Every tenderer should consider these six top tips if they want to make a positive impression and win more work through tenders.
1. Use all the tools at your disposal – at both pre-bid and during the EOI/RFP process. If you don't, your competition may well steal a march on you. Pre-bid communication, concept design, videos and creative presentations are increasingly commonplace, so make sure you are praised by your client for the quality and effort of your presentation, not apologising for what you haven't managed to achieve.
2. Take time to understand the culture and objectives of the organisation to which you are bidding. If you know what your intended client intends to achieve through this RFP, you can answer the questions all-the-more effectively
3. Less Service, more benefits: Think about the benefits of your proposal to the client. What will your service achieve for your client? And how will you not only meet your clients' requirements but also help to align with and move them towards their own objectives? And then detail how you will do it.
4. Provide more evidence – back up all your statements with proof. Few things say "we can be your supplier of choice" more than a demonstration of how you have done a similar thing successfully before. And then show HOW you will do the same / better for your intended client.
5. What are you doing around the bid? Before you get into the probity period, what are you doing to position your business and highlight your value points by using the tools at your disposal? Marketing, PR, social media, events, content - all have a valuable role to play.
6. Insert more professionally-taken pictures – those photos taken on the office camera of you standing in front of the office wall that make you look like you have just been arrested are SO last year. Well-taken photos are always going to be worth the cost, and can be used elsewhere too.
7. Use the bids you win to prepare for the next ones – start capturing stories from your people about the work they are doing and the positive comments you get back from your client. TAKE PHOTOS of the work you do and any milestones / technically interesting features, so the next time you submit a bid, you have already got a library of information to use, rather than scrabbling around at the last minute wishing you'd bothered. Doing a little work frequently is much easier than a lot of work in one go.
By George Hulbert
2. Take time to understand the culture and objectives of the organisation to which you are bidding. If you know what your intended client intends to achieve through this RFP, you can answer the questions all-the-more effectively
3. Less Service, more benefits: Think about the benefits of your proposal to the client. What will your service achieve for your client? And how will you not only meet your clients' requirements but also help to align with and move them towards their own objectives? And then detail how you will do it.
4. Provide more evidence – back up all your statements with proof. Few things say "we can be your supplier of choice" more than a demonstration of how you have done a similar thing successfully before. And then show HOW you will do the same / better for your intended client.
5. What are you doing around the bid? Before you get into the probity period, what are you doing to position your business and highlight your value points by using the tools at your disposal? Marketing, PR, social media, events, content - all have a valuable role to play.
6. Insert more professionally-taken pictures – those photos taken on the office camera of you standing in front of the office wall that make you look like you have just been arrested are SO last year. Well-taken photos are always going to be worth the cost, and can be used elsewhere too.
7. Use the bids you win to prepare for the next ones – start capturing stories from your people about the work they are doing and the positive comments you get back from your client. TAKE PHOTOS of the work you do and any milestones / technically interesting features, so the next time you submit a bid, you have already got a library of information to use, rather than scrabbling around at the last minute wishing you'd bothered. Doing a little work frequently is much easier than a lot of work in one go.
By George Hulbert
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