Three tips to make your tender stand out

1. Don’t be modest!

In a PQQ or tender submission you cannot assume that the buyer has any previous knowledge of your company; the person marking your bid might never have heard of your organisation, and it is your responsibility to ensure they know everything about your company worth knowing.

A tender is no time to be modest! You should be shouting about your successes, what makes you different and your specialisms. Try to use this in context: use any of the following points as evidence when answering a question:

• Recent projects
• Staff qualifications
• Things you do differently
• Specialisms of the organisation
• Resource capabilities
• Achievements
• In-house tools, techniques, strategies that have been developed
• Investments

It is no good just to proclaim that you are the best company for the job – the buyer needs to see why, how and when.

2. Use varied evidence

We always strongly advise that you use evidence in your tender submission: statistics, contract examples, case studies and references all strengthen your bid.

If your tender allows, use evidence boxes, images and charts to convey the information. Referring to a range of sources keeps the submission interesting and it is easy for the evaluator to award you marks!

Refer to the list above if you are struggling to think of examples of evidence. Instead of just saying your staff are qualified, why not list the qualifications that stand out, provide CVs and explain why this means they are the best suited to the contract?

3. Tick all the boxes, and more

Within the public sector procurement process there are strict marking criteria and a number of pass/fail questions. One vital part of your tender submission is compliance: making sure that your bid submission ticks all the boxes and there is no reason for you to lose marks.

The person evaluating your tender submission (and all the other tenders received) will be reading through your bid against the specification and marking criteria – do not give them any reason to score you lower than a competitor.

Things you need to consider include:

• Answer all questions, referring to the specification
• Utilise the word or character limits in full
• Go above and beyond – show added value and value for money
• Review and mark your own bid prior to submission – would you award yourself full marks?

If you want to go that extra step and ensure your tender submission is up to scratch, please see our review services or contact our team to discuss how we can help.