Recent Client Contract Wins

This summer has been particularly fruitful for Executive Compass and our clients, as we have helped a wide variety of companies to secure important contracts across all sectors and locations. From pest control to ambassador services, our bid processes remain the same, yet the tender submissions have varied and our bid writers have encountered projects of different shapes and sizes.

We take a look at a few of our recent successful projects, at how these were achieved and the particular challenges that were faced.

LPP Framework

The LPP framework for the supply of clinical staff was released earlier this year and was pursued by many companies, as a number of suppliers were to be invited onto the framework, with a large amount of work available. We assisted a London-based client with their bid, as the tender document was quite complex and they required additional support.

The tender document for this framework was fairly unusual, and differed from the ‘typical’ tender (if there is one!) that we normally complete. The supplier could provide either a policy document or a written explanation to address each question or item in the bid. As there were more than 20 different subject areas, this meant the tender itself required a large number of supporting documents and attachments, which all needed to meet current legislation.

This made the submission largely compliance-driven, and involved a full check of existing policy documents, combined with a small amount of written narrative for a few of the sections. We also assisted the client in uploading all documents to the portal for this bid, and doing a final compliance check as there were so many documents required.

This is a good example of how a tender document can vary from the norm, and of how it requires a bid writer to have excellent due diligence skills and bid management. At the end of July, we found out that our client had been awarded a place on the framework, with which they were delighted as their business is growing thanks to the work from the LPP contract.

Electrical Contract

We have worked with this Midlands-based electrical company on a few previous tender submissions, and they approached us again for assistance with a Derbyshire contract which was a ‘must-win’ for their organisation.

The main challenge with this project was that our client (an SME) was up against much larger national companies when bidding for the contract. We therefore needed to provide the contracting authority with assurance that even though the company was smaller, it could deliver the work both with added value and at a good price. Putting this over is a common challenge for SMEs when bidding for contracts and requires that their tender submission is of the highest quality in order to compete successfully.

Last month we received the news from the client that they had been awarded the contract, with the feedback mentioning that their quality was on par, if not scoring higher, than a number of large national contractors! This reinforces the fact that you can have a strong brand and be a national organisation, but if you do not put forward a high quality bid, you will not be awarded the contract. This was a great result and we look forward to working with this client again in future.

Recruitment Advertising Contract

We were approached by a new client earlier this year for assistance with a tender for e-recruitment systems. The bid submission was fairly large in size (totalling 17,000 words) and was a very interesting project for our team as it is a somewhat niche area. The client proved very knowledgeable and through a number of conference calls and workshops, our bid writers gathered a lot of valuable information to be included in the submission. The company had many innovations and good practices in place, forming the basis for a strong tender response.

When working on a larger bid, it requires strong organisational skills and monitoring throughout to ensure all writing is kept on schedule and that the client is informed and involved from start to finish. We formed a good working relationship with the client and were pleased to find out at the start of July that they were successful with the bid, and had received extremely high quality scores.

If you need support with a PQQ or tender document, or just require some advice, you can contact our bid team on 0800 612 5563 and we will be happy to help.