The ultimate guide to help builders, plumbers, electricians and all other tradespeople write winning tenders and bids in the UK and secure government contracts and frameworks

Written By Jason Cooney, Founder & Principal Writer

Frameworks and government contracts for tradespeople (builders, plumbers, electricians and other trades)

We often get enquiries from builders, plumbers, electricians and other building industry personnel about how to win more tenders and bids, how to apply for a framework and why they are unsuccessful. Below is a short guide on how to writing winning bids, tenders and proposals for your business.

Our team of tender and bids writers have strong experience writing bids to the UK government and private sector for plumbers, builders, electricians and a number of other trades across the UK. We love helping contractors across the UK win contracts and grow their revenue streams. This guide will help ensure you submit a quality and compliance response to your next bid or tender that give you the best chances of success.

When it comes to government and public sector contracts and frameworks, the idea that you have to be in it to win it generally doesn’t apply. You have to be in it, with a standout bid or proposal to win it.

When you engage our team at Tsaks Consulting to help with your next bid, tender, ITT, SSQ or Framework, we will help you:

• Write your bid from start to finish
• Review your bid to ensure you have responded to it comprehensively
• Manage the bid and take the hassle out of the bid writing process.

Strategies to help tradespeople and contractors win more contracts and bids

The below strategies and bid writing techniques are useful to help increase your success rates:

Tailor your bid to your audience

It’s important to tailor your bid or proposal to your audience and provide experience and references that are relevant. For example, if you are bidding for a local government contract to provide plumbing maintenance services, detail on your experience in fulfilling similar contracts is essential. This is particularly important when inputting suitable referees and contract examples as part of your submission. As a result of doing so, you are instilling confidence in the Commissioner that you are capable of successfully delivering the service.

In most bids and frameworks across the UK, you need to answer questions on Social Value. When writing a response to Social Value, it is important you localise your response and put forward local initiatives that will help the local community. Some obvious things you can talk about are:

• Employing local apprentices.
• Purchasing materials for the job or project from local suppliers.
• Supporting local charities.

It is also important to tailor your bid or proposal to the nature of the project. For example, let’s say you are tendering to provide plumbing maintenance services to a school in London. When you are putting forward your Bios for each of your team members as well as your previous experience, you will need to include experience that is similar to the tender requirements.

I.e. talking about your work on previous maintenance contracts and how your personnel specialise in maintenance. This applies to all trades such as plumbers, roofers and carpenters.

Go into detail where possible to score well and write a comprehensive response

The RFP, RFQ, or other tender documentation will generally have a series of questions, some of which require a simple response, such as your business name or contact numbers, and others which will require a more detailed response.

For questions asking about experience, methodology and personnel, where you have relevant experience or a methodology to include, it’s important to go into detail. Going into detail will demonstrate that you have the right expertise, that you understand the requirements of the contract, and that you have thought through the opportunity and will allocate the appropriate resources to deliver on the contract.

For example, let’s assume you are a locksmith and the client has asked for information regarding your experience in the installation of new locking systems for a university. If you have installed locking systems for two other universities, you could include a short bullet point outlining the two universities you installed locks for. Alternatively, you could, and should go into detail about this experience and outline:

• How many locks were installed.
• Any unique challenges that arose in the project and how you overcame them.
• Outcomes of the project and the time it took you to complete the project.
• Which members of your team were involved in the project.

You do not get extra marks for including fancy words. So don’t go into unnecessary detail. However, factual, concise language talking that details your prior performance is always beneficial. In order to help you win, provide as much evidence and testimonials as possible in your submission.

Put forward you’re A-team and tailor your CVS

It’s important to put forward your best and most suitable team for each bid and tender. It’s equally important to tailor their experience to the opportunity or the contract. Make sure you talk about each team member and their individual experience as it relates to the contract requirements.

Write about the individual role of each person on the project and how their previous experience relates to their role and qualifies them to deliver.

Finally, for electrical, plumbing, and just about any other trade or contracting tender, ensure that you detail the licenses and qualifications of each team member.

Comply with requirements

It is important to comply with all requirements including the requirements for safety documentation such as ISO9001:2015 accreditation. Many trades contractors across the UK also have to be accredited under a range of schemes for quality and safety such as GasSafe, NICEIC and CHAS. Certifications need to be included in your bid if requested.

Write a compelling executive summary

The executive summary for any bid is critical. You need to not only summarise your response but also put forward the key points of difference that set you apart from your competitors. It’s important to highlight why you should be selected for the contract and how you have the capabilities, resources and expertise to deliver on the project over the term of the contract.

Your executive summary should talk about your team, experience, key differentiators and any value-added services you may offer. Take the time to make sure your executive summary is compelling, as sometimes it’s the only document the client will read in detail.

You can read more about effective bid management here.

Comply with the requirements

In a tender process you aren’t able to miss or skip anything. Whether it’s an insurance requirement, acknowledging you have no conflict of interest, or acknowledging the contract, you need to tick all the boxes and comply with all the requirements. We have seen a fair few companies over the years put forward quality bids and tenders and come unstuck by not answering some of the simply compliance questions. Take the time to work through the tender requirements comprehensively from start to finish.

Tailor your safety documentation to the project

Safety is a critical component of any trades or contractors bid or tender. Whilst simply attaching your Safety Management System and your usual supporting documentation is often enough to win a construction and trades bid or tender, it’s increasingly being marked down by evaluators.

Instead, in order to deliver a quality response. You need to show that you have thought through the proposed contract from a safety perspective. Having identified risks and put forward potential safety initiatives, you can create tailored safety documentation for your bids and integrate safety as a key win theme in your tender.

Equipment, methodology and whole of life costs

When writing your bid you should talk about your operations. Do you have a comprehensive methodology to deliver the project? If so, detail it so that you convince the reader you are the most credible service provider.

Furthermore, if you have invested in equipment that is innovative or environmentally friendly, discuss this equipment and the benefits it brings to your service and the contract.

How we can help you win your next plumbing, electrical, trade or building contract

Here at Tsaks Consulting, we provide tender, proposal and bid writing communications services for businesses across the UK including in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leeds-Bradford, Glasgow, Southampton-Portsmouth, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, Bristol, Belfast and Leicester.

Our team will help you:

• Write your bid from start to finish.
• Create graphics and infographics so your bid has a professional look and feel.
• Create your supporting documentation(such as WHS, Quality and Environmental documentation).
• Understand and comply with the tender and bid requirements.

Types of businesses we help write bids and framework applications for

We have helped businesses from a range of industries win government and private contracts and respond to PQQs and ITTs including:

Plumbers and Plumbing Bids and Tenders

We have helped plumbers, plumbing contractors and hydraulic contracts write bids and framework applications to win contracts across the UK. For example, we have helped write bids for boiler replacement tenders to local councils, schools and housing associations.

These include fitting the boiler as well as supply and fit. Social value is critical in these bids as is adherence to safety requirements and having the right safety protocols and systems in place. Most clients are required to have Gas Safe certification.

We also have experience writing bids and tenders for plumbers for the installation of heating systems, heat pumps biomass boilers and other heating systems. These are often built within maintenance tenders.

Our team of bid writers is experienced in working with plumbing contractors across the UK to help them grow their businesses through bids and tenders. We enjoy the challenge of helping clients retain existing contracts as well as win new government contracts.

We can help you:

• Find commercial plumbing contracts
• Write plumbing bids
• Create winning plumbing tenders
• Prepare and submit plumbing bids in the UK
• Create a bid library so it’s easier and quicker for you to complete plumbing bids in the future.

Electricians and electrical tenders and bids

We have helped electricians submit bids, tenders and framework applications for both domestic and commercial electrical contracts. These are a mixture of both new builds and maintenance contracts. For small and medium sized electrical contractors, the increased focus by the UK Government and nearly all UK Government agencies on social value and purchasing from SMEs has brought real potential to win highly lucrative government contracts.

We have helped electricians put in bids to council, housing organisations and other agencies for a range of services including maintenance, upgrades and new construction.

If you are an electrician in the UK requiring guidance on:

• How to win electrical contracts
• Electrical tendering
• Winning small electrical tenders
• Finding electrical contracts for tender in the UK
• Winning electrical installation tenders

Call our team of writers for assistance.

Bricklaying bids, tenders and contracts

We have helped bricklayers compete for contracts with a broad range of public sector organisations. In addition, we have helped bricklayers write bids to building contractors for sub-contractor works.

Where there are local council contracts that combine brick and block laying and other trades, our team of writers can assist you to develop a consortium and write and submit the bids in conjunction with other contractors. We also have experience helping bricklayers and masonry contractors successfully apply to frameworks with various purchasing authorities.

Building and construction bids

We have helped builders of all shapes and sizes bid for work across the UK. In order to win public sector building contracts, builders need to deliver a tailored, localised response that focuses on social value. There are a number of frameworks that are great for builders looking to increase their pipeline of work.

Our experience, in addition to helping large scale infrastructure companies in the UK including in London and Manchester, extends to helping small to medium sizes builders and contractors to bid for and win contracts.

We understand how to position small to medium businesses as the best appropriate contactor delivering the best value in the eyes of the reader and will work with you to put forward compelling social value initiatives to increase your chances of success.

We help clients write and win small construction tenders and will guide you and your business on how to tender for and win construction work. Our team provide construction industry tender support to buildings in regional and remote as well as metropolitan areas across the UK. We can also assist clients with getting contracts with larger builders and tendering directly to builders for work.

Cabinet Makers tenders and bids

We have helped cabinet makers bid for a broad range of projects such as kitchen and laundry assembly. These are often private and public sector bids. We have helped Cabinet Makers apply for frameworks associated with cabinet making, joinery and other furniture works.

Our experience includes helping a large-scale cabinet making and kitchen business write bids and tenders for the supply and installation of kitchens, cabinets and furniture in major education institutions. Our team of bid and tender writers helped write the successful bid and guided our clients on the process to secure this critical contract.

Carpenters bids and frameworks

Carpenters are critical for maintenance and construction works across the UK. Most of these works are small to medium projects for shire, Council and government projects. Our writers are experienced in writing carpentry bids particularly to the NHS and for other frameworks including in the education sector.

Landscapers and Horticulture

We have helped landscape and grounds maintenance companies write bids for local council and other contracts across the UK. This includes bids and tenders for sports grounds and grass and tree trimming.

Our experience writing grounds maintenance tenders is extensive and includes writing bids and tenders to the private sector. This includes strata managers and other real estate and development management business

In addition, we are well aware of the national standards with respect to working with pesticides and other safety documentation and guide our clients on how to put forward operational plans which are compelling, compliant and safe.

Pest Control Businesses

We have helped write pest control bids and tenders for a broad range of facilities. This includes facilities maintenance bids and for pest control services to a range of government buildings and other infrastructure such as hospitals and education institutions.

Helping you win more bids and tenders

Regardless of if you are a plumber, electrician, builder or other contractor, our team will show you how to get construction contracts and how to bid on government construction contracts in the UK. We will help you win contracts and bids by implementing the strategies outlined above. Contact our team of bid writers today to talk about how we can help you write your next bid, tender or framework application.

Client testimonials

We are an electrical company specialising in maintenance works for government and private sector clients. We also work a lot in the education sector. We were on a number of minor works panels and were looking to be appointed to more. We wanted to increase our bid and proposal win rate and had a good chat with Jason from Tsaks Consulting UK. We found him to be informative and quite open about the process and how to win more. We engaged Tsaks Consulting UK to help us write a DPS application for a minor works contract. They were excellent. They helped us through the process and really improved our bid. They come up with ideas of what additional information we could include and actually wrote the responses for us with our input. It was a very positive experience with a positive result and we recommend them to any contractor looking to win more bids.

Jeff P | Electrical Contractor | London

 

Hi Tsaks Consulting team, Good news! We were successful with the plumbing maintenance bid. Amazing and what a mission. Thanks for all your help. Given it was our first time tendering for public sector projects we are very pleased with the result. We weren’t expecting to win and saw it as more of a learning experience. However, to have won our first bid is amazing and we certainly couldn’t have done it without you. Now it’s all about delivering on the contract and growing our business more so let us know if there are any other opportunities we should bid for and Sarah is also looking for tender opportunities so we will call you when we need assistance with the next one.

Peter P | Builder and Maintenance | Manchester