Tender and Bid Writers in Canberra

Our team of tender and bid writers in Canberra have been helping local businesses and larger organisations write tenders and bids for over nine years. We love helping business in Canberra, across the ACT and the wider region win public and private sector contracts. Our tender writers help organisations:

• Write bids and tenders
• Project manage bids and tenders
• Review and improve their tender responses

Our team of experienced consultants understand what it takes to win government and private sector contracts and will leverage on this experience to deliver you results.  We have successfully written hundreds of tenders and proposals to all three levels of Government (local, state and federal).

Bid and Tender writing to the ACT Government

In addition to Federal Government departments, we have strong experience and have achieved great success helping our clients win contracts with the ACT Government. We have written bids to:

• Department of Chief Minister, Treasury and Customer Service: Mostly related to IT and ICT  tenders as well as fleet management and property bids. We have also assisted building and construction companies with bids for maintenance and renovation works as well as equipment supply including the supply of office equipment.
• Department of Communities and Justice: We have written tenders covering allied health services, support services and a broad range of community services. This includes helping community service providers and disability support providers bid for social services contracts. Our team has also assisted rehabilitation providers to bid for correctional services contract and law firms in legal advice contracts. Our writers understand the values you must align with and language you need to use in order to win contracts with the Department of Communities and Justice.
• Department of Education: On a broad range of tenders from maintenance and construction tenders for schools in Canberra to the provision of professional services such as consultants to the education industry. We have also assisted IT services companies to bid for the provision of educational technology and have helped transport and logistics companies bid for transport services. A key strategy to help our clients win Department of Education Tenders in the ACT is to keep a strong focus on student outcomes and student wellbeing. This generally needs to be a central theme in most bids.
• Department of Health and Canberra Health Services: We have helped businesses from all industries bid for contracts including for providing medical equipment, healthcare services (allied health and nursing) as well as building and construction and IT. Although it’s a healthcare department, the bids we have worked on are not restricted to healthcare. The department of health procures a range of services such as cleaning services, maintenance, building and IT. We help clients win by taking a patient-centric approach and ensuring we focus on the whole of life cost of the tender or bid.
• The Environmental, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate: For tenders related to environmental consulting services as well as construction and landscaping. We have also helped clients write bids for environmental services (waste management contracts), planning services and the implementation of large infrastructure projects.
• Justice and Community Safety Directorate: We have experience helped businesses in the ACT as well as across Australia bid for contracts for law enforcement services (such as police equipment, training and recruitment) as well as legal services and correctional services bids.
• Transport Canberra and City Services: These proposals and RFTs are generally associated with the transport sector and include roads and maintenance, infrastructure development. We have supported professional services firms (such as environmental consultants, urban planning and other associated professionals) with proposals for consulting and professional services contracts to the Department. Our bid writers have also helped infrastructure companies and large service providers write bids for bus services, the development of light rail infrastructure and maintenance and road and construction maintenance. We have also helped local businesses bid for city services related contracts including street cleaning.

In addition to the above ACT Government Departments our team has been involved in RFPs to community Councils including Belconnen Community Council, Gungahlin Community Council, Inner South Canberra Community Council, Molonglo Valley Community Council and North Canberra Community Council.

How the ACT Government’s Digital Procurement works

1. The first component of the ACT Government’s digital procurement is the Tender Portal. The ACT Government generally uses the Tenderlink tender portal. They also utilize specific portal for certain bids, although these are usually also advertised on tenderlink. There are specific rules and requirements for digital submission which have caught businesses out in the past from an uploading and submission perspective. For example, there are limits to the total number of attachments you can include with your bid (uploading a Zipped folder can help), and limits on the use of special characters in title and document names. It’s important to ensure you comply with the digital submission requirements and generally to do a ‘test upload’ the day before submission to ensure there will be no issues.
2. The second component is the ACT procurement guidelines. The ACT Government takes a highly formalized approach to procurement as does the federal government (of which many departments are based in the ACT). More information is provided in this link: Home – Procurement ACT. In the ACT there is a strong emphasis on Local Industry Participation. This is mandatory in the ACT for certain contracts (above a specific threshold). It’s important put your best foot forward to ensure you score well in LIPP. Our bid writers will guide you in this regard.

The difference between Federal Government tenders and bids and State Government tenders and bids in the ACT

Our team of bid writers help businesses in Canberra and across the ACT win contracts with both the federal government and ACT Territory government. A different style and approach is generally required for each. For federal government bids, you need to ensure you comply with security clearance requirements as well as centralized panels which often last for multiple years and are of large value.

You need to take a national approach to any bid or tender and demonstrate a strong commitment to compliance and quality control – that you will hold and maintain throughout the contract.

Territory bids are slightly different. In order to be successful you need to take a more localized approach. Talk about the triple bottom line and the community benefits that your bid or tender brings. There is no need for a national focus. Instead, focus on local benefits, your ability to respond quickly to any requests, your track record servicing clients in the ACT and your knowledge of the local area and the Territory overall.

Writing winning Local Industry Participation Policy (LIPP) in the ACT

Any business or organization bidding for an ACT Government contract (over $200,000) will need to complete a Local Industry Participation Policy. These are scored, and also heavily weighted. Our bid writers can guide you on how best to respond to these in order to score well. Key areas you need to cover include:

• Local employment. For this section it’s important to avoid generic statements about employing locals and instead focus on facts and figures. Detail exactly how many locals you propose to employ, and how many you currently employ. Where you will take on apprentices, or other local personnel as part of the contract (for example a new administration person studying a certificate III in business), this should be detailed including the type of employment (full or part-time).
• The localization of your supply chain. You need to demonstrate that you are committed to purchasing off local suppliers. These may be suppliers who are already in your supply chain, or alternatively, suppliers who you will include in your supply chain as part of the contract if you are successful. Let’s assume for example that you are tendering to provide electrical works to ACT Territory buildings. Everything from electrical equipment suppliers for your tools and materials, to paper and stationery suppliers you use in your back-office operations all need to be local or need to be seen as an opportunity to engage a local supplier. These need to be listed and clearly outlined in your bid.
• Evidence your social contribution. The reality is that any ACT businesses bidding for a contract can say that the ‘will’ support a local charity or community group. However, it’s a lot stronger and will strengthen your bid (and help you score well) if you say you ‘have’ supported a local charity (and clearly evidence the charity you supported), or alternatively, say you will support a charity and detail which charity and in what capacity.

Nine strategies to help you win government contracts in the ACT and Canberra

Some strategies you can employ to win more Canberra Government Tenders Government and private sector contracts in the ACT and Canberra include:

1. Focus on the local community. There are local content questions in most ACT Government RFTs and RFPS and they are generally critical to success. The reality is that to score well, irrespective of the quality of your services and your expertise, you need to come up with a comprehensive plan about how you will help local businesses, the community and social groups. Look at this from different perspectives. Talk about supporting local jobs and training and apprenticeship opportunities for local residents. Talk about supporting local businesses. How will you ensure you procure locally. Talk about local social groups – how can your service benefits disadvantaged groups in Canberra. The reality is that the ACT Government wants the money from it’s contracts to flow back into the ACT community and not to another state.
2. Using the right language – This is not limited to using the language the Government use and want to hear. You also need to write concisely and in the active voice. Adopt the latest readability strategies and tailor your writing to the opportunity. You need to write like you are telling the story and talking to the reader about why you are the best business to deliver the works.
3. Focus on delivering benefits to the ACT Government (or Federal Government) that go beyond a quality service. Governments (and private companies) love to award contracts to local companies. It almost guarantees them that the downstream economic benefits of the contract (for example employing locals, using local suppliers and supporting the local community).
4. Focus on the triple bottom line – The environment, social benefits and disadvantaged groups all need be addresses well to secure contracts in Canberra and the ACT. Talk about how you will benefit disability groups if awarded the contract. Will the contract create any jobs that may be suitable for people with a disability? Are you working with any specialist recruiters to identify potential candidates? Think about what specific environmental initiatives you are putting forward. If you are tendering to provide IT services to a major federal government department, you may think the environment is irrelevant? However – talking about how you will recycle old computer equipment when upgrading is something that is covered in most IT tenders.
5. Provide evidence – Unfortunately it is often not enough to state facts to the reader and expect them to believe it. You need to provide evidence to back up what you are writing. Testimonials not only from previous clients, but also from suppliers and other stakeholders based in Canberra and the ACT as well as nationally are helpful. Also – remember to provide evidence of membership into relevant industry associations as well as supporting documentation for health and safety, environment, quality assurance and other critical areas.
6. Ensure you comply – Compliance with key and the procurement teams at local Councils across the ACT as well as the Territory and Federal Governments are well known for being strict when it comes to tender compliance. You need to make sure you meet all the mandatory criteria and have the correct and compliant supporting documentation required. This is critical and our team will review your bid against the criteria to ensure you comply.
7. Write a detailed methodology. Whether you are bidding for a building project, or a community services contract, you need to write a detailed methodology. Your methodology needs to demonstrate that you have thought through the contract and you understand the potential challenges. You will need to show that you have a solution that keeps the procurement team involved and informed, and is sustainable over the long term.
8. Keep win themes clear and integrated throughout your response. When developing your RFP response, you need to develop key win themes. Once you have these win themes, it’s not enough to include them at the start and in any relevant questions. Instead, you need to integrate them and interweave them throughout your response. This helps ensure that a consistent message is communicated throughout the tender or bid and the readers or procurement team will all come out with they same key messages about your business and what benefits you will deliver regardless of which parts of the tender they read.
9. Demonstrate a knowledge of working with government. Many of the bids and tenders we help clients with in Canberra are government tenders. We have written a number of guides on how to write winning government tenders, one of which you can find here. Either way, when writing a local, territory, or federal government tenders in Canberra and the ACT, you need to demonstrate your knowledge and of course any experience in working with government. You can do this by:
   1. Attaching supporting documentation including policies and procedures for your organisation that demonstrate quality control.
   2. Detail any experience delivering government contracts.
   3. Talk about any experience delivering services to quasi-government institutions such as Universities as they often have similar requirements to government.
   4. Identify government values and policies and explain how your organisation aligns with them. Each government department has their own mission and set of policies and values. You need to acknowledge these and talk about how your own values and mission aligns with them. You also need to interweave these values throughout your bid.
   5. Demonstrate that you have thought through the reporting and communication aspects of the service. This is another point that is often overlooked by service providers but critical and always reviewed by government procurement teams. You need to detail how you will manage the government as a client, your communication processes, the people who will coordinate your communications and how you will report on your service. A process based approach will give the government procurement team the confidence that the project or your services will be well managed.

Our team of bid and tender writers help organisations large and small submit compelling submissions in order to secure long term contracts and write quality responses to selection criteria questions in Canberra. We understand the Australian Capital Territory market, local industry and government structure and environment.

How we can help you win more contracts and tenders in the ACT

Whether it is a must-win strategic defence bid, or a local council concreting tender, we will help you through:

• Building a tailored tender template and graphics
• Incorporating and developing key win themes into your bid
• Helping you conduct a bid/no bid review
• Understanding, explaining and ensuring compliance with the RFT, RFQ or RFP
• Deconstructing key questions to ensure you provide a comprehensive and compliant response
• Developing your team profiles as required
• Responding to all the questions comprehensively
• Introducing custom graphics and info-graphics

It’s important to assess and understand your competition, as well as the motivations of the client for going to market. This helps to put forward a proposal that is compelling and meets and addresses their needs.

Our track record of helping clients win

86%. That is our historical win rate for bids we have written in the ACT. We’re thankful to the clients who have given us the opportunity to assist with their bids and tenders year after year. Our solid track record of helping businesses retain existing contracts and win new business has been forged over the past seven years we have been in business. We’ve helped companies large and small bid for a range of opportunities including to the ACT Government and Defence Canberra as well as multinational corporations. We know it’s not only critical to meet deadlines but to deliver a quality response that clearly articulates your key points of difference and delivers your key messages.

We provide a flexible tender writing service and will work closely with you to guide you through and complete the response process. If you are completing the tender process in-house, and are looking for guidance on certain questions, we are able to assist with a selection of questions as required.

We are committed to excellence and will challenge you on all aspects of the response, flesh out content and request additional input where necessary. Graphics and infographics are critical to any proposal or submission, and our in-house graphics person will provide assistance where required.

Our tender and bid writers in Canberra expertise include:

• Deciding whether to bid for an opportunity or not
• Drafting tender documentation
• Coordinating the bid process
• Formulating the proposal strategy strategy
• Writing blogs
• Copywriting
• Infographics and graphics
• Writing company reports and other proposals
• Reviewing your existing tenders and bids and providing feedback and tips for improvement
• Re-writing your existing content in order to develop an exemplary master tender response.

We add value through:

• Developing a professionally presented submission
• Drawing on our expertise to ensure you implement best practice
• Drafting well structured, detailed responses to questions

We like to think we take the hassle out of the proposal process for you so that you are able to focus on running your organisation. Furthermore, we provide strategic advice to experienced tender writers, bringing fresh ideas and initiatives to the tender response.

Our team of tender and bid writers in Canberra are available 24/7 (although we generally prefer you don’t call at 2:00am on a Sunday morning, but if you do, there is still some chance our Director, Jason Cooney, will answer). We also provide a recruitment process for your long term resourcing needs. We meet deadlines, deliver on time, are responsive and know how to write. Our fees are flexible and transparent and designed to deliver value.

Our experience extends to the following industries:

• Engineering including infrastructure and demolition, structural and civil services and electrical.
• Professional services including legal, accounting and recruitment. We are the go-to consultants for a Canberra based law firm, recruitment firm and a boutique accounting firm when they require bids and tenders.
• Maintenance: including building maintenance services tenders. This extends across all service categories including grounds maintenance, building maintenance, electrical, plumbing and security. We also write bids for facilities management and asset maintenance companies.
• Equipment Supply.
• Infrastructure: Including roads and other major infrastructure and PPP projects.
• Health and Medical: Including pharmaceutical bids for the provision of medicinal products. We have also assisted manufacturers of beds and other suppliers with assistance on tender and bid applications for the provision of products. In addition, allied health services providers and providers such as speech therapists and psychologist have worked with our team to develop their bids.
• Manufacturing: This mainly involves assisting businesses across Australia who have head offices in Canberra and are bidding on government contracts.
• Construction: Including all trades such as roofing and tiling, concrete kurbing, building and construction. We have worked on bids and tenders for national construction projects with large government departments based in Canberra as well as local government contracts.
• Defence. For additional information on our defence capability, please refer to our defence page found here.

Client Testimonials

The Tender Team is our go-to consultancy for help with bids and tenders. We are busy with day to day client work and can’t stop everything when a tender lands. On the other hand, we need to write the best tenders and proposals to win work. Jason, Paula and the team are fantastic. They know professional service and legal bids inside out, they are efficient and they are experienced. They are focused on winning and have always provided us a quality-focused service.

John S | Law Firm | Canberra

The Defence sector in Australia is a small world. We’ve all worked on large AESDEFCON tenders and bids as well as other tenders in the past and many of us have been former colleagues with people who are now competitors. The Tender Team, led by Jason Cooney, are well regarded in the defence world for being a reliable and credible bid writing consultancy. They have a reputation for integrity and professionalism. They respect confidentiality. They know how to navigate their way through complex defence tenders and they understand the political, economic and social landscape across Australia and internationally. Jason has strong contacts internationally which he leverages for his clients. When you engage them, Jason and the team will work with you to help you win. They are our go-to bid writers in Canberra and across Australia.

Matt T | MD – Defence Contractor | Canberra

Thanks for your help with this latest proposal Jason. I showed it to my husband, who has reviewed many tenders and bids in his role, and he said it was great. You provide an excellent bid and tender writing service and fingers cross for the result for this bid.

Tracie C | Executive Recruiter | Canberra

The Tender Team, and Jason Cooney, are well known in the Canberra business and government world, as one of the leading tender and bid writing consultancies. They have written tenders for lots of different industries, and Canberra is a small place. I realised this after we had won our tender, with The Tender Team’s help, and was talking about the tendering process and our success to a few people in my network. They knew ‘The Tender Team’ and two of them had used Jason in the past with success.

I had an excellent experience dealing with them and I think one of their best attributes is that they are so down to earth and responsive. Yes they are great tender writers and have written lots of bids and RFT proposals in the past, but they are also very easy to deal with and communicate with. This helps greatly as the tendering process is stressful and complicated especially if you are putting together a large bid. There are so many different forms of communication and decisions you need to work with a bid writer who is patient and professional – and The Tender Team are just that. I would recommend them to anybody in Canberra or the ACT who needs help with a tender.

Jenny B | Goods Supply – Parliament House | Canberra

Call our Director, Jason Cooney, or on 0410 448 770 or email info@thetenderteam.com.au to discuss your next bid or opportunity and how we can help you win your next bid in 2024.