Ten Proven Ways To Improve Your Bid Writing Success Rate

1. Implement a robust ‘bid/no-bid’ process

A rigorous, structured ‘bid/no-bid’ decision allows for strategic vetting and assessment of your organisation’s chances of a successful tender – a crucial part of a successful outcome.

Upon identification of the tender opportunity, relevant members of your bid team should review the tender documentation to evaluate the contract’s strategic fit, delivery capability, potential competitors and competitive advantages before making the decision to bid.

Resisting a ‘shotgun’ approach to bidding in favour of pursuing winnable, strategically aligned opportunities will quickly improve bid writing success rates.

2. Put yourself in the evaluator’s chair

The majority of tenders are written from the bidder organisation’s viewpoint, but the strongest submissions consider the contracting authority and evaluator’s perspective. When scrutinising the documents and opportunity, a core part of bidding strategy is to ask why the authority have included certain aspects – and thematic links between requirements.

From there, you can identify key differentiators based on the evaluator’s needs and preferences, such as:

• Effective risk management, positioning yourself as the safest, most secure option to deliver against the scope of works or services
• Addressing implicit priorities based on the tender documents – for instance, a council’s sustainability action plan may signal that delivering an environmentally friendly, sustainable service is a strategic objective
• Considering opportunities to add value beyond compliant delivery of the contract specification, positioning yourself as the organisation which will deliver optimal ‘value for money’.

The evaluation matrix will also give explicit instruction on how bidders can receive full marks – normally, a response which fully addresses the question and leaves no reservations regarding ability to deliver.

3. Engage and notify all stakeholders in your bid team early

Tender deadlines are fixed and the window to submit is often short. The earlier you notify your bid writers, subject matter experts and bid review resource, the more likely first drafts will incorporate practical, persuasive and evidence-based content.

Clarifying expectations around timescales and commitments will also proactively avoid any bottlenecks or conflicts, supporting a smooth tender process which maximises time to produce a competitive bid.

4. Programme the bid timelines pragmatically

Producing a winning submission takes significant time and resource, and the tender writing is typically the most time-consuming aspect of a winning bid.

As part of your bid management process, when scheduling in the tender, consider:

• The number of words or pages to be produced for the qualitative submission and reasonable expectations for output, mapping this against the timescales for return
• Who within your bid team is best suited to complete responses, based on their experience, writing skill and subject matter knowledge
• ‘Float’ time for bid review, amendments, checks and uploads, mitigating avoidable mistakes when collating and uploading final versions of documents.

5. Invest time in answer planning bid responses

Once the bid has been programmed, bid writers will be keen to begin progressing responses. However, a crucial step is storyboarding or ‘answer planning’ responses, supporting a strong first draft.

Answer planning will produce a skeleton structure for each response – allowing for the inclusion of focused, concise content. Careful deconstruction of each question will ensure you answer all aspects of the question and can begin considering how to differentiate your submission for other bidders – with each sentence serving a purpose.

6. Prioritise bid content around what will score marks

Tunnel vision is common in bid writing, particularly for organisations who are inexperienced or infrequent bidders. Lengthy explanations of a particular process or feature you are proud of may be beneficial in providing additional detail, but when managing tight word limits, content which scores marks should always take precedence.

Clarity, precision and explicitly addressing the question makes it easier for the evaluator to read and award higher marks – which is the ultimate aim of your tender.

7. Embed evidence and credibility within tender responses

A credible, high-quality bid will incorporate practical evidence of your ability, proven through previous success.

Case studies and contract examples, client testimonials and statistics on past and current performance can be inserted directly into relevant responses. For example, a response on effective programming and scheduling would benefit from citing performance data on a contract with similar deliverables and outcomes.

Assurance of previous success on contracts of a similar size and scope will align your submission with the buyer’s requirements, positioning you as the ideal candidate to deliver the contract.

8. Maintain consistent, cohesive writing throughout

Inconsistencies across your tender submission can lead to reduced confidence amongst evaluators and, ultimately, loss of marks. Review all narrative content to ensure you are using consistent terminology (such as job titles), messaging and tone within submissions, particularly if multiple bid writers are involved.

Alignment across the Procurement Specific Questionnaire, quality questions and appendices and attachments – such as policies, organisational charts and programmes – will give the contracting authority confidence in your approach and ability to deliver.

9. Schedule a formal bid review process

Regardless of your experience in bid writing, each narrative response should be reviewed thoroughly against the wording of the question and contract specification.

The strongest tenders not only comply with the contract requirements, but actively persuade evaluators of your ability to deliver. The bid review stage should capitalise on this opportunity – a senior member of your bid team should review, suggesting enhancements and improvements which will maximise the marks awarded to each response.

10. Win or lose, conduct post-submission reviews

Perhaps the most important element of improving bid writing success rates is reviewing tender feedback. Irrespective of outcome, casting a critical eye on the qualitative and quantitative feedback will allow you to evaluate comparative strengths and weaknesses and opportunities for improvement, and implement strategic changes.

For instance, if your social value offer received low marks, investigate why this was the case – was the proxy value of your proposed offering not aligned with expectations? Or were your proposed commitments insufficiently credible? Pinpointing shortcomings as well as strengths will allow you to address these in future bids, increasing future success rates.

Support improving bid writing success rates

Since 2009, Executive Compass have supported in excess of 8,000 bid and tender submissions, with our collective experience forming a proven methodology which maximises your chance of success. If you would like to find out more about how we can support improvement in your tender success rates, schedule a free bid consultation at info@executivecompass.co.uk or 0800 612 5563.