The Tender Team is a leading bid and tender writing consultancy. With over fourteen years experience writing bids and tenders, we help clients across Australia win government and private sector contracts by writing quality, compelling and persuasive proposals. In this article we will explore what it takes to become a successful tenderer and what strategies you can employ personally, and as a business, to write winning tenders and increase your win rate.
How we can help you achieve tender success?
Our team of bid and tender writers help organisations across Australia write winning bids and tenders. We will help you:
- Write your response from start to finish
- Project manage your response from start to finish
- Comply with the requirements
- Conduct a thorough bid/no bid assessment
- Design graphics and infographics.
We have the skillset to help you become a successful tenderer and write and submit a successful tender, proposal or bid.
What is a successful tenderer?
There are many ways to define a successful tenderer, but most importantly is the win rate ratios. A successful tenderer will have a high success rate even on difficult to win contracts. In order to increase your win rate, it is important to understand the tenderer as well as the tender document completely. Utilising your experience, as well as your specific industry knowledge will be paramount in increasing your tenders win rates.
A tender is an invitation that is sent to suppliers of a service or a good to inform them about required information for the buyer to choose among them. There are many processes involved in tendering and it is important to utilise relevant industry knowledge coupled with expert tender writing strategies to increase your tender win rates.
Another way to define a successful tenderer is results in qualitative scores and feedback. The reality is that price as an impact on nearly all procurement decisions. Therefore, sometimes you may lose a tender due to price, however, you may still have submitted a quality proposal and RFP response that scored the highest marks from a qualitative perspective.
Tips to become a successful tenderer
Our experienced writers at The Tender Team have provided a few tips to become a successful tenderer:
1. Be ready and prepared to take on the challenge
Ensure you have the relevant documents prepared prior to commencing the tender response. Documents such as,
- Key personnel CVs
- Insurance certificates and policies
- Subcontractor details if any
- Financial statements
- Workplace health and safety policies and documents
Having these documents prepared prior to commencing the tender response prevents spending time on procuring information and following up on potentially unavailable employees. This increases efficiency in writing the tender response, giving you time to make further amendments than usual if necessary. As you tender for more and more opportunities, create a bid library in order to help you create news bid more efficiently. There are also soft skills involved in putting a winning tender together. Kick-off meetings are a critical component of the process to not only get organised, but also get everyone in the team onboard with the bid and the importance it has on bringing revenue to the business.
2. Tender plans and systems are key to becoming a successful tenderer
For many tenders, especially government tenders, you will be required to provide systems and plans in your tender response. These can include,
- Quality management systems
- Risk and safety management systems
- Business continuity plans
- Contract management plans
These systems and plans are designed with one goal, to provide you with a distinctive advantage over competitors and thereby increase your tender win rates. For this reason, it is important to include some if not all of these plans within your tender response. It’s also an excellent idea for you to tailor all the different plans to the opportunity or contract you are bidding for. For example, if you are bidding for an ASDEFCON contract or tender, you will need to tailor all of our plans for the specific operational environment or contract you are bidding for.
You will achieve better scores and overall tender results when you tailor your plans to the opportunity and show insight into the types of challenges you will encounter as part of the contract.
For a more detailed explanation on each of these systems and plans please click here.
3. Don’t get lost in the tender, remember to project manage
Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of constantly drafting for multiple days straight. Ensure you spend at least 20% of your time project managing or you will run into problems with internal stakeholders and lose your coordination. Project management in the tender process typically covers three key areas. There is managing the tender and bid itself. This includes all the documentation compilation and writing the tender response.
You also need to manage the various stakeholders involved in the tender process. This is where you need to allocate tasks and responsibilities.
Utilise critical path analysis and robust project management techniques in order to stay organised and on top of the tender. In doing so you will be far more efficient and produce a higher quality tender response.
4. Tailor your response to the opportunity and avoid generic content
You need to tailor your bid or tender to the opportunity and the contract. If you cut and paste generic content and do not then tailor it. the evaluators will know that it’s generic content and will potentially mark you down. The people who are reviewing the tender will want to know that you have developed a solution that is tailored to their needs and is well thought-out. You need to demonstrate your knowledge by foreseeing the challenges that may arise throughout the contract and putting in place challenges to overcome them.
To increase your chances to tender and bid writing success, for government and private sector tenders and bids across Australia, you need to get into the minds of the client and the procurement team and understand their pain points and give them what they want. Sometimes this doesn’t show up in direct questions. But rather, by reading between the lines of the questions and understanding what they are looking for. Integrating key messages and win themes that address these underlying issues throughout your bid will help you win.
5. Localise your bid.
You need to tailor your proposal and proposed methodology to the local area you will be operating in if you want to increase your chances of becoming the preferred tenderer. Talk about local-specific challenges and opportunities, how you will employ locals and how you will work with local stakeholders and purchase materials and other supplies off local providers and service providers. This is especially relevant for government tenders and bids and absolutely critical if you want to be the successful tenderer in a local Council or shire tender anywhere across Australia.
To become a successful tenderer you must utilise these techniques and more. With experience and knowledge, you can increase your tenders win rate and ensure your businesses future growth and success.
The Tender Team has over 10 years of combined experience in writing professional, high-quality tenders. We have a high success track record to show as well as impeccable talent within our tender writing team.
For more information on tenders, or for a free consultation please call 0410 448 770 now to speak with one of our expert writers. We are available 24/7 for the convenience of our clients, and to ensure all communications are smooth and easy.
6. Only bid for contracts you can deliver on
The government and private businesses are generally highly experienced and sophisticated procurers. That means that they can see through tenders filled with fluff and a lack of real experience or expertise. Take the time to wait for contracts that you can fulfil and deliver on and have the capability to submit and complete over the long term. The reason is simple. It will ensure you put the right resources into real opportunities and you will generally have limited prospects of success where you are bidding for a contract you do not have the capabilities to fulfil. Focus on your strengths and increase your win rate.
7. Answer the question and back up any statements with evidence
This sounds simple and straight forward but it’s a bit more complicated than it sounds. Irrespective of if you are bidding for a construction contract in NSW, or a community services contract in Perth, you need to answer the questions from the RFP directly. Sometimes a single question has multiple parts (essentially mini questions) within the question. You need to answer each of these questions individually (sub headings or bullet points) and comprehensively. That’s the first step. The second step is backing up what you say with evidence. This gives your bid or tender credibility, and provide reassurance to the reader.
They are usually sick of reading through claims for different companies without any facts and without any evidence to back it up. Letters from suppliers, references, previous documents and performance all help to strengthen your bid and increase your prospects of success.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the tenderer?
The tenderer is usually the entity that is bidding for the contract. It may be an Australian Government contract or a contract from the private sector.
How do achieve more tender success?
Read through our 2025 guide to writing winning bids and tenders to learn how to achieve more tender success.
Is there a consultant near me that can help me write a tender response?
Yes – Here at The Tender Team, we help local businesses write tender responses and bids to the government and public sector.
We are looking to become more successful tenderers. What can we do to win more bids?
There are lots of different strategies you can employ. A good idea could be to speak with our bid and tender writers about arranging a tender review. We can look at your previous tenders and provide you insights into what to improve and how to improve it.
What are the five key reasons businesses lose bids and what do I need to do to win more? Is there a consultancy that can help? Is there someone we can get to write our tenders for us?
There are many reasons businesses across Australia lose tenders and bids. Some of these include:
- Bidding for contracts they don’t have the right experience and expertise for.
- Submitting a generic proposal that isn’t tailored.
- Not providing sufficient evidence in your bid or tender.
- Pricing too high (or too low which can also be detrimental).
- Not directly responding to the question and putting in a response which lacked detail.
Most certainly. Here at The Tender Team, our team of writers, headed by Jason Cooney, has a winning record of helping clients across Australia secure government contracts. We can write your tender for you and it doesn’t matter if you are a small business in Hobart, or multi-national cooperation, we will work with you to develop a quality RFP and RFT response that puts you in a strong position.
Contact our team of bid and tender writers today on 0410 448 770 or at info@thetenderteam.com.au for help with your next proposal.
