Too many bid writers spoil the tender

One voice throughout

Assigning specific parts of a tender or PQQ is a great way of making the large amount of creative narrative required more manageable, by dividing it up across your bid writers. One problem with this is that each person will have their own voice when writing a narrative response: they will each approach a question in a slightly different manner and each will use their own particular vocabulary. Whilst individuality should be encouraged in most instances, it is best practice when writing a bid or tender to have a singular and recurring theme throughout, which is very easily lost when you have multiple writers contributing to the tender. It is recommended that the responsibility for collating the information and documentation required is divided up, to ensure a speedy return of all the necessary documents, and then one person is responsible for bringing all of the information and documentation together and write up the narrative responses, whether this person is from your organisation or an external bid writing resource. This ensures that there is one voice throughout the tender, despite having many contributors.

Every project requires a leader

A tender should not be viewed any differently from any other large business project. The process of completing a bid or tender should be planned, overseen and coordinated to ensure that all the separate elements of the tender come together seamlessly. Deadlines should be set from the outset to ensure that the tender is completed in a timely manner; you should always leave enough time to review the entire submission before it is returned to the client, especially when you have divided the responsibility for completing it across multiple staff members. Your tender needs to be free from error and contradictions, which can often be difficult with multiple perspectives having their input throughout the completion process.

Manage your knowledge

Correctly and efficiently harnessing your data and information is of vital importance to successful bid and tender writing. Many organisations come adrift when it comes to effective bid and document management, and this can cause vital time to be lost when you are trying to complete a strong bid. Bid Management Systems (BMS) or Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS) are both very effective, and potentially necessary, tools to have in place. These facilitate the collation, organisation and distribution of vital information and documentation across your nominated writers or contributors. Having this kind of system in place also removes the risk of vital files being lost on an absent staff member’s hard drive when it comes to compiling the necessary documents for return with the completed PQQ or tender.

Contact us today for a free no obligation consultation: we may be able to take the proverbial bid writers reins from your hands, leaving you free to complete your daily duties without the stress of managing the bid writing process.