How to Plan Your Tender Response

 


A well-researched tender and a carefully planned response will increase your chances of success, while reducing costs and time-wastage to your business.  

The following are some tips for organising your tender response.

Examine the tender request

Most tender requests will have the following common elements:

- outline of the buyer's requirements

- list of criteria that you must meet

- instructions about the tender process and submission.

Carefully read the tender specifications, conditions and contract terms. Ensure you familiarise yourself with guidelines, policies and laws for tendering. Once you fully understand the tender request, you need to find out if the tender opportunity is the right fit for your business.

Confirm your capability for the job

After you have thoroughly analysed the tender request, next is to confirm your business's capability to fulfill the contract:

- List all the elements of the contract.

- Identify the requirements you can definitely meet, then any components you are concerned about.

- Confirm your licences, registrations or accreditations are relevant.

- If you cannot deliver all of the specified goods or services, within the required time frame, you may consider partnering with another business.

- Carefully consider the risks associated with the contract and have a plan to manage or minimise risks.

Research the buyer

Gather as much information as you can about the organisation requesting the tender. Including the work they require. Having extensive information about the tenderer will allow you to tailor your tender proposal to their specific needs. If possible, attend all briefing sessions provided by the tenderer. Do not be afraid to ask the tenderer questions. This can allow you to establish relationships with key contacts.

Develop a marketing pitch

Prepare a short marketing plan that is tailored to your tender. This will help to define how you plan to market your business for this specific tender. Your marketing plan can be used to identify any key ideas you will use in your tender response, as well as the products, reference material and information resources you will include in the tender.

Plan your tender proposal

Set up a meeting with your staff to plan the tender development process. An organised approach to creating a competitive tender response, is your best weapon. Identify who will coordinate the tendering process and keep the latest version of the tender document. Have a plan in place to submit your tender proposal well before the deadline.

Consult all project contributors

In planning your tender, consult and involve everyone who will work on the contract.

Use these consultation sessions to consider:

- the resources you will assign to preparation of your tender proposal

- the budget you will require when you win the contract

- influencing factors, such as, your track record, your competitors, and the relevant experience and qualifications of project contributors.

Enlist a professional tender writer

An experienced professional tender writer can help you to navigate the quagmire that is tender writing. Red Tape Busters has a team of experienced tender writers that can partner with you and your business to develop a well-organised and high standard tender proposal. Whether your needs are a tender writer Sydney, a tender writer Victoria, a tender writer Melbourne Wales or a tender writer anywhere across Australia, Red Tape Busters are your team.  

Popular posts from this blog

Tender Writing – The Top Three Qualities of an Effective Tender Writer

Tender writing can be a very challenging process but the effective tender writer will have a personality, a skill set and an approach that sets them apart from the run of the mill tender writer. I believe the really important qualities that a tender writer needs to possess are an ability to stay calm under pressure; an ability to org anise other people within the organisation and to organize resources, information and supporting documents or material and an ability to develop the strategy and approach that pitches the organisation in the right light to win the attention of those assessing the tender response. I will now discuss these qualities in further detail. Calm Under Pressure Tender writing can be a very pressurized situation. There are deadlines to meet. Responses need to be submitted by a specified time, in a specified format and in a specified way. Sometimes tenders need to be hand delivered, sometimes they need to be electr...
Read more

Avoid Tender Rejection With This Expert Advice

Image
The experienced tender writer finds it hard enough to get their tender considered after applying and following the guidelines, ensuring that the lodgement time is met and that they have crafted a decent tender response. Tender writing requires some skill to prepare a great application yet a lot of writers ensure their tender response is rejected at the first review by making some simple errors. Here are some of the pitfalls you need to avoid to ensure your application is not rejected without first being serious considered. Remember the assessment panel on first review of all the responses will be seeking to reject as many as possible initially to get down to a manageable number and to make the task easier. Following are the mistakes that will almost certainly see your response put into the NO pile. Failure to answer every question or tick every box on the application form This might seem just plain ridiculous. How can anyone fail to fill out the application form completely? W...
Read more

Tender Writing – Should you pursue every tender opportunity?

Applying for or responding to tender opportunities is a vexing question in the tender writing world. Should we apply for all, some, which ones, which ones should we steer clear of these are all important questions for the tender writer. The skilled tender writer will ensure they carefully analyse each tender, analyse the direction of the organisation, analyse the goals of the organisation both long and short term goals and ensure that if successful in winning the tender that :- 1. They can deliver fully on the requirements of the tender  2. That winning the tender will support the overall organisational objectives 3. The tender will be financially viable. In arriving at answers to these issues the grant writer should consider the following in some detail :- Capacity and Resources One of the key issues to be considered is does the organisation have the capacity and resources required to deliver the requirements of the tender in full. That means – do we have...
Read more