Writing Winning Tenders

There’s no doubt that the Government is under increasing pressure to sort out the state of the economy. Reports such as that from the CIPD (released yesterday and examining businesses’ unwillingness to risk expansion and staff increases) make it difficult to see how businesses can consider shelling out money for certain services rather than keeping them in-house.

In such times as these companies start to consider cost cutting exercises and HR is harshly warned against any thought of taking on new staff. Such impoverished times are undoubtedly making themselves at home within most industries now but there’s one area where businesses shouldn’t be cutting back; the area of looking for and writing tenders to win work.

Writing PQQs, tenders and bids takes up precious time and resources which could be employed elsewhere. However, at times such as these, looking for and securing new contracts should be right at the top of the priority list for large and small companies alike.

Time and effort should be invested in this activity. And once that’s done, more time and effort should be spent making sure you’ve not missed anything. There are so many ways in which a bid or tender can fail at the first hurdle – one of our earlier blog posts examines some of those reasons, here.

That’s why working in partnership with experienced PQQ, tender and bid writers can pay dividends. There are numerous reasons why companies should turn to the professionals for help in this arena. Below we explain just a few:

• Knowing what to look for – professionals have written more tenders than you have had hot dinners. They’ll ensure every aspect of the tender is covered, all documents attached and all signature boxes signed. These may seem like minor errors, but believe me, they’ll count against you on a major level.

• Using an eye for detail ¬– it’s a well known fact that one cannot proof read what one has written without a great deal of distance between the writing and the checking. That’s why any professional company worth its salt will have a specialised staff member to take on this role. They’ll spot any spelling mistakes, errors in formatting and make sure they’re out of the picture by the time your tender is submitted.

• Keeping your submission on track – it’s all too easy to wander off course when filling in lengthy and complicated tenders. Professionals will lend a fresh pair of eyes to tender writing, pulling out answers to questions that you may not have thought of. This is one of the advantages of being a step removed from the day to day running of a company – a new perspective.

• Doing the leg work – the way in which bid management professionals work – visiting your offices, speaking to every person involved in a tender process and extracting the details they need to write a successful tender – means that the stress, worry and hard work is taken out of your hands. All you need to do is provide the information needed and they’ll make sure it’s all presented properly, written correctly and has as much chance of being successful as it possibly can.

The Executive Compass team tries not to fly its own flag; we can prove our worth when it comes to delivering on our promises.