Tender Writing – Case Study 3

As we have discussed in this series of case studies previously, tender writing is far more than being the cheapest price. Yes tender writing success does depend to a degree on price but the skilled tender writer will be able to develop a “sales” pitch which sets their tender apart from the competition and price will then become just one of many key platforms from which the organisation can launch a successful bid.

In this Case Study our client was seeking our assistance in winning a tender with Woolworths to provide supermarket trolleys. Our client was an Australian based company wanting to challenge overseas importers. This was going to be a very tough task for our grant writer seeing the overseas companies were buying the raw materials cheaply overseas and were then paying cheap labour to construct the trollies.

We were able to convince our client to source raw materials also from overseas at a good price but source materials and parts that exceeded Australian standards. In this way we could demonstrate that our trolleys were superior in design and construction to the opposition and that our trolleys exceeded the Australian specifications for quality and safety.

We also worked with the client on ensuring we had a backup plan just in case something happened to their supplier of the materials and also a business continuity plan in place for our client to again demonstrate that in case of an emergency fire, flood etc – our client would have a plan in place to continue operations. We also worked with the client to show that because the trolleys would be manufactured here that we could quickly get stocks of trolley’s to Woolworths in urgent situations – something our competitors would struggle to achieve.

We also convinced our client to introduce a warranty policy where they “guaranteed” the life of the trolley for two years and agreed to replace a trolley if it failed in this time. Again this was a key point of difference from our competitors. Providing a guarantee really was an attractive aspect for Woolworths because essentially whatever trolleys they purchased they knew that for at least two years that they did not have to budget for replacements.

We also suggested to our client that the provide an Account Manager within their organisation whose responsibility it would be to look after the Woolworths account entirely and that person would be available to Woolworths 24/7, 365 days per year and would give Woolworths personalised service wherein any Woolworths store across the country or anyone from head office could call the Accounts Manager to get a billing issue resolved, order more trollies, seek replacements etc etc. This proved another great innovation.

Finally in our tender documents we focused on our client’s commitment to quality and the fact they had in place systems which conformed to ISO 9001 and that the client was heavily invested in continual improvement.

While our clients price was slightly higher than the competitors the overall quality of the tender, the value adding and our key points of difference carried the day. Our tender writer Sydney had done an amazing job and we were proud to have a $13 million tender writing success to add to our glowing “resume”.

Contact us at Red Tape Busters - should you require more information about this article or if you require specialist grant or tender writing experience to help your organisation or business win grant funding or achieve successes with tenders.

We are specialists in providing the following services:-

1. Lobbying

2. Tender Writing

3. Grant Writing

4. Resumes/Job Applications

5. Organisational/Business Development.

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