This blog will give you an insight into the typical day of a bid writer, demonstrating the types of bids we complete and exactly how we assist our clients.
My working day starts at 8.30am, when I arrive at our Newcastle upon Tyne office, prepared for a day where I will work with a number of clients on a range of challenging tenders. Before I start writing, I respond to all the emails in my inbox and plan my day to maximise the time available to spend on my projects. Around three mornings a week we have a team ‘pulse meeting’ in the office to discuss all current projects and determine the schedule for quality assuring work.
Work wear and PPE
My first item of the day involves working with a clothing supplier who is tendering to provide a housing association with work wear and personal protective equipment. I call, as scheduled the previous day, at 9am to carry out a telephone interview and discuss some of the more challenging aspects of the tender with the client. The tender document specification is complex and has some non-standard requirements, so we talk about how to demonstrate to the contracting authority that we can adhere to the terms of the contract. This includes providing advice about what information the contracting authority will expect to see in our responses and how to back up their experience with persuasive facts. Using the information discussed, I then create responses tailored to the housing association’s specifications and which convincingly explain how our client can meet those requirements. After adding these responses to the questions I completed the previous day, I send the finished document to one of my colleagues for a quality assurance check before it is sent to our proof reader.
Quality assurance
As part of my role, I help quality assure the work of the other bid writers in the team, and other colleagues also quality check my work. One of our team asks me to review their submission for a construction client. This involves identifying areas which require additional information, as well making sure the document is written in a persuasive and engaging way. Following the review, I send the amended document back to my colleague who makes the suggested changes and strengthens the submission, before sending the document to our managing director for final review. Reviewing is a very important part of the process, which allows us to continually improve the quality of our writing. My colleague feels the review has helped him to significantly improve his final draft.
Supported living tenders
After the quality review, I begin work on a tender for a company who provide supported independent living opportunities for young people involved in the care system. As we have worked with the company before, we have a significant amount of material on their past experience and usual working practices. This is supplemented with material gathered during a phone call with the manager, who provides additional, contract-specific information. Using the experience of other members of the team, we are able to identify the relevant information that needs to be included, and how we can emphasise the best aspects of our client’s service. I was then able to begin work on the document, using all the information we had collected to craft responses that met the contracting authority’s needs, including accommodation, development of support plans and the training members of staff received.
This left just enough time in the day to review all the contract notices published today and liaise with my other clients about ongoing projects. Leaving the office at the end of the day, after working on three totally different tenders, I feel a sense of accomplishment—I have added significant value to all the submissions I worked on. I was also informed that two of my clients have been successfully awarded the contracts I assisted with, which is great news and what every bid writer strives for—writing winning tenders!
To discuss how our team of bid writers can assist with your next PQQ or tender and increase your success rate, contact us today.