One of the main reasons companies seek external assistance from our team of bid writers is because they do not have the resources readily available in-house. They are fully competent to complete the tender, but for short deadlines, or for particularly large submissions, resource issues arise.
Monitoring contract opportunities
One way to manage resources effectively is to monitor contract opportunities and compile a pipeline of potential bids. If there is a certain procurement cycle for your industry, plan properly for this time and make sure you have extra resources available to assist with all important bids.
We advise companies that if the contract is not already on your radar, there is a chance it may not be the right opportunity for you. It is important to undertake a “bid/no bid” decision and weigh up whether the contract is deliverable, achievable and fits with your organisational strategy before you dedicate time and money to the PQQ and tender process.
Managing time constraints and short deadlines
When tendering, it is highly likely you will encounter at least one bid with a short deadline and tight time constraints. This is the time to make sure you are well organised and prepared. If you are lucky enough to have a bid team to assist you, great! If not, it is even more important to plan the submission.
Our team of bid writers approach all PQQs and tenders in the same way. Whether they are large or small, it is the same tried and tested bid process. This consists of reading and understanding the specification, writing a clear plan for the bid and setting internal deadlines, deconstructing sections to fully answer the question when writing responses and reviewing the final document as many times as needed.
Within a short deadline, a clear plan and internal deadlines are key for your bid. Whether this is as part of a bid team or as an individual, the method is the same and as long as you stick to the time constraints there is no reason to panic.
Creating a bid library
A bid library is essentially a bank of previous responses, case studies, supporting documents and feedback which can be utilised to assist with future responses. We never advise copying and pasting, as this is unlikely to fully answer the questions and fit with the evaluation criteria every time, but case studies and other supporting documents can certainly be amended. This provides a much more efficient approach when tendering regularly and within short timescales.
Implementing a bid library is something we do for our long term and regular clients, and our bid writers find this beneficial, not only time wise, but also as part of continuous improvement.
External support
The other option is to obtain support from a professional bid team, when there just isn’t the resource available in-house. We often encounter companies who are wary of outsourcing their bid management; they feel we don’t know their company and operations and isn’t it better for them to complete the bid themselves? This isn’t always the case. Executive Compass has experience writing thousands of submissions across all industries and our bid writers work with you to gain all technical information and compile this in a persuasive narrative style in order to gain the most marks available in the PQQ or tender. An external perspective can actually improve the quality of your bids and introduce new ideas and innovations.
To discuss how we can support you at any stage of the bidding process, fill out our website contact form or call us today on 0800 612 5563.
