The Art of Persuasion in Bid Writing: Don’t Just Explain, Persuade

A tender response is not a report or an advertising flyer. It’s not an operating manual, and it is certainly not an opportunity to tell the buyer everything you know about your company.

Its purpose is much simpler: to persuade an evaluator that your organisation is the right choice to deliver the contract.

Its not enough to be able to deliver the contract, it’s not enough to want to deliver the contract, you must clearly articulate that you can deliver the contract…. better than everyone else. It’s a competition and too many bidders forget that.

That does not mean exaggerating, making unsupported claims or filling responses with sales nonsuspense. Public-sector evaluators work to clearly defined scoring criteria and need evidence on which to base their decision. Effective persuasion in bid writing therefore comes from making it easy for the evaluator or evaluators to understand what you will do, why your approach is effective, how you know it works and what benefit it will deliver to them-not you!

We see plenty of technically competent tender responses which explain a process accurately but stop there. The bidder describes what they do without demonstrating why it matters. In a competitive tender, that can be the difference between an adequate score and a winning one.

Knowing how to write a tender response that can help you win contracts is crucial. At Executive Compass, we have an expert team of bid writing consultants who can support you throughout the tendering process.

Here are ten ways to make your bid writing more persuasive.

Answer the question immediately

Do not make the evaluator search for your answer.

If the question asks how you will mobilise a contract, begin by telling them how you will mobilise it. If it asks how you will manage performance, state your approach to performance management before providing the supporting detail.

Evaluators may be reading dozens of responses. Clear, direct writing makes their job easier and demonstrates that you understand the requirement. Being direct will also help you to write a more structured and clearer response.

A useful test is simple: could someone read the first paragraph and immediately understand your answer.

Write from the buyer’s perspective

One of the most common mistakes in bid writing is describing everything from the bidder’s point of view.

“We have an experienced team.”
“We use industry-leading software.”
“We have robust procedures.”

All may be true, but the evaluator ultimately wants to know what they mean for the contract.

Turn the perspective around. An experienced team may reduce mobilisation risk. Better software may give the buyer real-time performance information. Robust procedures may provide consistency across multiple sites.

Do not just describe the feature. Explain the buyer benefit.

Explain the ‘why’

Strong responses generally contain three elements: what you will do, how you will do it and why your approach is appropriate.

The third is often missing.

For example, saying that monthly performance meetings will take place explains what you will do. Describing attendees, dashboards and reporting arrangements explains how.

Explaining that this provides early identification of deteriorating KPIs, enables corrective action before service failure and gives the contract manager clear oversight explains why the approach adds value.

That final step makes the response persuasive rather than merely descriptive.

Replace claims with evidence

Anyone can write that they provide an excellent service, but it is evidence which makes the statement credible.

Use contract examples, KPI results, customer satisfaction figures, audit scores, response times, staff retention figures and other measurable outcomes wherever they genuinely support the response.

Instead of saying “we have an excellent record of responding quickly to urgent requests”, try explaining that you achieved 98.7% compliance with a two-hour emergency response KPI across a comparable contract during the previous 12 months.

The second gives the evaluator something tangible to assess.

Be specific about your commitments

Persuasive bid writing is confident.

Words such as may, aim to, seek to and where possible can weaken a commitment unless there is a genuine reason for qualification.

Compare:

“We aim to respond to complaints within two working days.”

with:

“We will acknowledge all complaints within four working hours and provide a full response within two working days.”

The latter is clearer, measurable and easier for the evaluator to score.

If you are prepared to make a commitment, make it unequivocally.

Make your differentiators relevant

Every bidder wants to be different, but a differentiator only matters if the buyer benefits from it.

Having proprietary software is not inherently persuasive but showing that it allows the buyer to access live contract data, reduces reporting administration and flags performance problems before KPIs are breached is.

The same applies to innovations, accreditations, technology, additional resources and specialist expertise.

Ask two questions: Why should the buyer care? What difference will this make to their contract?

If you cannot answer either, it probably isn’t meaningful.

Demonstrate rather than promise

Future promises become much more persuasive when supported by previous delivery.

So, if you say you will achieve a seamless mobilisation, give an example of where you have successfully mobilised a similar contract. If you promise strong resident engagement, explain how your approach worked elsewhere and what the outcome was.

Previous experience does not guarantee future performance, but it substantially strengthens the credibility of your proposed approach. A top tip is to use short, relevant examples rather than dropping lengthy generic case studies into every response.

Make cause and effect clear

One of the easiest ways to strengthen tender writing is to connect the action to the result.

For example:

• “We will cross-train three members of the contract team, ensuring absence does not interrupt service delivery.”
• “We will undertake weekly vehicle inspections, reducing the risk of breakdown-related missed visits.”
• “We will provide quarterly refresher training, maintaining competence and addressing lessons identified through audits and incidents.”

Words such as ensuring, thereby, so that and which means can help writers make those connections explicit.

Do not assume the evaluator will make the connection for you, they are busy and yours may be one of thirty or more that they have to read and score. Give them an excuse to give you marks.

Remember that the evaluator can only score what you write

Your organisation may have delivered the service successfully for 20 years. The evaluator may even know your company well but that does not guarantee marks.

Tender evaluation is based on the submitted response. Knowledge that exists in your operations team but never reaches the page will not contribute to your score.

This is particularly important for incumbent suppliers. Familiarity with the existing contract can lead to assumptions and shorthand: “they already know we do that.”

Write every response as though the evaluator knows nothing that you have not told them. Incumbents-you are not bidding for the contract you are delivering, you are bidding for a new contract!

Review the bid for persuasion, not just compliance

Most bid reviews ask: Have we answered the question?

That is essential, but it should not be the final test.

Ask:

Have we made the strongest possible case for awarding us the marks?

Look for unsupported claims, vague commitments, benefits that have not been explained and opportunities to introduce credible evidence.

Then read the response from the evaluator’s perspective. If three competent competitors submitted answers to the same question, what in yours would persuade the evaluator to score it more highly?

That is the question which matters.

From explaining to persuading

Good bid writing must always be compliant, accurate and easy to understand. But those are entry requirements rather than guarantees of success.

The strongest tender responses take the next step by connecting methods to outcomes, claims to evidence and features to buyer benefits.

The principle is straightforward: do not make the evaluator work out why your organisation should win. Write the answer so that the reasons are clear.

At Executive Compass, we have supported more than 7,000 bid and tender submissions in many industries over more than 16 years. From winning facilities management tenders to supporting clients in construction, one lesson has remained remarkably consistent throughout that time: organisations rarely lose marks because they know too little about delivering their service. More often, they lose them because they have not translated that knowledge into a sufficiently clear, evidenced and persuasive tender response.

That is the art of persuasion in bid writing.

Don’t just explain what you do. Give the evaluator a reason to choose you.

Contact us to discuss your requirements with our tender writing consultants and see how we can help you take your bid to the next level.