We are often asked by clients how to prepare for an upcoming bid or tender. For some clients, they know through their existing relationship with a client that a tender or RFP will soon be released. This applies in both the private and private sector. Usually, your sales or business development team will have done a lot of work to get you into a strong position – and the tender release will be pending.
Other times, you may be an existing supplier to government on a three or five year contract, and you will know that the contract will soon be ending. As an incumbent supplier, you will be looking to be reappointed to the contract and will be keenly awaiting the tender release.
Finally we have some clients that are small or medium businesses and have never tendered for work in the past. They are searching for tenders and want to know what they can do prior to the tender being released.
How to prepare for a tender if you are the incumbent provider on a government contract
This is a common problem faced by many clients. You have been servicing a government contract for three years or sometimes even longer, and it’s time for it to go out to tender. You know the tender is pending and are doing all you can to stay in the ‘good books’ and deliver a quality service. However, you know there must be more you can do.
Here at The Tender Team, we recommend our clients who are in this (or a similar position):
- Check the previous tender or bid you submitted. Usually you will have made commitments in a tender document and these are often forgotten about. These could be around social value and helping the local community, environmental or reporting (as well as many other topics). Once a tender or contract is implemented, they are often forgotten about. However, you need to go back and check your tender, and then start implementing any and every one of these initiatives you can while there is still time. The reason is because you will want to make new commitments in the new tender and to give your bid credibility you will want to talk about what value-add initiatives you have delivered for the contract thus far.
- Check the current tender requirements and KPIs. Most tenders have KPIs built into them and sometimes these aren’t reported on through the contract process. It’s important that you check for reporting or other sometimes ‘irrelevant’ criteria as part of a contract and make sure you are delivering on / adhering to these.
- Get feedback and testimonials in writing while you can. Many of our clients have great verbal feedback, however, they often don’t have this feedback written down in an email. The issue is that once the tender is released, you aren’t permitted to communicate with any internal government personnel about the tender (aside from day to day contract work). Therefore, it’s a great idea to get written positive feedback prior to the tender release.
How to prepare for a private sector tender if you have an existing relationship with them that you have developed
The most important point in this situation is information transfer. The reality is that when the tender is released, you will have time to respond to it. However, you need to ensure that your response is influenced by the client’s pain points and that your win themes need to be interwoven throughout the bid.
In order to develop your win themes, you need to understand the feedback you have gained from working with and speaking with the client from a business development perspective. Ask your sales team to take notes on all conversations with the client, create a list of insights into the client needs and any issues with the existing provider.
Set up monthly meetings with your BDM or sales people to discuss the client and their needs. This is important as from a tender writing perspective, you will want as much information from your sales team as possible. In addition, your sales team may forget the little snippets of information they attain in their client conversations. When you have these in notes, you can develop win themes that are tailored towards your prospect’s needs and ensure your bid or tender is tailored to these.
Preparing for a tender if you have never tendered in the past
This is generally a daunting task and a lot of the time there is nothing you can do – i.e. you don’t know the questions in the RFT so you can’t respond to them. However, the reality is that once the tender is released, there are a lot of supporting documents which will be required. There are also certain questions in tenders that are almost guaranteed to be asked in one way or another.
Many small and medium businesses tendering for the first time find it hard to project manage the bid and develop all the documentation. Some initiatives you can implement to make sure you are ‘tender ready’ include:
- Create CVs and Bios for all your personnel including previous experience
- Create a Work Health and Safety System
- Create an Environmental Management System
- Create a Quality Assurance System
- Develop a tender library with case studies of previous works you have completed.
- Create a modern slavery statement if you are a supply business.
There is a vey high chance, particularly for government tenders and bids, that the above information will be required in your next tender or bid.
Talk to The Tender Team for assistance
Our team of bid and tender writers can help you prepare for an up-coming tender. From creating a bid library to coach BD personnel and helping create supporting documents, our team will review your needs and let you know the best way to get tender ready. Contact us today to discuss how we can assist.
