About our arboriculture, landscaping and tree management writing service

Our team of tender and bid writers here at The Tender Team have helped many landscaping, grounds maintenance and arboriculture businesses across Australia win government and private sector contracts. From federal, state and local government contracts as well as the private sector, we have helped businesses secure contracts and increase their revenues.

We have a 95% success rate in landscaping and vegetation management tenders and have worked on some of the largest mowing, vegetation, slashing and stump grinding contracts across the country. In this guide, we provide some strategies on how to write wining tenders and are ready to assist clients across Australia win more contracts.

Strategies to help you win

1.     Ensure your WHS and QMS documents are tailored to the industry

Government and even private sector procurement teams are quite sophisticated and will take the time to read through your WHS and Quality Management systems and documentations. That means that downloading documentation that is generic and attaching it to your bid or tender is generally not good enough. You need to provide SWMS and other health and safety that is firstly tailored to the landscaping and tree maintenance industry, and secondly, tailored to the types of issues you will typically face in the contract you are bidding for.

The same applies to quality assurance. Government departments want to know that you have tailored quality assurance processes in place that are relevant to your operations. This means practical steps in your systems and processes that are tailored to grounds maintenance and landscaping operations.

2.     Tailor your bid to the local area and develop an effective local engagement strategy

It doesn’t matter if you are bidding for a local Council or shire tender or a state government tender. Even if you are tendering for a private enterprise tender, you need to tailor your tender to the local (or state) area you wish to operate in. This will help you score well in the procurement process as it shows that the downstream economic benefits of the tender will flow through to the local community. Some easy ways to benefit the local community (and your chances of scoring well and winning the contract include:

• Talking about how you will hire local employees this can include apprentices or even local contractors and subcontractors the key point is to show that you will hire locals and you will contribute to employment in the local area.
• Detail how you will procure equipment from local businesses and suppliers. This helps ensure the economic benefits of the contract flow through the local community by helping local businesses and also shows that you’ve done your homework as to what local businesses you will support and how.
• It is a great idea to support local community events. Take the time to look at the different local community events you may want to support as well as different charities that you may wish to support. Showing the procurement team that you are serious about supporting a local charity or community event is important as it will show the reader that you are serious about ensuring profits are redistributed into the community where feasible.

3.     Detail the benefits of your equipment

Another key point which is critical to discuss when writing your is your equipment. Most businesses focus on their personnel and talk about the experience of their personnel and how much experience they’ve got as an arborist or landscaper. And it’s important.

What is often equally important is your equipment. You need to talk about the equipment you use and what equipment you have invested in. You then need to talk about the benefits of that equipment and how this helps you deliver a more quality service to a local council or even private client.

It’s important here to consider any environmental benefits of the equipment that you’ve purchased or even noise benefits when conducting work in a local government area. Either way, listing and detailing your equipment and demonstrating that you’re a business that is committed to investing in and using innovative equipment in the landscaping industry is important and will strengthen your bid.

Our experience helping arborists, landscapers and vegetation management businesses win contracts

Our team of bid and tender writers have helped businesses across Australia write bids and tenders and wind contracts with the local, state, federal government as well as the private sector. We’ve helped landscaping businesses write bids and tenders to schools, universities, private property management companies, strata management companies and even boutique estates.

Our experience extends across all of Australia, including Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Darwin and Hobart, as well as in regional areas and remote areas where we’ve helped businesses win some large slashing contracts in the NT and other arboriculture contracts across the country.

Our understanding of the industry extends to all different aspects of the industry. For example, we’ve helped landscapers, arborists, vegetation management businesses, horticulture providers, and even other environmental contractors write tenders and secure government contracts. This means we understand the industry and all the different specific professions associated with it.

Our Director, Jason Cooney, has been riding grounds maintenance and landscaping contracts for over 15 years and has strong experience, particularly in riding to local councils and the state and federal governments. Our team of writers here at The Tender Team have experience helping with all types of industry tenders including:

• Vegetation management
• Arboriculture
• Grounds maintenance
• Landscaping
• Environmental services
• Arborist services
• Large-scale vegetation management
• Landscape maintenance
• Weed and pest control
• Environmental rehabilitation
• Facilities management.

How our team of writers at The Tender Team can help you win your next contract

Our team can help you with the entire bid and tender preparation process for your next landscape, vegetation management or arboriculture tender including:

• Tender identification and bid/no bid decision
• Finding relevant opportunities
• Developing your win themes and understanding the evaluation criteria
• Writing tailored response that reads well and is backed by evidence
• Developing vegetation management and arboriculture plans and methodologies if you require them for the bid
• Preparing operational plans and schedules as well as project management plans
• Helping you put together a value proposition
• Editing your response and creating professional graphics so it reads well and looks great
• Submit it directly or on online portals such as Tenderlink, VendorPanel and ICN Gateway

A track record of winning tenders across Australia

Jason Cooney and our team of writers here at The Tender Team have a track record of winning contracts including:

• Local council contracts in NSW, QLD, VIC, SA and NT.
• Department of Transport and RMS contracts in New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory and South Australia.
• Contracts with a range of other state government departments in each state and territory across Australia.
• Private property management companies and strata management companies.
• Private and quasi-government entities including energy companies for tree-clearing works near powerlines.

The types of tenders we have experience working on:

We have experience working on a range of tenders including for works associated with

• Tree removal and stump grinding (including panel appointments)
• Street tree and management contracts as well as urban forestry and clearing
• Vegetation management on roadways and highways
• Commercial landscaping and mowing (for example, we have successfully supported the tenderer of the Brisbane City Council mowing contract
• Weed control and environmental management tenders
• Maintenance of parks, sports grounds and other open spaces.

Our Director, Jason Cooney, is an expert at arboriculture tenders and has been featured in a number of podcasts and industry publications a sample of which is available here: https://www.gotreequotes.com/blog/strategies-win-council-tenders-tree-maintenance-part-2/ and https://www.gotreequotes.com/blog/strategies-win-council-tenders-tree-maintenance/. 

Frequently asked questions about our tenders

How do I win more landscaping and vegetation management tenders?

You can win more contracts by:

• Implementing a robust bid / no bid process
• Checking that you comply with all the requirements
• Localising your bid or tender as much as possible
• Putting forward you’re A-team of qualified personnel
• Talking about your equipment
• Coming up with a value proposition and talking about technology and compliance.

Is there a consultancy that can help me write my vegetation, landscaping and grounds maintenance tender?

Yes. Here at The Tender Team, we can help you write your tender from start to finish. We are experienced in helping businesses of all sizes write bids and tenders and win landscaping contracts.

Does The Tender Team specialise in landscaping and tree management and vegetation management bids?

Yes we do. The Tender Team has been helping clients in the landscaping and arboriculture industry for the past ten years. Our Director, Jason Cooney, is highly experienced in these bids and his experience extends to helping clients across Australia from Darwin to Tasmania. We our proud to be considered one of the go to tender writing consultancies for tree management bids and to have been featured in a number of industry magazines. 

What can we do to win more local vegetation, landscaping, mowing and tree management contracts both with strata and Council? We keep losing tenders and bids.

In order to increase your chances of success with local government and other bids we suggest you:

• Tailor your bid to the business or local government area
• Explain your pricing and link it to value. Talk about quality and efficiency.
• Conduct a bid/no bid process to ensure you put your best effort into the right opportunities. 
• Tailor your safety and other supporting documentation to the specific opportunity.
• For private sector bids especially, invest in graphics to ensure your bid looks polished and professional. 
• Call The Tender Team for specialised help or even a review. 

What compliance documents do we normally need for a vegetation management or arboriculture tender in Australia?

For any quality tender submission in the landscaping and tree management industry, you need to go beyond the standard compliance documentation such as public and employers liability insurance licenses for your personnel. You generally need to include:

• Attach all relevant NPTC qualifications
• Attach Risk Assessment and Method Statements
• Attach CHAS and other safety accreditions.
• Tailor you SWMS and other safety and quality assurance documents to the sector.
• Comply with any tender-specific requirements, particularly regarding local content. 

How will you ensure our bid demonstrates full compliance with state-specific Work Health and Safety (WHS) legislation and requirements, including the mandatory integration of Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS)?

We will work with you to create a compliance checklist. Our Sydney and Australian based bid writers will create a checklist based on the specification documents. We will then work with you to gather and if required create the necessary supporting documentation and submit it with your bid or tender. 

What is your process for reviewing the mandatory documentation for an Australian tender, such as our Certificate of Currency for Public Liability and Workers’ Compensation, to ensure we meet the minimum financial and insurance thresholds?

We will do this as part of the tender process to ensure that everything is in order. When you engage our team here at The Tender Team, we will work with you to understand the tender or bid requirements and ensure you comply with them. 

For local Council or State Government tenders, how will you showcase our current ISO certifications (e.g., ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001) or equivalent management systems to satisfy the Quality, Environmental, and Safety scoring criteria? Do we need to be ISO Certified to win?

It’s excellent that you are ISO Certified and this is a big help especially for government tenders. Sometimes it’s not a dealbreaker. We have helped clients who aren’t ISO certified win contracts. Either way, we will generally showcase your certification, as well as your documentation to show how it has been tailored to your operations and will apply from a practical perspective to help you win local and state government contracts. 

If a tree management contract requires adherence to the Australian Standard AS 4970 (Protection of Trees on Development Sites) or AS 4373 (Pruning of Amenity Trees), how will you embed our expertise in those standards within the methodology section? Do you know enough about the standard to write about them and can we reference the Australian standards in our response?

Our team of expert writers at The Tender Team will assist you to write a robust methodology for Tree Management, vegetation management and other arboriculture bids and tenders. Where Australian Standards are referenced in the specification documents, we will ensure compliance with these are integrated into the methodology as well as in other areas of the bid (for example case studies). When writing a compelling bid, you need to clearly explain how your proposed methodology complies with Australian standards and enables you to deliver a quality service over the term of the contract. A quality methodology increases your chances of winning a contract in Australia with a local Council, or the state or federal government. 

Can you help us write our local value or social procurement response? Do you know how to write a response that complies with the state policies (for example the Victoria First program or Queensland Local Buy)?

Yes. Our team of bid and tender writers will help you write a compelling local value response. We understand the different preferences and requirements of each state government and have written tenders and bids to most local Councils such as City of Sydney, Brisbane City Council and others. We will help you develop a local value response that shows you are committed to the triple bottom line – economic, social and environmental benefit for your local community. We also know how to cover ‘social return on investment’ and talk about indigenous engagement and contributing to the aboriginal community. Where there are questions on local employment or economic benefit, our writers at The Tender Team can also assist and we will integrate employment benefits into your overall social value response and ensure they are actionable and achievable. 

We have to respond to a tender for vegetation clearing near rail lines and power lines. Can you write a methodology for us that shows we comply with utility-specific codes?

Yes – although we will certainly work with your technical team to write a methodology that reflects your proposed operations. We will worth with you to ensure we integrate any utility specific safe work method procedures into your methodology. 

Can you guarantee we will win the tender or contract if we use the help of The Tender Team to write our bid?

No. There are other factors such as price which we have no control over. We will however, work with you and integrate strategies to help you win your next contract. For example, we will present your A-team and tailor your CVs and Bios of your personnel to the opportunity. This will be supported by their relevant qualifications such as Arborist Cert III/IV, White Card and ChemCert).

Are you a specialised consultant that can help us write and win more arboriculture tenders?

Yes. The Tender Team is headed by Jason Cooney and we are a specialist bid writing consultancy that helps arboriculture, tree management and other businesses across Australia win contracts with local council, state government and the federal government. 

Businesses across Australia often require immediate and urgent bid and tender writing support. Our bid writing consultants have helped many businesses write and submit urgent tenders and bids in a broad range of industries such as construction and medical. Some of the reasons clients are looking for urgent tender writing support include:

• Not knowing the tender was in fact released and finding out about the bid less than a week before it is due. 
• Having key personnel take leave or be unable to work on the bid due to other issues or commitments. This generally means that you have an urgent need for bid writing support and no in-house capability to complete it. 
• Sitting on it or being distracted by day-to-day business and then not realising the size of the RFT or RFP and how much work is involved.
• Delaying the bid / no bid process due to a change in position internally or from a joint venture partner. 

There are many other reasons why businesses need immediate and urgent tender writing assistance and our team of bid writers is always ready to assist.

Strategies we use to help write urgent tenders quickly and effectively

Some of the strategies we use to meet street deadlines and help our clients submit urgent quality tenders and bids include:

• Always maintaining buffer capacity in our team to help clients with any urgent needs. We keep a 20% buffer capacity in terms of resources and our Director, Jason Cooney, works around the clock and on weekends in order to meet any urgent bid and tender writing needs of our clients.
• We use AI where appropriate and have a comprehensive set of templates and existing content which we can tailor and work within. Whether it be a modern slavery policy or some other question, we work efficiently and effectively by tailoring existing content and putting together an effective and compliant proposal quickly. 
• We actively project manage the bid writing process to ensure everything progresses. If you engage our team of bid writers to assist with a tender or bid with a quick turnaround, we won’t simply send some questions to you for content and then wait for you to respond. We work on generic questions and responses to ensure the tender progresses and we actively project manage the process to ensure we are highly productive in writing the response and getting it approved and finalised. 
• Round the clock work. Sometimes the reality is that there is nothing that can replace hard work for long hours. That’s the nature of tender writing and that is what we do. For urgent tenders, it’s not unusual for us to work on a Friday night until the early hours of Saturday morning so that you have an initial draft to review on Saturday morning and then we can work on it on Sunday. 
• We have a network of writers in England and a partnership with Tsaks Consulting UK. This gives us access to experienced and trusted writers 

Our tender and bid writing service for urgent tenders and tenders with a quick turnaround time

Our urgent tender and bid writing service here at The Tender Team is designed to help businesses across Australia get help quickly for tenders and bids and meet strict deadlines. We are as responsive as a freelancer and have a large enough team to assist. We work around the clock and provide clients:

• A 24/7 tender writing service for urgent bids and tenders.
• A round the clock bid review service to help review your tender or bid and provide feedback.
• A question by question assistance service where if you are working on a bid or tender and need quick help with specific questions, you can send them through to us and we can develop a drft response for you.
• An editing service for clients who are working on an urgent tender or bid and need immediate editing assistance. As you are writing your bid, we will be right behind you editing and finalising it.

Call our Director, Jason Cooney, on 0410 448 770 or email info@thetenderteam.com.au to discuss how we can help with your next urgent tender or bid. We help businesses all across Australia and have experience providing tender consulting services to businesses looking for urgent tender writing help in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Perth, Tasmania and South Australia. 

Writing winning government tenders is critical to many businesses looking to grow and increase revenue. Whether you are a private company looking to secure your first public sector tender, or a business that already services the public sector such as a local or state government, you will need to win government tenders to grow revenue.

The government is generally a great client to have. They mostly pay on-time and are reliable for payment, they add credibility to your organisation, and winning your first government contract can open a can of worms in terms of winning additional government contracts. In saying that, you need to go through the competitive tender process to win a government contract and write a compelling RFT or RFP. In this guide, we will run through different strategies to help you write winning government contracts in Australia, including at the federal, state and local government level.

1. Comply with the tender requirements and process

This one is straightforward. However, businesses often get tempted to bend the rules when it comes to tender compliance. The reality is that you need to comply with the requirements of the RFT or RFP to the T. The risk of non-compliance is substantial and there is always a danger they effectively bin your tender response.

World limits are critical as are insurance requirements and other mandatory criteria. However, it goes beyond that. Where there are requirements for policies and plans, such as Work Health and Safety and Quality Assurance Plans, or even requirements for Modern Slavery documentation, you need to make sure that firstly it exists, and secondly it is up to date with the current requirements and regulations.

Prior to submission, here at The Tender Team, we recommend cross checking the tender response with the submission criteria, as well as the proposed contract for any criteria related to insurance values and licences.

In the construction industry, medical and many other industries, specific licences and ‘tickets’ are required for your team members and these need to be attached to the RFP response in order to ensure compliance.

2. Interpret the questions correctly and respond comprehensively

Government procurement teams use different terminology depending on what they are looking for. For example, when they ask you to ‘detail’ something, it requires a comprehensive response, whereas if they ask you to ‘briefly explain’ something, you still need a somewhat comprehensive response, however, a summary and a little less detail is acceptable.

Here at The Tender Team, when writing a response to a question we:

• Break up the question into sub-questions if it is a complex question.
• Identify the key instructional words in the question.
• Create a template / framework response to the question.
• Identify any supporting evidence that can be included in the question.
• Write the response based on the framework/template.

It’s important to brainstorm your response to each question and write a concise response. It’s also important to include any key factors which may not be directly asked, however, may be relevant. For example, we once received positive feedback for a bid where we included reference to the removal of any possible asbestos. The tender questions didn’t directly ask for an asbestos management plan or mentioned any issues with asbestos, however, we included reference to it in a safety question which resulted in us scoring well.

It’s important to write a comprehensive response to each question. This doesn’t mean writing a whole lot of marketing ‘fluff’. However, a detailed, fact-based response with supporting evidence and testimonials is essential to scoring well. You should also cross check your response against the evaluation criteria as well as the tender or RFT specifications to ensure you have covered everything off.

3. Tailor your response and don’t include generic information

This is another critical point which will never be the reason for you not complying with the tender requirements, but will limit your chances of actually winning a government contract. If you want to score well in all the questions in a tender, you need to tailor your response.

You need to use the responses as an opportunity to demonstrate insight and an understanding of the tender requirements and the proposed project or service, as well as any potential challenges that may arise and how you will overcome them. Your team, experience, methodology and company vision and profile will need to be tailored to the opportunity. Using boilerplate information or generic content is useful for an initial draft, however, your response will need to be refined and tailored, and procurement teams can easily see through generic content that has been cut and pasted from tender to tender or generated with AI.

4. Make it easy for the local, state or federal government department to select you

You can do this by building credibility throughout your bid and response. Write with serious and professional language. Incorporate testimonials throughout your bid to give it more credibility. It’s also important to maintain a strong focus on reporting and communication – even though it may seem irrelevant to the product or service you will provide.

The reality is that government procurement teams often want to select the person that is easiest to deal with and won’t cause them any issues – a safe bet so to speak. This is often the case across Australia in different government departments, whether it is the NHS government, City of Melbourne or Perth. Present your business as the safe bet and the easy choice. Where you have won awards or any external accreditations, make sure you include these in your bid.

5. Focus on the benefits to the client – not yourself

This is another critical point. Many businesses fall into the trap of writing a bid or tender proposal that is self-focused. It’s human nature really. You want to include as much information about yourself as possible and talk about why you are the best fit. However, you need to focus on the benefits you will deliver to the client or government department. Focus on them and what you can do for them and how your experience and expertise will enable you to deliver them benefits. This is crucial.

Arranging professional help from The Tender Team for your next tender or bid

If you are looking to engage a professional bid or tender writer to help you with your next government tender, our team here at The Tender Team is ready to assist. We have over 15 years experience helping businesses across Australia write winning bids and tenders.

Contact our team at info@thetenderteam.com.au or simply call 0410 448 770 to speak with our team about your next tender or bid. We are government and public sector tender writing specialists, have helped hundreds of businesses across Australia win government contracts and have reasonable rates focused on helping you win!

At The Tender Team, we have strong experience helping our clients writing winning government tenders. This extends across all industries from construction and maintenance to health, IT, defence and the community sector. Government contracts certainly have their advantages some of which include:

• Minimal risk of bad debt – the government is generally quite reliable when it comes to payment.
• Certainty of time (they are often 3 – 5 year contracts)
• Opening doors and opportunities for future contracts with government

Although there are challenges, Government tender and contract opportunities are generally a great opportunity for businesses across Australia to secure revenue. Our team has written successful bids to all levels of government from local to state and federal government. In this article, we will cover ten tips and strategies you can employ to help you win more government tenders.

1.    Comply and follow the instructions

You need to ensure you submit a compliance response. When you respond to a government RFT or RFP there is limited flexibility in how you can response. You are able to put forward an alternative bid, however, that’s only if you put forward a conforming bid first.

There will be a lot of compliance requests built into the RFT, from policies to insurance and other obligations. You generally need to make sure you tick every box. Answer every single question. Attach all the required documentation. Fully complete the response schedules.

The reason is simple. Procurement teams at all levels of government general use decision gates when reviewing tenders. They will firstly look at compliance, before going into detail and looking and assessing your complete tender. You need to strictly comply in order to get to the next stage and avoid the potential for disqualification.

Word counts are another sticking point which many of our clients have issues with. Governments use electronic software to check wordcounts so these need to be on-point. Finally, as part of the tender writing process, they will generally ask for policies such as environmental, WHS, modern slavery and quality management systems. It’s ok to use generic documentation but you need to ensure you tailor it to the opportunity where required, particularly for health and safety.

2.    Interpret the questions correctly and provide a comprehensive response.

When you read government RFT or RFP questions you need to focus on each word within the question and ensure you are interpreting it correctly. This is because this can influence your entire response. For example, we were working on a Council tender where the client was asked to ‘demonstrate’ their experience. The word demonstrate, does simply mean describe and a brief description of previous experience wouldn’t suffice here.

Instead, demonstrate means to provide evidence, detail and how you would apply experience to a given situation. When responding to tenders from the Australian government, or even the NSW, Queensland or other state governments, be sure to interpret the question broadly and answer accordingly.

You also need to provide a response to every question, even if the same thing has been asked earlier in the RFP. This is because you need to score well across all questions in order to get a good weighted score as an outcome.

3.    Respond to and answer the question

Government tenders are quite rigid and many businesses make a simple mistake when writing bids to the Government – they cut and paste content or don’t respond directly to the question. We understand the temptation. Your businesses might have some excellent services to offer which really set you apart.

You want to write about these in the bid at every opportunity, and use previous content from other bids. The problem is that the government will only award marks based on what answers their question.

Your response needs to be on-point and tell them what they want to hear. You need to write concisely and in simple English. This makes it easier to mark and they don’t need to read through generic content in order to find the response they are looking for.

4.     Be a safe pair of hands the government is looking for in a supplier

There is a an old saying that nobody was fired for hiring IBM. It generally applies with government tenders and it’s always a good idea in your tender to convey that you are a reliable and safe bet.  Government procurement is essentially charged with getting value for taxpayers. There is strict accountability and they are generally highly focused on quality control and credibility.

This is one of the reasons they are so thorough in their tenders and ask about complaints handling and community engagement. You need to show that you have robust quality assurance processes in place and that you have a safety-focused culture.

Most importantly, you need to highlight as much of your government experience as possible even if it is experience of your personnel in previous roles.

5.     Work within the response schedules they provide

Government tenders, across the country including in NSW, Qld, South Australia, WA and NT generally provide returnable schedules. I.e. response schedules that you can complete in order to submit the tender. It’s tempting to amend these response schedules and work within your own format which is more presentable. However, just like providing additional generic marketing material, this is generally not appreciated by procurement teams.

Work within the response schedule provided.

6.     Don’t use generic content.

This applies to marketing material or general material from your website or other bids. Local councils, state and federal government procurement teams don’t like reading generic content. They want to read responses that are tailored to the tender and project. They want you to be direct and concise. Directly respond to the question and make it simple and easy for the readers to find the area. Concisely and simply detail your key points of different and what outcomes and benefits you will bring to the contract.

Ask The Tender Team for assistance

Our team is has strong experience helping businesses write winning tenders and bids to government If you would like to discuss your next tender opportunity, contact our team to explore how we can help you win.

When you are bidding for your next must-win tender or bid, it’s a great idea to conduct a comprehensive review or audit of your tender response – at second draft stage or prior to finalising your draft. The reason is simple. In order to win government and private sector contracts, you need to score well across all criteria and submit an exemplary bid in what will surely be a highly competitive process.

Introducing our tender review service

A detailed tender audit or review will help you identify areas of weakness and turn them into strengths – thereby helping you win. Our team of bid writers here at The Tender Team, will help:

• Review your bid or tender and make suggestions for improvement.
• Ensure you comply with requirements and score well against the evaluation criteria.
• Develop ideas for win themes and value added services to help you win.

How a tender, proposal or bid review will help you win

A tender review will help you:

• Identify any spelling and grammar errors in your bid.
• Ensure your responses to each question directly answer the question and address any issues raised in the question.
• Ensure your bid is compliant and you haven’t missed anything. When you are running your business and have to write a bid, it’s easy to get distracted and take your eye off the ball.
• Achieve best practice – by challenging your responses and ensuring that your writing is concise, positive and evidence based.
• Win more tender and increase your tender win rates.
• Improve the overall quality of your proposals and introduce graphics and infographics that ensure a professional look and feel.
• Create a bid library and boost your tender efficiency. We will point out what content is generally repeated and can be incorporated into a bid library to make you ‘tender ready’ for future bids.

Can I review my own tender?

Yes. It’s a good idea to review your tender or even have another person in your office or organisation review. Alternatively, you can contact our team here at The Tender Team and we will conduct a review for you. When we conduct an audit or review, you get the benefit of all our knowledge, expertise and the opportunity to learn what best practice is and improve your bid.

What is the difference between having my tender proposal professionally review and reviewing it myself?

The key difference between reviewing a tender yourself and having one of our tender writers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or across Australia review the tender is that you get to tap into our know how and experience.

When you engage us to review your tender or bid, our professional tender writers will read the RFP documentation and then review your response. We will identify areas for improvement and then provide you with an example of how to improve your writing to ensure it’s a best-in-class response.

You tap into our wealth of experience gained through writing tenders and bids for over 14 years across a broad range of industries. We know our way around tender and RFT documents and have been in countless feedback sessions giving us insight into what works and what doesn’t.

An independent and fearless review. When you engage us to review your tender, we are fearless and independent. This means there is no discomfort in giving constructive feedback. We will provide direct feedback that addresses any issues. There is no workplace politics and we are completely objective in our review and response.

We cover all aspects of the tender for A-Z. When you engage us to conduct an external review, we will review the tender response in its entirety. We can also review specific questions, if you require, as opposed to the entire bid.

How to complete a tender review?

When review your tender, bid or proposal, no matter what business you are and in what part of Australia, we generally follow the below methodology. If you are looking to review your tender or bid yourself, you can adopt this methodology as a framework for your review (or call our team of experts).

Get across all the tender requirements

This is the first step and a very critical one. You need to read the tender requirements and also any addenda or addendums that have been issued. You need to create a checklist of the requirements and review the scope of work, evaluation criteria and formatting and submission instructions. These are all critical as the scope of work will give you an understanding of the project and help you read between the lines in terms of what they are looking for, the evaluation criteria will be used in the review to help you ensure the responses are comprehensive and you score well, and the formatting and submission requirements are critical for the bid to be accepted.

It is also important to develop a gut-feeling for the tender. In order to successfully respond to an RFT (Request for Tender) you need to read between the lines and develop win themes that align your key points of difference to what the market and RFP is looking for.

Check the template response and structure

Your responses need to be simple and well structured. In addition, you need to ensure that you have used sub-headings and bullet points where possible, so the document is easy to read for the procurement team. The structure is also related to the tender as a whole. It’s important in the review that you check the overall tender structure. Key areas to review include:

• The covering letter: It needs to be personalised and brief. The writing needs to flow and you need to highlight your intention to submit and possibly one or two key selling points that are relevant to the client needs. If there is no cover letter and you are permitted to write one, you should write as part of the review.
• Executive summary: We have written many articles and blogs on executive summaries. In general, it’s important to ensure that it is direct, concise, client focused and that it summarises why you should be selected for the job or project. The executive summary also needs to be ‘punchy’ so don’t waste unnecessary words on general marketing writing.
• Methodology: Check that it is detailed, reflects the scope of works, and demonstrates that you have thought through the project in full. You need to ensure timelines and deliverables are practical.
• Pricing: We usually review the pricing to ensure that you have comprehensively and correct completed the pricing proposal. However, if you are auditing your tender on your own, you can review the pricing in its entirety to make sure the price is reasonable and also ensure you have completed the pricing questions correctly.

More on fees and pricing for a tender

When you are reviewing the pricing provided in a tender, you need to ensure you are delivering value. That is the first step and also often the easiest one. The next step is even more critical. You need to ensure that you are writing and have clearly showcase how you will deliver value in your response. It’s one thing to put figures on a sheet. It’s another, and a better to approach, to put figures on a sheet and supplement this with explanations in your bid about how you will deliver value and why you have priced the tender like you have.

You should also check for, and add any, potential value-added services as part of the bid.

Compliance and regulatory

When conducted a tender audit or review, we always check for contract compliance and regulatory compliance. This is usually relatively straight forward – i.e. checking that you have all the appropriate licences in place. For example, if we are writing a bid for an electrical company, we would check you have the appropriate electrical licenses depending on the works, and also that you have traffic control certificates or any other documentation.

The key point to review is in the contract. You need to make sure that you meet the insurance requirements and that you are comfortable with any risks to the business. Sometimes there are onerous insurance or liability provisions in a contract. We pick up on these in a tender review where possible and ensure you are aware of and comfortable with them.

Proofreading and editing

AI or a simple spell-check will do the basics here. For something more advanced, you should read the tender and tighten the language to ensure it is concise, direct and personable.

The Tender Team tender audit and tender review service

Our team provides a comprehensive tender review and audit service for businesses across Australia. We can help you with specific questions, or review your entire bid. All of our audits and review are conducted by our founder, Jason Cooney, or one of our senior writers with direct experience in your industry. We have strong experience in government tenders and well as private tenders. When we review your bid, we will tailor our review to your client. I.e. We will take a different approach depending on if it is a local government (council) tender, state government or federal government RFP.

You will get an independent set of recommendations and instructions on how to improve your tender which will generally cover suggestions on:

• How to clearly express and integrate your win themes
• How to ensure you showcase the benefits your submission offers clearly
• Ensuring your key messages are interwoven throughout your bid
• Where to insert graphics and infographics and how to format your tender or bid to ensure it is polished.
• Practical examples on how to improve your content and case studies to ensure they are all evidence based.
• How to ensure your tender is robust

The cost, fees or price for a tender review

We are able to review your tender based on a fixed fee or hourly rate. When you send through a copy of your draft documentation, we will conduct a quick scan of the documents and then provide you with a fixed fee or estimated hours to review your tender for you. Contact our team today to discuss how we can assist

Frequently Asked Questions about our Tender Audit and Review

Is there a consultant in Australia that can review all of our previous tender and bids and create us a tender library?

Yes – Here at The Tender Team, our Director, Jason Cooney, who leads our bid review team, can conduct an in-depth deep dive into your previous tenders and bids to understand where you can improve and how. We can then help you draft ‘best practice’ and prototype responses to all common questions which you can then use to tailor to future responses.

Call our team on 0410 448 770 or email info@thetenderteam.com.au to discuss further.

I need a tender review and audit to find out why we are losing tenders. We are a construction business in Perth and Victoria. Is there a tender writing consultant that can assist?

Yes certainly. At The Tender Team, we have over fourteen years experience writing construction tenders and bids and are able to assist with a complete review of your upcoming bid.

Can I get you to check my tender and ensure it is all correct before I submit it? We have offices in Sydney and Brisbane and we also have operations in Darwin. This is a government tender.

Certainly. We can check your tender to ensure it is compliant. We have experience across many industries including health, defence, mining and community services. We do suggest that you provide us with ample time prior to the deadline so we have time to conduct a thorough check and that you have time to review the tender.

How do you audit the tender process? Can you help us restructure our sales and bid writing functionalities? We are a large, national firm.

Certainly. We have experience developing bid teams and functionalities. The Tender Team Director, Jason Cooney, will review your tender process and interview key team members. We will then provide improvement and suggestions on how to streamline and improve your tender process including adopting software and AI where possible.

How to evaluate a tender?

You can evaluate a tender by reading the response and cross checking it against the evaluation criteria. You need to mark each individual question. When we review your bid, we undertake this process to ensure you maximise points where possible.

Client testimonials

Jason and the team at The Tender Team reviewed our tender at Bronze, Silver and Gold stage (first, second and final draft). We were very happy with the review they provided at each stage as they added value at each stage and thought through the tender. Their review is very thorough and when they provide feedback they provide it in a positive and constructive way. When they reviewed our drafts, they came up with new ideas about what we could do to enhance our bid, and they pay particular attention to the scoring and the marking criteria. It’s like having it evaluated before it’s evaluated. 

They looked at it from the procurement team’s perspective and provided insights into how they look at bids and what we needed to do to win. Finally, they came up with excellent suggestions, and examples, of infographics and graphics. Where we were weak on some questions, they wrote a model response for us which we could adapt! Overall, it was a very positive experience and I would recommend them to any business who wants to ensure their bids and tenders are in line with industry best practice.

Terry M | Top Tier Construction | Australia-wide

We used Jason from The Tender Team for a tender review and he was excellent. Quick and response, he told us everything we needed to fix and improve and how to do it. He uses track changes and comments and clearly explains everything so it’s easy to act on his feedback. I would recommend a bid or tender review to any business who wants to make sure they haven’t missed anything in a tender response or has a must-win tender they are working on and wants to ensure it aligns with everything the competitors may do and more. 

Claudia S | Professional Services | Sydney

Our in-house team writes most of our tenders and bids and if we have capacity constraints we use The Tender Team. Recently, we solicited the services of The Tender Team, in particularly Jason, to review one of our drafts and provide feedback. It was a must-win tender which we were completing ourselves, so we though it was worth getting them to have a look over it. It was well worth the investment. They found two critical errors and gave us feedback which not only helped improve the quality of our tender, but also up-skilled our internal team. 

Another and impressive points is the way in which they deliver their feedback. It’s constructive and direct, but they include a lot of compliments about the draft as well which was critical for the moral of our in-house team.

I would recommend to any organisation, in just about any industry, that if you want to see where you stand in terms of your proposals or tenders, get one of the consultants at The Tender Team to review you draft.

Isaac C | Regional Manager QLD & NSW | Construction Industry