Outsourcing Your Bid Writing – Why Choose a Consultancy?

Many new clients approach us to say they have engaged bid writing support in the past, only to be let down or have them go quiet in the days leading up to the submission deadline. Our approach as a bid writing consultancy is not solely restricted to the production of tender responses, but extends to full bid management support – supporting a timely, compliant and high-quality submission.

Read more below on how our consultative approach differs from employing a freelancer, and the relevant advantages inherent to our support.

Quality assurance

Quality assurance is a key component in our bid writing process, and can be the difference between a pass and a fail. In accordance with our ISO 9001:2015-accredited quality management system, every response produced by our team of bid and tender writers is subject to a comprehensive review from a quality reviewer or senior manager. This ensures not only a second opinion, but input from an informed, experienced and suitably qualified member of the team.

As part of our tried-and-tested bid writing methodology, the bid reviewer will verify each tender response adheres to the following elements:

• Addresses all aspects of the question, ensuring marks are not inadvertently lost due to oversight or misinterpretation
• Satisfies the requirements of the contract’s specification, avoiding non-compliance within a particular response
• Presents a compelling, persuasive and evidenced-based narrative, emphasising the benefits to the buyer.

Any improvements or enhancements are identified for the writer to address, ensuring the strongest possible response. In the world of competitive tendering, this is a critical step, and can make the difference between being awarded the contract and running a close second place – as evidenced by our fully auditable 85% success rate.

In comparison, a single person or freelance bid writer is likely to be constrained in terms of a quality assurance process.

Flexible, adaptable services and support

As above, our bid writing service also extends to wider bid management support, ensuring a compliant and high-quality submission. Examples of the range of support we provide free of charge for our clients includes:

• Completion of standard company information and data responses in the PQQ or Standard Selection Questionnaire (SQ), reducing your administrative burden
• Helping to interpret clarifications from the contracting authority and supporting with drafting of clarification questions, if required
• Uploading various documents to the portal used by the buyer, following a check by the client for accuracy, sufficiency and suitability
• Conducting final portal checks prior to submission to certify all documents have been completed and everything uploaded correctly.

Our services can also be combined or altered in accordance with your level of experience. For example, if you are comfortable completing certain quality questions but would like support with other areas, we offer a combined bid writing and bid review package, creating a truly bespoke service tailored to the opportunity in question.

Equally, if you have in-house resource or regularly complete bid and tender submissions, we can offer bid and tender writing training targeted to your level of experience or needs – for example, social value training.

Access to wider resources

Quality questions in a tender submission can be complex and difficult to break down, with overlapping or conflicting points to address within each response. Our horizontal structure allows writers to gain input from colleagues, managers or senior members of the team around the following:

• Aligning appropriate terminology and language to ensure consistency with the tender documents and particular sector or industry
• Adhering to small word or page limits to maximise the number of available marks whilst still ensuring the response ‘flows’ and is easy to read
• Presentation and formatting of responses, particularly for submissions which are textbox-based or with a response document
• Discrepancy between the specification and wording of the question, and how best to address or merge the two within a quality response.

Our unique approach and bid writing methodology have been refined across 7,000 SQ, PQQ and ITT submissions, and continuously improved in light of feedback received by tender results and feedback from evaluators. Regardless of the level of experience or success rate, it is unlikely a freelance bid writer will have the infrastructure and level of resource to compete with a bid writing consultancy model.

Scalability, continuity and contingency

Due to the nature of public sector tenders, there are typically short timescales associated, which leaves little room for anything to go wrong. If your freelance writer falls ill or experiences IT issues, there may be no contingency in place to avoid slippage against project progress, or even miss the deadline altogether.

Our team of bid writers and quality reviewers are fully integrated, with contingency measures in place for short- and long-term absence. With a team of over 20 directly employed, in-house bid and tender writers, we are ideally positioned to complete concurrent tender submissions, and to meet short timeframes.

Since our inception in 2009, 75% of our business stems from repeat clients showcasing the effectiveness of our bid writing consultancy model. To learn more about how we can support you to achieve a key contract or framework win, contact a member of our sales and marketing team today at info@executivecompass.co.uk or call at 0800 612 5563.