How to Learn from Unsuccessful Tender Feedback

We provide advice and guidance on how to successfully review, utilise and address unsuccessful tender feedback, driving continuous improvement in your bid strategy.

Using unsuccessful tender feedback correctly

Receiving a rejection to your tender proposal is never welcome news, but it’s important to make the most of the hard work you’ve invested by reviewing the unsuccessful tender feedback provided by the contracting authority. This will ensure you do not repeat mistakes, leading to quick wins for future submissions.

One of the main advantages of getting feedback is that it offers you the opportunity to learn from the exercise and, assuming your bid was compliant, understand your relative strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge can then be put to good use when writing your next bid submission.

The level of feedback provided by contracting authorities can vary significantly. Some will offer a short, face-to-face debrief with the aim of providing honest feedback, highlighting particular areas and priorities that contributed to the overall decision.

In accordance with Regulation 86 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, the authority must provide feedback to successful and unsuccessful bidders during the ‘standstill’ period – which normally lasts 10 working days. This could be as little as a few generic bullet points or even a few words per quality response.

Analysing unsuccessful tender feedback

When reviewing the feedback provided by the authority, it can be tempting to simply look at the total scores to see how you stacked up against other bidder organisations. However, this could result in tunnel vision and make it more difficult to meaningfully apply unsuccessful tender feedback.

As part of best practice in your post-bid review process, consider analysing and making note of the following:

• Who won the contract? You will then know who your competitors are and can research the types of firms you’re up against. For example, was it a local provider, a multinational, a well-established company or a start-up? This information can help inform long-term strategic plans, such as whether it’s an area you want to be bidding into or whether it is outside your core business.
• How many bids were received for the contract and where did your bid rank? This will give you an idea of the level of competition, number of bids you were competing against and your relative position amongst them.
• What was the winning score and what was your score? Drilling down into the detail for each quality question enables you to understand how competitive your submission was and to identify the areas you need to work on most.
• What were the comparative strengths and weaknesses for each response? If, for example, feedback for one response demonstrated a strong level of detail for a particular process or procedure, you can replicate this in future tender submissions.

Requesting additional tender feedback

For tender feedback to be really useful, it is worth considering the following areas and requesting the information if it hasn’t been provided:

• A breakdown of your tender submission scores against the evaluation criteria
• Were there any criteria where you didn’t meet the minimum standard required?
• Did the submission satisfy the evaluators that you could meet the requirements and had the ability to deliver the contract?
• Were there any particular strengths that stood out amongst the other bidders, and most importantly, the winning bid?
• Were there any specific weaknesses that caused concerns and why? How can we improve this in future submissions?
• What areas would you suggest we improve our approach on?

As with standard feedback issued by the contracting authority, additional tender feedback can vary in length, level of detail and utility. However, it can never hurt to put in a request for this and it will demonstrate to the authority that you are taking steps to improve your tendering processes and strategy.

Sharing feedback for the next tender submission

Equipped with the information gained from the above, you should have a clearer understanding of why your tender was unsuccessful and some useful insights into where improvements can be made.

To make the most out of the unsuccessful tender feedback it should be shared internally within your organisation or bid team to enable issues to be identified, and plans developed and implemented to address any shortcomings.

If you keep central records or a bid library for your tender submissions, it is worth collating any feedback here too, as even if your submission was unsuccessful, some areas may have scored well or received positive feedback that is valuable to refer to in future.

The reward of your post-bid activity will be a stronger and more compelling bid next time you approach the procurement process.

Support with analysing unsuccessful tender feedback

In response to increased demand from our clients, Executive Compass launched a post-bid consultation review as part of our bid and tender services earlier this year. As part of our consultative approach, our Training Services Manager Stephen Murray will:

• Conduct an initial consultation to understand any buyer- or tender-specific content
• Interpret key themes evidenced in buyer feedback, further aiding understanding
• Undertake line-by-line reviews of the responses submitted, with targeted comments throughout to support improvements and enhancements
• Facilitate a workshop on how to apply lessons learned and implement improvements.

If you would like to learn more about how our post-bid consultation can support you in making the most of unsuccessful tender feedback, our sales and marketing team are available for a free, no-obligation quotation at info@executivecompass.co.uk or via telephone 0800 612 5563.