How does the bid review process work?

After we confirm a quotation and timescale, we review your submission thoroughly and leave comments and edits directly within the original content. These comments provide guidance on strengthening and enhancing your submission. Reviewed responses can be returned in small batches or all at once, depending on your preference. For clarity, responses must be submitted to Executive Compass in Microsoft Word rather than as a PDF.

Who will be reviewing my submission?

A senior member of our bid writing team will review your responses, typically a senior bid writer, quality reviewer or our technical director. Each reviewer supports clients with hundreds of bids each year, so your review is carried out by an experienced bid practitioner.

What will my assigned reviewer look for?

Our bid review focuses on compliance, readability and persuasiveness, positioning you as the ideal candidate for the contract. We do not provide feedback on technical content in the response, as we trust clients to include accurate information specific to their industry or sector.

How much notice do you need to review the bid?

As much advance notice as possible is always welcome. We can accommodate short notice projects where possible, similar to our bid writing projects. The size of the submission will also influence what is feasible and achievable.

Will the review be completed before the submission deadline?

Yes. As part of our bid review service, we set deadlines for your subject matter experts to provide initial drafts and for us to review and provide feedback. This includes allowing time for any necessary amendments before the final submission deadline.

What industries do you offer bid reviews in?

We work with clients across several sectors, including facilities management, professional services, health and social care and construction.

How much does a bid review cost?

Pricing is determined by the size and scope of the tender document, for example how many words or pages we are reviewing. We will review and discuss the individual bid with you to provide a bespoke quotation in advance.

How do you handle confidentiality during the bid review process?

All client information is kept strictly confidential, and we are happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement if required. Please also see our privacy policy for further information.

Bid Review Service | Executive Compass

Completing bids and tenders in-house can present problems when it comes to the bid review stage. You are often too close and too involved with the submission to be able to carry out an effective bid review process, and you may miss vital elements and important information - this is where a professional bid review service can add real value.

An effective bid review service is a crucial part of the overall bid writing process and will help ensure your response is compliant with the contract specification, has a clear, logical structure and each element of the question has been sufficiently addressed. If you are hoping to win a tender contract, using an external bid review service can be extremely helpful.

Our tried and tested professional bid review service is intended for those who manage their public sector tenders but do not require our bid and tender writing services, but who would like an additional review of their completed PSQ or tender from an external source. Having this external point of view can help ensure the submission is of the highest quality and improve win rates.

Using a ‘critical friend’ review strengthens your bid submission by offering a fresh perspective on your tender response, which is another aspect of our bid review service.

At Executive Compass, our bid review services have a range of benefits on current submissions, including mitigating risk, enhancing quality and competitiveness, and encouraging collaboration and teamwork. Bid reviews can also benefit future submissions by establishing bid writing best practice and ensuring organisations avoid generalisations, use tables and bullet points to structure responses, include examples where appropriate, and employ a consistent tone throughout.

Bid review process

The bid review process is a crucial stage in the overall tender response and submission process. Our dedicated team of expert bid consultants are also specialists in reviewing and editing bids to ensure your submission is high-quality, compliant and clear.

What does the bid review service include?

At Executive Compass, our bid review service is comprehensive and detailed, to ensure you get the best out of your submission. Our team of bid writers will review your organisation’s bid in depth. The process follows the below steps:

Confirming a quotation for our service, which is completed based on the expected word count of your completed submission.
Agreeing a timescale, so we know when to expect your completed responses. These responses can be sent individually or section-by-section, as soon as the bid writing is complete, so that any comments and suggestions can be acted upon when writing the remainder of your submission.
Returning reviewed responses, with enough time so that you can make any changes and discuss any comments with your bid reviewer in advance of the deadline.
Providing suggestions and support throughout, to offer advice or guidance to help improve your bid writing and overall submission.

Our bid review service can help with improving your tender results for public sector bids, ensuring you have drafted a good tender response or more generally providing insight into key bid writing skills to win tenders.

What does a good review look like?

A member of our expert bid writing team, typically this will be a quality reviewer, will work with you to review each bid response to ensure the submission:

Addresses the question in full, with content which is smooth and easy for the evaluator to read and assess.
Includes, persuasive, evidence-based content to strengthen the overall credibility to your proposals and methodology for delivery.
Is relevant to the question being posed by the authority, and does not include irrelevant or generic content.
Complies with the requirements of the contract specification and all other documents included in the tender pack.

Features of our bid & tender review service:

Our professional bid review includes:

Fully marked-up documents, with comments and suggested amendments for your bid response.
A compliance check, flagging any element which our interpretation would deem as noncompliant or result in loss of marks.
Identifying areas for improvement, so if we feel your bid will not score the maximum marks available, we will provide suggestions and points to consider.
Detailed review and expert feedback of each response with objective and constructive criticism
Appraisal and review of case studies and contract examples
Advice on presentation improvements
Input from professional bid writers and reviewers, who have written and won thousands of tenders and know what the contracting authority are looking for
Cover-to-cover proofreading, if this is requested by your organisation.

We engaged Executive Compass for their objective thinking and pragmatism in reviewing tenders submissions. We presented them with a challenging deadline, and were thoroughly impressed with not only the quick turnaround but the high quality of output. Executive Compass delivered exactly what we asked for, in a manner exceeding expectation. Having Executive Compass on hand to support with our big ticket opportunities has proved very worthwhile.

Steven Barker, Aquila Bid Review Services

Bid Review Service – Frequently Asked Questions

How does the bid review process work? After we have confirmed a quotation and timescale, we will review your submission thoroughly and leave comments and edits directly within the original content. These comments will provide guidance on strengthening and enhancing your submission. Reviewed responses can be returned in small batches of all at once, depending on your preference. For clarity, responses must be submitted to Executive Compass in Microsoft Word rather than in a PDF.
Who will be reviewing my submission? Your responses will be reviewed by a senior member of our bid writing team – typically, a senior bid writer, quality reviewer or our technical director. Each reviewer supports clients with hundreds of bids each year, so you can be confident that your bid review comes from an experienced bid practitioner.
What will my assigned reviewer look for? Our bid review services focus on ensuring compliance, readability, and persuasiveness in your bid response, positioning you as the ideal candidate for the contract. We do not provide feedback on technical content included in the response, as we trust each client will include accurate information specific to their industry or sector.
How much notice do you need to review the bid? Due to the short nature of the bid cycle, as much advance notice as possible is always welcome. However, similar to our bid writing projects, we can accommodate short notice projects where possible. The size of the submission will also play a role in determining what is feasible and achievable.
Will the review be completed before the submission deadline? Yes, as part of our bid review services, we set deadlines for your subject-matter experts to provide initial drafts and for us to review and provide feedback. This includes allowing time for any necessary amendments before the final submission deadline.
What industries do you offer bid reviews in? At Executive Compass, we work with clients across several sectors in industries including facilities management, professional services, health and social care, and construction.
How much does a bid review cost? Our pricing is determined by the size and scope of the tender document, so how many words or pages we are reviewing. We will always review and discuss the individual bid with you to provide a bespoke quotation in advance.
How do you handle confidentiality during the bid review process? Due to the nature of our work, all client information is kept strictly confidential and we are happy to sign an NDA if required. Please also see our privacy policy for further information.

Get a FREE consultation

Request a callback with a member of our Bid Team or contact us by telephone on 0800 612 5563, direct to mobile 07739407746 or via email info@executivecompass.co.uk

Why Use A Bid Review Service?

With many organisations completing some or all of their tender responses in house, it is important to ensure they are of the highest quality prior to submission.

Our professional bid review services offer a cost-effective way to take your PQQ or tender submission to the next level, whilst you still retain full control and management of the bid in-house. If it is a critical bid for your company, or your first time bidding, getting an experienced bid practitioner’s assessment and suggestions at final review stage can mean the difference between a winning and losing submission.

It is challenging to critique your own work objectively, especially in bid writing. Our bid writers’ and quality managers’ knowledge and experience of the procurement process means we are able to identify areas you may have overlooked. Executive Compass has been involved in over 7,000 bids, with an 85% success rate, and we know better than anyone exactly what the contracting authority is looking for.

Usually, bidder organisations have included the correct information but have simply not demonstrated it correctly — that is where we come in at the bid review stage.

How Does It Work?

Firstly, we will confirm a quotation for the bid reviews, based on the expected word count of your completed submission — it takes a lot longer to review 15,000 words of bid content than 2,000 words!

Once we confirm the scope of work, we will then agree a timescale for receiving your completed responses. Responses will be shared individually or section-by-section, as soon as the bid writing is complete, so that any comments and suggestions can be taken on board when writing the remainder of your tender submission. We will return all reviewed responses to you with enough time to make any changes and discuss any comments with your assigned bid reviewer in advance of the deadline. Our team is available to offer suggestions and advice to help improve both your bid writing and overall submission.

Whether you are a small business completing your first PQQ, SQ or tender, or a larger company bidding for many contracts, our bid review service can help you to improve your bids and increase your success rate.