Our tips and strategies to win more contracts in the Northern Territory Tenders
Focus on being local – A good comprehensive response with respect to local content is critical to securing any NT Government tender. You need to provide real, practical examples and evidence of how you support the local community. Think about it broadly, not only supporting local jobs and hiring apprentices, but also spending money on local suppliers.
You need to outline how awarding you the contract will deliver downstream economic benefits to the Darwin and Northern Territory economy as well as social benefits.
Focus on Indigenous – Your tender or bid needs to have an Indigenous flavour. You need to not only present an Aboriginal / Indigenous Participation Plan, but also talk about your track recording for supporting the local indigenous community. You can do this by:
- Covering Indigenous participation in Safety.
- Talking about how many indigenous personnel were involved in previous proposals.
- Talking about training and apprenticeships for Indigenous personnel in the training question.
- Talking about downstream social benefits for Indigenous organisations in the community questions.
- Listing potential Indigenous recruiters and job assistance organisations and how you plan to hire Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders and which recruiters you propose to use.
Provide in-depth detailed case studies – Nearly every RFP, RFT and RFI will ask you to detail your track record on previous experience. The key word is detail. Don’t just provide a description of the works you have completed. Take the time to:
- Outline which of your key personnel were involved and if they will be involved in the proposed project.
- Write about the challenges encountered in the particularly project and how you worked to overcome them.
- Talk about what you did in the project that was innovative or different For example, did you use any specialist equipment or expertise to deliver the project or service quicker or to a higher quality level.
- Detail your safety track record for the project if applicable.
- Include any quality review scores providing by the respective government department.
Talk about your ability to deliver in remote and regional locations – Enter when you are writing a bidding Darwin or for a contract in regional and remote NT it is important to demonstrate your capability to deliver your services in regional and remote locations. There are many points to consider when writing about this subject. You need to talk about where your staff will reside and put forward a plan for accommodating and feeding your staff in regional and remote locations. Furthermore, you need to talk about your supply chain. Will you use local suppliers?
If you will not use local suppliers how will you ensure from a logistics perspective you have the appropriate materials and resources to complete the contract. From a warehousing and storage perspective, how will you ensure you have the equipment and equipment supply chain to deliver your project? This point needs to be addressed in many tenders and bids that involve providing services in Darwin and across the NT.
Put forward a comprehensive for boosting local jobs – If you have ever completed a NT government tender, you will know that there is a strong focus on local employment. All your competitors will be talking about local employment and how they will be employing locals for the project. As a result, you need to differentiate yourself and your business in terms of how you will support local employment. You can do this by talking about skills transfer and apprenticeships for local employees. For example, instead of simply saying, we will employ three new workers if we are awarded this contract.
You can instead say that we will employ 3 new workers if awarded this contract, and those workers will be put on a training plan where they will be taught a number of new skills over the course of the contract. This will enable those workers to find future employment when the contract is completed. The key point here is that it is not about just hiring locals, it is about hiring locals and upskilling locals and this is the key differentiator.
Tailor your bid to the challenges that the government in Darwin and the NT faces – It is important to read between the lines of any tender or bid released by the NT government or other local governments in the NT. Our tender writers in Darwin are experienced in not only reading the requirements of the contract, but also, looking at the context of the challenges the government department is facing. For example, if the department of communities and housing or the NT Department of Housing has issued a tender for maintenance services on social housing properties, it may be a simple case of them renewing their bids or tender contracts every five years as they do. However, they may have provisions in the tender for talking about cyclone proofing housing and processes within the maintenance activities which can assist with cyclone proofing the housing.
For example, this may include the installation of additional cladding on houses, or changing and upgrading windows. Either way, it is important to understand where the government is coming from, why they have released the tender, and the problems they are trying to solve. Another example is when the NT Department of Health releases a contract in Darwin for the provision of allied health services. Sometimes these hold services involved psychology and psychiatric services to regional and remote communities. There may be acute needs for such services in in certain remote communities which drives the need for these tenders to be released. When writing these bits of tenders, our tender and bid riders in Darwin will highlight your capability to service clients in remote and regional locations as well as in Darwin itself. This will be critical to winning the bid.
Provide plans and evidence for all the claims you make in your bid – It is important to back up all of your statements in your bid or tender with evidence. The Northern Territory government procurement teams love to see evidence in your bid. Particularly, concrete hard evidence. This can include for example, testimonials from clients, NAL and other scores for previous government contracts, references from stakeholders and contracts and policies.
Standard Operating Procedures and safety documentation you have in place can also be considered evidence and is useful when you are making claims about your internal procedures, methodologies and safety processes. In particular, when talking about safety documentation, previously completed JSAs and SWMS are a lot more powerful than templates as they prove you have in fact implemented and used this documentation in the past.
Our team of bid and tender writers in Darwin
Our team of expert bid and tender writers are based in Darwin and understand the Northern Territory economy and social environment. We have written hundreds of tenders to the Northern Territory Government and other local and government departments in Darwin including Northern Territory Government and the Darwin Port Association. Our experience writing local government tenders in NT makes us well placed to assist small, medium and large organisations with their bids. We understand what you need to do to win and enjoy helping Darwin and Territory businesses write winning bids and tenders and secure contracts.
Our experience extends across a range of industries including:
- Defence: Including writing bids and tenders for construction works for Department of Defence facilities in the Territory, as well as helping clients write and submit AUSDEFCON tenders and bids.
- Construction: Including helping construction companies of all sizes to write bids and tenders for new projects as well as maintenance projects to the Government and private sector.
- Trades: We have helped, electricians, plumbers, HVAC and a broad range of other tradies to submit bids and tenders to the government and private sector including local Councils. These include maintenance tenders as well as new installations.
- Pharmaceutical: Writing bids and tenders to help national, international and local pharmaceutical industry players to submit bids and tenders to the Northern Territory government.
- Aged Care services: We have assisted companies to bid to aged care providers for a broad range of services. We have also assisted local Territory companies to bid for aged care contracts.
- Mining and resources: One of our writers has extensive experience in this area. We have helped a broad range of mining services companies in Darwin and across the Northern Territory to bid and win tenders with mining and resources companies. Clients we have helped which service the mining industry include cleaning, electrical, security, catering and other services. In addition, our team members have helped mining companies comply with regulatory requirements in the Territory for mining tenements, gas and other projects. We have also consulted to international organisation and have helped them navigate their business needs, particularly with respect to establishing joint ventures.
- Community services including Indigenous services.
If you:
- Need help with a tender or bid in the Northern Territory?
- Are you regularly bidding for Government contracts in Darwin and are unsuccessful?
- Want to start growing your business through bids and tenders?
- Are you a multi-national company bidding for a contract in the Northern Territory that is struggling to answer the local procurement or Covid related questions?
- Or just want to win more tenders, we are able to help.
Our writing services
Our team of bid writers in Darwin provide a range of writing services including:
- Bid writing
- Proposal writing
- Business writing
- Copywriting
- Technical writing
Examples of how our tender and bid writers in Darwin and the Northern Territory have helped clients win NT Government Tenders
Local Palmerston Based Building and Construction Company: We helped a local building company with tenders and bids to the Northern Territory government for a period of four years. We assisted with a broad range of different contracts including asset maintenance contracts and small works construction contracts.
One area of the bid and tenders where we added significant value was for Cyclone Plans. We developed a comprehensive Cyclone management plan for our client when there was a question in the tender pertaining to Cyclone management. This was not explicitly requested in the tender, although reading between the lines it was an issue which the respective Northern Territory Government department was particularly concerned about. We addressed the issue comprehensively and integrated this into the with themes of our response. It was looked on favourably by the procurement review panel.
Assisting a Northern Territory Allied health services provider in Darwin – We helped an allied health services provider to bid for a contract to the Northern Territory Department of Health. This contract involved providing allied health services to residents in Darwin as well as across the wide Northern Territory. A key point for this bid was resourcing. The Department wanted to know that the firms they appointed had the resources and recruitment capability to service the contract over the longer term. This means, if half way through the contract, they had key personnel leave the business, they would be able to recruit and induct personnel without impacting service quality.
We worked with our client to firstly showcase the depth and scope of their existing resources, and secondly, to show that they have the recruitment, induction and training programs in place to increase their personnel at a rapid rate of required. We also demonstrated their existing contracts with recruiters in their industry and their capability to deal with recruiters in order to find new personnel when required.
Large scale infrastructure and engineering – Our team of bid and tender writers in Darwin helped a local civil works company bid for a contract to a Tier-1 Infrastructure company. This was for a major project in the Northern Territory. Our clients was a large player in the Northern Territory, however, given they had never tendered to a Tier-1 contractor in the past, they were lacking in some of the documentation required.
This is a direct result of them working on a major infrastructure project in Australia. We worked with them to develop the additional documentation and arrange for all of the respective certifications. We coordinated with other consultants and independent certifiers to have their respective documents audited and certified in time for the submission date. We also provided comprehensive plans for Indigenous participation and local participation plans as well as sub-contractor agreements. These needed to reflect the plans developed by the Tier-1 contractor as well as the requirements of the government.
How we add value
We add value and boost your prospects of securing contracts and business opportunities through:
- Writing with flair and incorporating relevant win themes
- Project managing the response and ensuring that a quality proposal is submitted
- Graphically through infographics, pictorials and other graphics
Our experienced team of bid and tender writers in Darwin will take control of your response and guide you through the process if required. We take the time to understand your business’s key points of difference and ensure these are conveyed clearly in the proposal.
It doesn’t matter if it is your first tender, or you are a seasoned tender campaigner, our team of writers will add value by either coaching you through the process and explaining what your business needs to do to comply, or by improving your existing material and taking it to the next level.
We are also capable of assisting you with the strategy and direction of your business, business development strategies and workshops on coaching on your responses. We will coach you through the business development process to find new leads and develop your revenue streams.
Our bid, tenders and proposal writers in Darwin are also able to simply draft your tender response. This is suitable if you are a business who tenders often and has a bank of information on hand which you utilise to compile tenders. Our clients are often experienced in submitting tenders, but too busy to respond – we are here to help.
Our 24/7 service
We’re able to meet strict deadlines and offer a 24/7 service. Call our Director, anytime on 0410 448 770 for assistance with your tender application. We are available 24/7, and have lightning-fast turnarounds if required.
Alternatively, if there is a major contract on the horizon which is a renewal or potential opportunity, and you want to put your company in the box seat, we can help you prepare CVs, profiles and expertise, so you are prepared when that tender hits your desk.
We service all of Darwin and all regional and remote areas across the Territory. Examples of areas we service include:
- Darwin including Nightcliff, Palmerston, Casuarina, Parap, Fannie Bay, Stuart Park, Rapid Creek and Larrakeyah.
- Alice Springs including East Side, Braitling, Larapinta, Sadadeen, Gillen and Araluen.
- Katherine including in Katherine East, Katherine South, Katherine North.
- Tennant Creek
- Nhulunbuy
Our fees and service
Our range of fee options includes fixed fees and hourly rates. We also offer access to a library of template documents for all of our clients.
We will get to know your business and key differentiators and introduce these as key themes throughout your response. Our team is the right choice for your tender needs.
Contact Jason from The Tender Writer Darwin team on 0410 448 770 for an initial consultation or email info@thetenderteam.com.au