7 Reasons you need Bid Writing Training

It is a great way for your business to win contracts, but only if done correctly and to a high standard. Bid writing is a unique skill which takes years to perfect on your own, but with professional assistance your company can begin to see successes and contract wins.

We are often asked about the benefits of our bid writing training, so we have outlined seven key reasons why you should consider getting professional help from experienced bid practitioners.

1. Writing bids and tenders is complicated

The bid process is incredibly complicated and can be very confusing for first-time or occasional bidders. The tender pack can contain dozens of documents, annexes and appendices over and above the invitation to tender (ITT) document and contract specification, which need to be read and may need referencing within the relevant quality responses.

The purpose of the documents is to exclude bidders, so it is important to understand exactly how to read and respond to a PQQ or tender. Based on our experience supporting over 7,000 PQQ, SQ and ITT submissions, our bid writing training services will teach you how to:

• Break down the question into constituent parts, ensuring nothing is missed or omitted and all aspects of the question have been answered
• Write persuasively and with authority, giving the evaluators confidence around your technical ability and capacity to deliver against the scope of works
• Emphasise the benefits and added value of your proposed service delivery to the evaluators so you achieve the highest possible marks.

If you do not fully understand what is required or how to properly present information within a tender response, then there is a risk you may be non-compliant and waste time and resources on an unsuccessful bid.

2. Winning contracts is important

Contracts are critical to your organisation’s success. They provide income and help your company expand and grow. Public sector contracts in particular are valuable to many businesses, as central and local government authorities are good clients, with strict rules around prompt payment and a fair, transparent procurement process.

Because of this, it is necessary to ensure that the bid you submit is of the best possible quality in order to have the best chance of winning. Competition for government tenders is high and specialist bid writing training is often required in order to support the production of a high-quality, competitive submission. If you do not understand the complex rules and best practices around bidding, it is difficult to achieve high marks for quality responses.

When engaging Executive Compass in bid writing training, you gain access to cumulative expertise from thousands of tender submissions, in addition to our experience in navigating post-submission feedback to ensure a continually improving service.

3. Your team may not be bid writers

Writing a bid is like no other writing. It is a skill that needs to be honed and applied directly to your specific company in a way that gets the most points from evaluators. Equally, with the majority of tenders operating within a four- to six-week window, your organisation may not have sufficient resource to complete a high-quality submission without expert advice.

If your team are not trained bid and tender writers, they may struggle to score top marks on each section and as a result will lose the bid. The most common reason for a lost tender is not usually just a cumulative loss of marks across each quality question within the document. By addressing these shortcomings, you will see an immediate uptick in quality scores, rendering your submission more competitive.

4. Bid writing is a skill

Bid writing is a skill that you cannot self-teach without a lot of trial and error. There are specific ways to respond to questions and if completed incorrectly you will be penalised.

As examples, some common mistakes we see when reviewing previous submissions for clients include:

• Failure to comprehensively answer all aspects of the question, thereby losing marks from the authority
• Responses which do not comply with the requirements of the specification and will either lose marks or receive no marks from evaluators
• No ‘flow’ or narrative to quality responses, making it difficult for the authority’s evaluation team to read and interpret
• Lack of strong, assertive language within responses (e.g. ‘periodic checks’ rather than ‘weekly audits’) leaving room for doubt or reservation when it comes to marking
• Incorrect or inconsistent tense within responses, such as referring to a past contract when an authority has asked how you will deliver the service in the future.

As part of our bid writing training, we train delegates how to write, format and structure responses in accordance with our own in-house style and best practices. When applied properly, this will result in an immediate increase in marks.

5. Save money

Bidding for contracts takes valuable time and resource; hence you need to ensure you have the time and expertise to afford you every possible chance of success.

Training gives you the necessary skills to complete a bid of the highest quality and therefore have the best chance of winning. It can also prove to be a more cost-effective solution, as future tenders can be completed by in-house experts supported by targeted, industry-specific advice – saving both time and money in the long run.

6. Improve your success rate

As well as saving time and money, bid writing training will vastly improve your success rate and ability to complete future tender submissions to a high standard. Our bespoke bid writing training supports delegates in the following areas:

• Developing confidence in understanding the tender pack, so you know exactly what the authority is looking for
• Identifying the concerns and priorities of the authority, enabling you to tailor the benefits and added value around these areas
• Concisely and persuasively explaining why you are ideally placed to be awarded the contract, based on detailed, evidence-based content.

Applying the above points means that you can begin to confidently bid for more contracts knowing you have a good chance of winning.

7. Expert training cannot be beaten

There is no substitute for direct expert help. Executive Compass has delivered training to thousands of delegates and our experienced bid practitioners Matthew Walker and Stephen Murray have had direct involvement in thousands of submissions, resulting in billions of pounds secured as a result of contract or framework award.

For more information on our bespoke training, you can visit our training page or register your interest on our contact page.