhile, bear in mind that your buyer will have many bid responses to read through – therefore, you should aim to write your bid in accessible language, as this will make it easier for them to digest the information presented.
Once the bid has been written, make sure to have your writing team go over the responses and proofread the entire bid to correct any spelling or grammar mistakes, and to ensure that the voice and tone of the bid are consistent throughout.
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