How to respond to an e-tender – online procurement portal tips
The last decade has seen an increase in the use of online procurement portals or e-procurement systems to manage competitive selection processes (e-Tendering), especially by large consumers of complex services. From an evaluator and procurement perspective e-procurement and e-tenders makes it easier to rank suppliers based on data and dollars. However, there’s usually little facility […]
Continue ReadingWhat is a tender ? Answers to tender questions you were too embarrassed to ask
If you’re new to the world of tenders (or were just curious about the meaning of some common ‘tender’ terms) this is the tender definitions blog for you! What is a ‘tender’? Tender has a few meanings of course (it can mean ‘sensitive’ for instance), but in a commercial context ‘tender’ means preparing and submitting […]
Continue ReadingHow to manage a bid remotely – Part 4 – effective bid file and document management
Some organisations were already well equipped prior to COVID-19 to have their entire workforce work remotely with full access to all their usual systems. For many others however, it’s a brave new world, with a steep learning curve along with technology teething problems. These problems can become especially apparent when it comes to managing a […]
Continue ReadingHow to run a kick-off meeting for your tender, bid or proposal
As we have discussed before, the difference between a winning tender, bid or proposal and a loser frequently comes down to what you know before you write a single word … not what you find out after you’ve written the document. An effective way to know more about a client is to gather your team […]
Continue ReadingAnd the winner is…Environmental scanning
And the winner is… ‘Sid-an-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!’ Juan Antonio Samaranch annoucing Sydney’s winning bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics. The exhilaration from winning a tender, bid or proposal is hard to beat and the benefits are many! But what about lost bids, tenders and proposals? An infamous proposal failure was Australia’s lost bid for the 2022 Soccer […]
Continue Reading11 Quick fixes to improve the quality of your tenders, bids and proposals
It’s the night before your tender, bid or proposal hands in and with a sinking feeling you realise it still needs ‘work’. Maybe it needs a lot of work, or just some key finishing touches applied. But without a deadline extension there’s no time to fully recast your responses, alter your document structure, change the […]
Continue ReadingHow to interview subject matter experts (SMEs) at tender time
SMEs – that’s ‘subject matter experts’ (rather than ‘small-to-medium enterprises’) – can be great to work with (as can small-to-medium enterprises!) on a tender. However, sometimes in the heat of a deadline SME input to a tender can become lost in translation (or worse left out). We’ve talked before about how specifics sell, and that’s […]
Continue ReadingFour (more) simple tender writing tips for success
Following on from our popular blog on Three simple tender writing tips for success here are four more to keep in mind: #1 Don’t be indecisive Make early, clear-cut decisions on the scope of your bid – this may include choosing areas or categories you will bid for, as well as nominating team members. Late […]
Continue ReadingSame-same, but different – Best practice for recycling boilerplate tender, bid & proposal content
I once had a client say he wanted to do ‘fresh writing’ for the entirety of content in every single tender, bid and proposal response. That’s right…every time…every bid…100% written from scratch. Unsurprisingly the ‘fresh writing’ diktat put considerable extra pressure on his already frazzled team and didn’t help his firm’s win rate. When it […]
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Feature article
Tender writing tips – Nothing is so complex that it cannot be explained simply
Remember, nothing is so complex that it cannot be explained simply Albert Einstein was spot-on when he said “nothing is so complex that it cannot be explained simply”. Tenders, bids, proposals, and informal pitches for business are not times to show how clever and capable you are by using legalese (I’m looking at you lawyers), […]
