- 1. How to be Successful and Write a Winning TenderThis
factsheet covers the issues you need to consider in order to write
asuccessful tender.What is the purpose of a tender?The purpose of
writing and submitting a tender (or bid) is two fold:1. To tell the
commissioner how you will meet their requirements and offer them
value for money2. To get them to pick your organisation to do the
work.A tender has to communicate the total offer you are making to
the commissioner on paper. It should be an accuraterepresentation
of your organisation which you can be legally held to if you are
successful in winning the contract.A tender should clarify what you
will do and how much for. In other words, what a commissioner will
get in terms of valuefrom you. Commissioners want suppliers who are
good to work with and who deliver. The tender proposal is
youropportunity to give them the information they need to make the
decision to work with you!Why does it matter?Contracts are won, and
lost, on the quality of the bids submitted. Although it is just one
step in a competitive biddingprocess, your proposal is critical. It
is your main, and sometimes only, opportunity to: Introduce your
business Explain your approach and solutions to the commissioners
needs Stand out from the competition.Being able to write a good
tender proposal is essential, and though there is no one right way
to prepare and write a tender,there are many wrong ones.Silent
SalespersonA tender is sometimes referred to as a Silent
Salesperson. This is because a tenderis selling your business to a
potential commissioner. This is an important point abouttendering
that many people, especially those who do not consider themselves
to besales people, do not always realise. Your tender will either
sell, or fail to sell, yoursolutions and proposals.In order to sell
successfully, it is helpful to: Know who your competition is; their
strong and weak points Know what the unique selling points of your
organisation are and what sets youapart from the competition. A
joint initiative to strengthen support services for the third
sectorThe ACEVO Commissioning Support Service
2. Understanding the requirementsA good tender will demonstrate
an understanding of what is required and will propose solutions to
meet thoserequirements. To maximize your chances of success, you
must make sure that you understand what is being asked for andwhy,
so that you can respond appropriately.The commissioners
requirements will be set out in a Specification (sometimes called a
Brief ), which you must read,along with any additional information
that may be sent to you before you submit your response.As well as
the specification, the evaluation criteria the way in which bids
will be scored is a vital piece of informationthat can help you to
understand how to meet the commissioners requirements. The
evaluation criteria will tell you theareas that are most important
to commissioners, and how overall value for money will be assessed.
In other words, it willtell you the balance between quality and
cost.Commissioners may also hold Industry Days or Clarification
meetings, where potential bidders will have an opportunityto meet
commissioners (and each other), to discuss the tender documentation
and the contract that is being tendered.This usually happens at the
early stages of the process - a few weeks after the contract has
been advertised. These areimportant opportunities to seek
clarification on what is required, and to gauge the
competition.What is expected?When you submit your bid,
commissioners will expect that certain minimum standards will be
met. Commissioners readhundreds of tenders a year, so making sure
that you comply with these minimum standards are critical. If you
fail to do anyof the following in your tender, you may risk it not
even being read or properly considered: You understand and respond
to all of the requirements You can offer value for money You
explain how you will carry out the work and help the commissioner
to achieve their objectives You have a positive and professional
approach You follow the instructions, including meeting the
deadlines for submission Your bid is well written and easy to
readWhy tenders often failTenders often fail for reasons that are
avoidable. The reasons they dont get through are: Simple
administration failures such as not signing the tender or getting
it in on time to the right place and person Additional or
supporting information is not provided, or bits are missed out
entirely The tender does not answer the questions, or meet the
requirements The tender is unclear and inconsistent The tender is
not competitiveBeing competitive means being able to stand out
amongst your competition and putting forward the best offer that
givesthe commissioner good value for money and meets all the
requirements. This means being able to compete in terms ofprice and
quality of your proposals.The ACEVO Commissioning Support Service
3. Preparation and PlanningBefore you put pen to paper, familiarise
yourself with the tender documentation, and make sure that: You
want to bid for this contract (you can deliver it, it is not too
risky or costly) You can meet the deadlines for submission of
information You have the resources you need including staff to be
able to write the tenderOnly the best tenders win, and it is
important to recognise that putting together a winning tender will
take dedicated timeand resources. To help you get an idea of how
much time and what resources will be needed, it is good practice to
drawup a work plan before you begin to prepare your tender. This
will detail: How long you have to submit the information; What
information is being asked for and how long it will take to gather
this; How long you will need to draft, edit and check your tender
response; Who else in your team you might need to help you pull the
tender together When you might need to available for clarification
or interviews.What makes a quality bid?A range of factors determine
whether your bid will stand a good chance of winning you a tender.
These can besummarised as:1. Quality of writing2. A thorough
response to the requirements3. Good presentationQuality of
writingWriting skills are absolutely critical in tender writing;
contracts are often lost on the basis of poor writing that is
unclear,illogical and fails to get across the key messages of the
offer being made. Both the structure and writing style of your
bidare important to get right.StructureThe structure and order of
your bid should be logical, coherent and should follow the order of
the specification orinvitation to tender documents which you have
been sent. Use the structure of your bid to get your proposals
acrossclearly; link points and sections together and try not to
jump about between sections and pieces of information,
ascommissioners will have to work a lot harder to understand your
proposals. In very poorly laid out bids important bits
ofinformation can be missed by commissioners, meaning you run the
risk of losing marks.Tenders can be effectively broken up into
sections and points with the use of diagrams, pictures and charts.
However, bewary of over using these; images can be very useful in
helping to get a point across but too many that appear to litter a
bidmay put commissioners off and not provide enough detail.Try to
include an Executive Summary this should be written last which
summarises the offer you are making and thekey messages you want
commissioners to take on board when reading your tender. Ideally,
an Executive Summary shouldbe no longer than one side of paper and
commissioners should be able to refer to it to recall details of
who you are andwhat you are proposing to do.Writing styleThe way
you write your tender must be:1. Clear and concise You must write
in a way that is clear and unambiguous and gets to the point.This
means: Do not waffle Try to avoid weak qualifiers (rather, very,
really, quite, somewhat) Use plain English Keep sentences short and
punchy Be consistent in your use of terminology and languageThe
ACEVO Commissioning Support Service3 4. 2. Interesting It is
important that your bid gets the commissioners attention and they
will remember it. You can make your tender interesting to read by:
Good opening sentences that get to the point Telling the
commissioner something they dont know (as long as it is relevant!)
Proposing interesting and innovative solutions3. Grammatically
correct, with proper use of punctuation and good spelling Do not
run the risk of losing a contract because of bad grammar and poor
spelling. It looks unprofessional and will make your tender seem
hurried and poorly thought through. Poor grammar and spelling can
also lead to misunderstandings about what is being said. Check for
spelling mistakes Check use of apostrophes, commas and so on. Try
to avoid the use of abbreviations and acronyms, in particular:
etc., et al, e.g., i.e.4. Personable and professionalIt is
important to get the tone of your tender right. Ideally, tenders
should be personable and give the commissioner asense of the people
behind the bid. However, this does not mean that you should:
Attempt to be funny Condescend or patronise Be over familiar or
gush with warmth and praiseAbove all, tenders should be written in
a way that is straight forward, professional and positive, and
proposes to work withcommissioners to meet shared aims and
objectives. Remember, your tender is a formal, legal offer and
should be writtenas such.A thorough response to the
requirementsAlong with good writing skills, a basic requirement of
a good tender is that it responds to all the requirements and
itanswers all the questions. Your tender is your opportunity to
communicate your total offer to the commissioner and toshow the
commissioner that you can supply them with exactly what they want.A
thorough, comprehensive responseMany bids fail to address all the
requirements or answer all the questions and as a result are
unsuccessful in winningcontracts. You must address all of the
requirements set out in the specification; if you do not know what
to put down donot miss it out and hope for the best. It is better
to write something than nothing at all; think how can I answer
thatquestion?, rather than can I answer that question? Address each
and every requirement with a concise, comprehensive response Attach
any supporting information as an appendix to your tender rather
than in the middle of it, as this can make thetender difficult to
read. Show that you understand the requirements and the context of
the commission by submitting information andproposals that
demonstrate your knowledge of the area you are working in, your
experience and the skills that youwould bring to the work Try to
work with the commissioner; you both want to achieve the same
things, so tell them what you will to do helpthem meet their
requirements, including how flexible you can be, what added
benefits you can bring and how youwill offer value for money. Be
honest about what you can and cant do; you may be held to your
proposals in a binding contract and you mustbe able to meet your
commitments If you unclear about any of the requirements do not be
afraid to ask for clarificationEvidence and examplesDo not leave
anything to the commissioners imagination, or let the commissioner
make assumptions about what you areproposing. It is essential to
provide evidence and examples to back up statements and commitments
that you make inThe ACEVO Commissioning Support Service4 5. your
tender. Commissioners can only make a decision about whether a bid
meets their requirements or not based on theinformation in front of
them. Do not make empty statements without backing them up Provide
relevant examples that illustrate your point Do not just repeat the
requirements; explain how you will meet them and what you will
doFollow the instructionsInstructions on how to submit your tender
are given for a reason and you must follow them. Commissioners may
specifyhow tenders should be laid out, the points that should be
addressed and when and where they should be submitted. Ifyou do not
follow the instructions, you can very quickly and easily fall out
of favour with commissioners, and may even losemarks. Read the
instructions Raise any queries you may have early on If there are
any instructions you cannot comply with speak to the commissioner
immediatelyFinancial information and costingsYou will be asked to
provide costs against the proposals you put forward in your tender.
You will normally be required tocomplete a Pricing Schedule as part
of your bid, which will specify what kind of financial information
is required. This maybe an hourly rate, a rate per end user,
product, or journey, depending on what is required. You must make
sure that: You fully cost your services, taking into account
overheads and on-costs You provide enough information for the
commissioner to make a decision on whether or not your tender
offersvalue for money You provide the information that is asked for
in the format requestedA well presented tenderLast, but not least,
a well presented tender will nearly always do better than a poorly
presented bid. This does not meanthat you should sacrifice quality
in favour of glossy but unsubstantial material. However, the
following recommendationswill help you to make the most of your
opportunity to win business: Type, do not hand-write, your tender
unless this is completely unavoidable. Even people with nice hand
writing losetheir way after a while When typing, use the same
typeface all the way through; do not write too small or too large
(Arial point 12 is aboutright) An index is helpful, with pages
clearly numbered and supporting information clearly labelled Submit
your tender in a file or have it professionally bound Keep
sentences and paragraphs to a reasonable length; bullet points are
useful to clearly set out information If you are copying and
pasting, be careful that the information is consistent all the way
throughThe ACEVO Commissioning Support Service5 6. Summary and top
tipsIn order to win a contract it is essential that you produce a
good quality tender, which: Addresses all of the commissioners
requirements; Is clear about the value that you are offering and is
competitive, and; Is well written and well presentedThe table below
summarises the main points to remember when you are preparing and
writing your tender submission.Above all, remember that bidding
takes time and resources. Answer the questionsA clear, logical
structureBack up statements withIllustrate points with and address
the is essential. evidence.relevant examples. requirements. Do not
waffle.Present your tender well, Make sure youRead the
instructions. clearly referenced andunderstand what theTwice.
labelled. buyer wants. Buyers like original, fresh Plan and
prepareWrite clearly; do notMake sure you have approaches, but
stick toproperly. make any assumptions!included all the necessary
the point. information.Further reading and guidanceThe best
guidance on how to prepare your tender will be in the tender
documents you are sent, under Instructions forTendering. These
instructions will explain exactly what you must to do submit your
tender and what information isrequired.There will also be a contact
name in the tender documents who you can contact if you have any
queries.Guidance on how to prepare a tender can be found on the
internet, in particularwww.businesslink.gov.uk and
www.berr.gov.ukGuidance on how to write well is in abundance on the
web, and guidance on how to cost your services can be found
atwww.fullcostrecovery.org.ukACEVO Commissioning Support
HelplineContact us for advice and support on procurement and
commissioning issues:E: [email protected]: 0207
280 4937www.acevo.org.uk/commissioningThe ACEVO Commissioning
Support Service6
