Tender Writing Complacency

The concept of complacency within writing tenders can be directly linked with a feeling of self-satisfaction, arrogance or in some cases carelessness. Established repeat custom can leave a sales force satisfied with a certain level of performance that is often some way short of their actual potential productivity, as they are not maximising efforts to achieve challenging goals. This sustained level of performance often allows a steady growth path where profitability is likely to result in businesses becoming increasingly bureaucratic and less attentive to detail and less innovation when competing for contracts and writing tenders. It is at this stage when writing Tenders that managers face the obstacle of sustaining market position whilst also anticipating change or adapting quickly to any changes that arise in order to meet the needs of the Tender. As the managers become more competent at doing certain things well, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to think outside of their normal routine, this is often the stage where complacency creeps into everyday business practises. The business is then often seen to take a re-active approach to planning, instead of the modern pro-active methods, as strategies are not in place to reduce the feeling of self-satisfaction on inferior works.

During the Tender writing process it is imperative that business ensures that they are able to think differently and align themselves with current methods and strategies, as they look to approach the situation in a dynamic way.
Whatever unique selling point or competitive advantage a firm has mastered at any point in time, these advantages are likely to become obsolete or less effective as market conditions and technologies evolve and as competitors improve their performance. The mind set of ‘we are already the preferred supplier’ is a dangerous place to be, and can breed complacency as submissions become sloppy and fail to address the designated criteria. A direct consequence of this can be that rivals have the opportunity to exhibit fresh perspectives and innovations through a modern Tender process.

In order to combat complacency businesses need to;
• Be innovative in their responses
• Read and understand the marking criteria
• Create uniqueness solutions; no copy and paste
• Tailor submission to each PQQ
• A structured review process

Reducing complacency during the tender process is one way to ensure a successful submission. It is important to include as much new narrative as possible, to tailor the responses to the individual tender and not simply reuse text from previous submissions.

Luke O' Neill