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This factsheet covers the issues you need to consider in order to write a successful 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 money 2. 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 accurate representation 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 value from you. Commissioners want suppliers who are good to work with and who deliver. The tender proposal is your opportunity to give them the information they need to make the decision to work with you!
Silent Salesperson
A tender is sometimes referred to as a Silent Salesperson. This is because a tender is selling your business to a potential commissioner. This is an important point about tendering that many people, especially those who do not consider themselves to be sales people, do not always realise. Your tender will either sell, or fail to sell, your solutions 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 you apart from the competition.
What is expected?
When you submit your bid, commissioners will expect that certain minimum standards will be met. Commissioners read hundreds of tenders a year, so making sure that you comply with these minimum standards are critical. If you fail to do any of 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 read
Quality of writing
Writing 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 bid are important to get right.
Structure
The structure and order of your bid should be logical, coherent and should follow the order of the specification or invitation to tender documents which you have been sent. Use the structure of your bid to get your proposals across clearly; link points and sections together and try not to jump about between sections and pieces of information, as commissioners will have to work a lot harder to understand your proposals. In very poorly laid out bids important bits of information 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, be wary of over using these; images can be very useful in helping to get a point across but too many that appear to litter a bid may 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 the key messages you want commissioners to take on board when reading your tender. Ideally, an Executive Summary should be no longer than one side of paper and commissioners should be able to refer to it to recall details of who you are and what you are proposing to do.
Writing style
The way you write your tender must be:
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 solutions
your tender. Commissioners can only make a decision about whether a bid meets their requirements or not based on the information 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 do
Present your tender well, Make sure you clearly referenced and understand what the labelled. buyer wants. Plan and prepare properly. Write clearly; do not make any assumptions!
Read the instructions. Twice. Make sure you have included all the necessary information.