Bid and Tender Writing Lessons Learnt in 2025

Our bid writing process has been developed and refined over more than 16 years, supporting our clients to achieve sustained success. While the core principles continue to deliver consistent, proven results, incorporating ‘lessons learnt’ as part of a wider bidding strategy is critical for ongoing success when tendering for contracts in an increasingly competitive landscape.

Adapting bid strategies to changes in 2025 public procurement

Per our previous tendering trends piece, bid strategies must be adaptable in accordance with wider industry changes – such as increased funding in certain industries or sectors. Current and prospective suppliers must remain vigilant to how wider changes can impact available tender opportunities and allow them to grow their portfolio of contracts.

In 2025, examples of this included:

Industry change	Bid strategy impact
The introduction of Awaab’s Law in October of last year, with formal legal requirements likely to increase the number of damp and mould remediation tenders in 2026.	Relevant suppliers, such as multi-trade contractors working in housing associations, shifting focus to offer damp and mould remediation as part of their services.
Record numbers of preliminary market engagement and assorted pre-tender notices being issued in 2026, stemming from changes to best practice introduced by the Procurement Act.	Bidder organisations formalising their bid pipeline and making quicker evaluation on suitable projects – creating efficiencies in the ‘bid/no-bid’ decision.
Higher average of value contracts from sub-central authorities, such as local councils and NHS ICBs, per data from Tussell’s report on English devolution.	Shifting focus from contracts and framework for central government authorities – for example, CCS frameworks – to local councils and housing associations.
Changes to legislation allowing local authorities to reserve contracts for local suppliers if it is deemed appropriate to do so.	Expanding potential geographic areas for service delivery, ensuring bidders are not ‘locked out’ of future opportunities.

 

Continued importance of detailed, persuasive evidence

Consistent review of tender feedback demonstrates that our focus on persuasive, evidence-based content within tender responses leads to successful outcomes:

• Using assertive language within responses, ensuring that you are unequivocal with your commitments rather than making conditional agreements
• Referencing previous experience in the form of case studies, demonstrating individual and organisational competency and capability to deliver the tendered works or services
• Incorporating quantitative or statistical evidence to substantiate your claims – for instance, KPI performance, resource levels assigned to the contract and timescales for processes.

Responses which fail to incorporate the above feel generic, unsubstantiated and non-committal, and risk losing critical marks – and ultimately become the difference between a successful and unsuccessful submission. Throughout 2026, we will continue to support clients to navigate this challenge and to produce impactful, detailed responses.

Avoiding common bid writing mistakes

In line with the above, our analysis of feedback also shows that common – but easy to avoid – bid writing mistakes can prove costly, resulting in losing tender submissions. When reviewing feedback for successful clients, we note feedback provided for unsuccessful bidder organisations reiterated the costliness of those mistakes.

Our established bid writing methodology proactively avoids these mistakes, such as:

• Leaving insufficient time for bid writing prior to the submission deadline – which can be avoided by strong bid planning, formal bid pipelines and swift bid/no-bid decisions
• Not aligning responses with the specification and other tender documents, resulting in the inclusion of generic or noncompliant information
• Copying and pasting from previous submissions without consideration of relevance or the wording of the question, defeating the purpose of a well-maintained bid library and in turn failing to meet evaluators’ unique, service-specific requirements.

Lastly, reviewing tender feedback – for both successful and unsuccessful bids – is a critical step to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Increased use of AI as an assistive tool for bid writers

As with many other industries, the adoption of AI as a tool to support bid writing is becoming more common.

When operated effectively by a skilled user, AI can be a useful and practical tool for supporting tender submissions, but evidence shows that over-reliance or ineffective operation of generative AI can lead to generic, low-quality or inaccurate submissions.

Within carefully defined parameters, and subject to procurement-specific rules and guidelines, skilled bid writers can benefit from AI-based tools:

• Producing research relevant to the submission for technical or industry-specific content, supplementing information provided by subject matter experts
• Structuring a response to introduce efficiencies in the planning stage of the tender writing process
• Analysing specification documents or other attachments within the tender pack, enabling you to tailor content unique to each submission
• Ensuring a trained, experienced bid writer is responsible for managing the AI, avoiding ‘hallucinations’ or non-compliant outputs.

The new science of ‘prompt engineering’ is pivotal in using AI confidently, capably and in accordance with government guidance.

How lesson learnt will shape bid writing in 2026

By drawing on lessons learned across more than 700 tender submissions completed in 2026, we will continue to deliver compelling, impactful submissions which are aligned with changes to procurement legislation and industry best practice across all the bid writing services we provide.

To find out more about how we provide high-quality bid and tender support in 2026, contact us today for a free 30-minute consultation on 0800 612 5563 or info@executivecompass.co.uk.