How does the bid review process work?

Responses must be sent in Microsoft Word documents rather than a PDF. When reviewing any bid or RFP responses, comments and light edits will be applied in-line with the original content, providing guidance on strengthening and enhancing your submission. Reviewed responses can be returned in small batches or all at once, depending on your preference.

Who will be reviewing my submission?

Your responses will be reviewed by a senior member of the team – typically, a senior bid writer, quality manager or our technical director. Each reviewer supports clients with hundreds of bids each year, ensuring your review comes from an experienced bid practitioner.

What will my assigned reviewer look for?

Our bid review service focuses on ensuring compliance, readability, and persuasiveness in your bid response, positioning you as the ideal candidate for the contract. We do not provide feedback on technical content included in the response as we trust you will include accurate information specific to your industry or sector.

How much notice do you need to review the bid?

Due to the short nature of the bid cycle, as much advance notice as possible is always welcome. However, similar to our bid writing projects, we can accommodate short notice projects where possible. The size of the submission will also play a role in determining what is feasible and achievable.

Will the review be completed before the submission deadline?

As part of our bid review service, we set deadlines for your subject matter experts to provide initial drafts and for us to review and provide feedback. This includes allowing time for any necessary amendments before the final submission deadline.

Bid & Tender Review Service | UK Bid Writing Professionals

Completing bids and tenders in-house can present problems when it comes to the bid review stage. You are often too close and too involved with the submission to be able to carry out an effective bid review, and you may miss vital elements and important information.

Our tried and tested bid review service of your completed PQQ or tender is intended for those who manage their public sector tenders and who do not require our bid and tender writing services, but who would like an additional pair of eyes, and an external point of view to make sure the submission is of the highest quality and to improve win rates.

Bid Review Process

What does a good review look like?

Our external bid practitioner will review each bid response to ensure:

Addresses the question in full, with content which is smooth and easy for the evaluator to read and assess
Includes, persuasive, evidence-based content to strengthen the overall credibility to your proposals and methodology for delivery
Is relevant to the question being posed by the authority, and does not include irrelevant or generic content
Complies with the requirements of the contract specification and all other documents included in the tender pack.

Key Elements of Our Bid & Tender Review Service:

Our professional bid review includes:

Fully marked-up documents, with comments and suggested amendments for your bid response
A compliance check, flagging any element which our interpretation would deem as noncompliant or result in loss of marks
Identifying areas for improvement. If we feel your bid will not score the maximum marks available, we will provide suggestions and points to consider
Detailed review and expert feedback of each response with objective and constructive criticism
Appraisal and review of case studies and contract examples
Advice on presentation improvements
Input from professional bid writers and reviewers who have written and won thousands of tenders
Cover-to-cover proofreading (if requested).

We engaged Executive Compass for their objective thinking and pragmatism in reviewing tenders submissions. We presented them with a challenging deadline, and were thoroughly impressed with not only the quick turnaround but the high quality of output. Executive Compass delivered exactly what we asked for, in a manner exceeding expectation. Having Executive Compass on hand to support with our big ticket opportunities has proved very worthwhile.

Steven Barker, Aquila Bid Review Services

Bid Review Service – Frequently Asked Questions

How does the bid review process work? For clarity, responses must be sent in Microsoft Word documents rather than a PDF. When reviewing any bid of RFP responses, comments and light edits will be applied in-line with the original content, providing guidance on strengthening and enhancing your submission. Reviewed responses can be returned in small batches or all at once, depending on your preference.
Who will be reviewing my submission? Your responses will be reviewed by a senior member of the team – typically, a senior bid writer, quality manager or our technical director. Each reviewer supports clients with hundreds of bids each year, ensuring your review comes from an experienced bid practitioner.
What will my assigned reviewer look for? Our bid review service focuses on ensuring compliance, readability, and persuasiveness in your bid response, positioning you as the ideal candidate for the contract. We do not provide feedback on technical content included in the response, as we trust you will include accurate information specific to your industry or sector.
How much notice do you need to review the bid? Due to the short nature of the bid cycle, as much advance notice as possible is always welcome. However, similar to our bid writing projects, we can accommodate short notice projects where possible. The size of the submission will also play a role in determining what is feasible and achievable.
Will the review be completed before the submission deadline? As part of our bid review service, we set deadlines for your subject matter experts to provide initial drafts and for us to review and provide feedback. This includes allowing time for any necessary amendments before the final submission deadline.

Get a FREE consultation

Request a callback with a member of our Bid Team or contact us by telephone on 0800 612 5563, direct to mobile 07739407746 or via email info@executivecompass.co.uk

Why Should Your Bid Be Reviewed Externally By a Professional?

Our professional bid review service is a cost-effective approach to take your PQQ or tender submission to the next level, whilst you still retain full control and management of the bid in-house. If it is a ‘must bid for your company, or your first time bidding, getting an experienced bid practitioner’s assessment and suggestions at final review stage can mean the difference between a winning and losing submission.

It is challenging to critique your own work objectively, especially in bid writing. Our bid writers’ and quality managers’ knowledge and experience of the procurement process means we are able to identify areas you may have overlooked. Executive Compass has been involved in over 7,000 tenders, with an 85% success rate, and we know better than anyone exactly what the contracting authority is looking for.

Usually, bidder organisations have included the correct information, but have simply not demonstrated it correctly — that is where we come in at the bid review stage.

How Does It Work?

Firstly, we will confirm a cost for the review, based on the expected word count of your completed submission — it takes a lot longer to review 15,000 words of bid content than 2,000 words!

Once we confirm the scope of work, we will then agree a timescale for receiving your completed responses. Responses will be shared individually or section-by-section, as soon as the bid responses are complete, so that any comments and suggestions can be taken on board when writing the remainder of your tender submission. We will return all reviewed responses to you with enough time to make any changes and discuss any comments with your assigned bid reviewer in advance of the deadline. Our team is available to offer suggestions and advice to help improve your bid.

Whether you are a small business completing your first PQQ or tender, or a larger company bidding for many contracts, our bid review service can help you to improve your submissions and increase your success rate.