The importance of precision in tender responses

The importance of giving precise information in your tender submission cannot be understated. The buyer, whoever they may be, requires reassurance regarding your competence to deliver the services you are bidding for, and they do not want to be left guessing. It is therefore important to always use precise examples to evidence or reinforce the statements you include in your tender responses. There are several ways you can achieve this, including the following:

Use of names

By attaching specific names to certain responsibilities, you are providing the buyer with a clearer image of who will be delivering what in relation to the project. For example, a weak response may state:

“Service delivery will be overseen by an account manager.”

Whilst this may answer the main thrust of a question that asks who will manage the contract, it leaves the reader with several questions of their own, namely: who is this account manager and how do we know they are the right person for the job? Removing this ambiguity is the key difference between a poorly scoring tender response and a high scoring one, for example:

“Service delivery will be overseen by Account Manager John Doe, who has over 15 years’ experience within the industry, holds a bachelor’s degree in Construction Management from Byker University and has managed the delivery of similar projects on behalf of clients such as Striguil Construction Ltd., Brix’R’us and Adeiladu International.

By attaching a name to a role in your bid responses, you are able to leverage that individual’s experience to further demonstrate your company’s ability to deliver the contract requirements, providing greater reassurance to the buyer that yours is the company to award the contract to.

Use of statistics

Whilst statistics can scare even the most steadfast bid writer, they are powerful tools that can provide tangible evidence to reinforce statements and reassure buyers that your service is as exceptional as you say it is. For example, which of the following statements is stronger?

“Providing excellent customer service is at the heart of our delivery model.”

Or:

“Providing excellent customer service is at the heart of our delivery model, as demonstrated by our exceptional customer satisfaction rate of 97% currently maintained across all contracts we work on.”

Through using statistics where you can, particularly when you are talking about previous key performance indicator (KPI) successes, you are not only demonstrating to the buyer that you are effective in the delivery of your service, but that you also have the formal processes in place to collect relevant metrics. To a buyer, this can indicate a greater level of professionalism than bidders who neglect to use statistics within their responses.

Making solid commitments

Commitments are an integral part of tender responses. They tell the buyer exactly what you will do to deliver the service out to tender and provide a yardstick from which they can judge your proposal against those of other bidders. It’s because of this that you need to be bold when making such commitments to ensure you stand out from amongst the crowd; however, it is easy to fall into the trap of not giving your commitments a solid foundation in reality. It’s all very well saying that you will do something, but you need to back this up with exactly how you will do it. Without the ‘how’, the buyer won’t know whether you are promising the world and just delivering an atlas. So, which of the below do you think is stronger?

“We will provide an exceptional service to the buyer’s customers.”

Or:

“We will provide an exceptional service to the buyer’s customers through collaborating with key stakeholders to allow us to tailor our approach to their individual needs.”

Whilst the second example would benefit from outlining who the ‘key stakeholders’ are, e.g. a buyer’s resident engagement team if they are a social housing provider, there is a clear indication as to how the commitment of providing an exceptional service will be achieved.

By being precise and removing ambiguity as to who, what and how you intend to deliver the services you are bidding for, you will be able to take your tender responses to the next level, maximising your scores and improving your chances of a successful bid.

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For more information on how Executive Compass can support you to produce truly competitive tenders, contact our team today and we will be happy to discuss our range of services.