Advice for Completing a Tender

Should you be successful at PQQ stage and receive an invitation to tender you will now be met with an even more challenging document to complete. Securing the contract comes down to the strength of your submission at this stage. Submit a poor tender and you will simply fail.

Learn from the PQQ

Once invited to tender you will have a new deadline in which to complete all documentation and submit.

The first thing to do is quickly evaluate the PQQ – what worked and what did not? Look at scores and try to determine what allowed you to progress. If you received the lowest score out of those invited to tender then there is a lot of catching up to do. Companies with a high score know that they simply need to emphasise the points they already made.

As with the PQQ utilise the specification to complete all sections and ensure full compliance throughout.

Build on your successes

As mentioned above, find the sections where you excelled and build on those, emphasising that you are the best company for the job.

This also refers to any past experience you may have – now is the time to include it:

• Why have previous contracts gone well?
• What makes your company the best?
• How much experience do you have?
• What makes you stand out?

Answering these points will reassure the evaluator and help you pull ahead of your competitors.

Add value

The biggest key to success is added value. It isn’t enough to just answer the question about the required service, you must be able to add value to it.

Contracting authorities are always looking for something extra from businesses. How can your company differentiate from the competition and deliver the best quality of service? Here are some tips for adding value:

• Create local jobs
• Help the community
• Additional services
• Innovation and quality of service
• Simplifying the process

Submission and result

As with the PQQ you should always have another team member or professional proof reader check the tender prior to submission. This will remove errors and ensure the best possible document.

Regardless of whether you win or lose, always request feedback. This will help you learn what does and does not work. The reason for analysing feedback is to improve your success rate in the long term and win more contracts.

For more information on completing tenders call us free on 0800 612 5563 or fill out our contact form.