Writing and winning construction tenders and bids in the UK requires more than simply submitting a price (although many years ago that used to be the case). You need to demonstrate that you have a well thought out methodology, the experience and expertise to deliver the project as well as a track record of success. Add to that the need to have robust safety and quality procedures in place as well as well as any specific licenses and qualifications and you are in a strong position for success.
Construction and building tenders across the UK, including in London, Birmingham, Manchester as well as Glasgow and other major cities and regions are highly competitive with pricing being a significant factor as well as a demonstrated commitment to Social Value. You have to submit a compelling and persuasive proposal to be successful and come up with a value proposition that resonates with the particularly public or private sector client.
Our team of expert bid and tender writers here at Tsaks Consulting specialise in helping construction companies across the UK win frameworks and other government contracts.
The different types of construction contracts, frameworks, bids and tenders you can bid for
Depending on the procurement entity (such as a public sector procurement body, framework, pirvate sector company or public entity, there are different types of procurement methods adopted by organisations. Another key factor is the size of the project and the level of detail or complexity required as part of the procurement process. The Tsaks Consulting bid writing team has experience writing bids and tenders for building and construction projects across a range of different tendering and procurement methods. These include:
- Open Tendering: As the name suggests, this tender process is like a free for all. Any construction or building company can bid for the opportunity and it’s often quite competitive. On the positive, there is a high volume of projects and contracts released through open tenders within various industry sub-sectors. The majority of the construction bids and tenders we help client with across the UK are open tenders and the Tsaks Consulting UK team has had great success helping small, medium and large construction companies win government and private sector contracts through the open tender process.
- Selective Tendering: This is when you are pre-selected to tender for the opportunity. Generally speaking, the client has identified specialised providers for their work and invited a select number of potential suppliers to tender. Putting in the business development groundwork here is critical in order to secure an invitation. For construction projects in the UK that are highly specialised, it’s not unusual to be invited to bid and is generally a great opportunity to secure a contract which you are largely qualified to deliver.
- Negotiated Tendering:This is where there is a continuation of a current process, and therefore a tender is released and negotiated with the current contractor and potentially an additional provider. Careful and considered negotiation is critical to securing the contract.
- Framework Agreements:These are long term agreements where builders and construction companies are appointed to a framework and are awarded smaller amounts of works once appointed. They can last for up to five years and sometimes longer, and cover different geographical areas. We have helped many clients be awarded to frameworks with CCS, Fusion and other frameworks and it has been an absolute game changer for their businesses leading to increased and consistent income and revenue.
- Two-stage tendering: This is where there is a consulting component first, followed by a construction component. This is completed in two stages and you generally need to bid or tender for each individual stage.
The team of bid and tender writers at Tsaks Consulting UK, led by Jason Cooney, will assist you with any type of tendering process.
Strategies for preparing a winning construction tender or bid that work in 2025
Most builders, construction businesses and tradies across the UK produce decent quality tenders. From our experience here at Tsaks Consulting UK, most of the clients we come across are at least at a 7 our of 10 level. With the level of competitiveness in tendering, 7 out of 10 is rarely good enough to secure a contract. The tendering process is highly competitive, and you usually need to score an average of 9.
Furthermore, due to the nature of construction tenders, with low margins and competitive pricing, winning bids based on a low price is generally not the best strategy and can lead to financial losses. We outline below a number of strategies our professional bid writers employ (and you can too) to help you win:
- Include evidence in your response. You can write anything in a bid, however, without evidence it isn’t credible. This is especially the case in construction bids and tenders. You need to include images and pictures of works to compliment your case studies, and provide evidence for any risk management and project management plans you plan to put in place. Finally, a robust methodology needs to be supported by facts, figures and evidence of how it has been successfully implemented in the past. Take the time to quantify as much as possible in your bid to score well and integrate testimonials throughout your bid where possible.
- Provide detailed case studies that show your experience. The key point here is that you need to link your previous experience to the requirements of the tender. Demonstrate to the procurement panel or team that your experience is highly relevant and makes you a qualified and credible provider to complete the project. Linking your CVs and team profiles to the opportunity it also important.
- Show that you have all the correct documentation, and also that you have the skills and systems to keep it up to date and report on it throughout the process. Having the right WHS, Quality and other compliance documentation is a pre-requisite for winning a tender. However, you can be almost certain that most other tenderers will have their documentation in place as well. Therefore, you need to show how you will keep it updated, as well as how you will implement and report on any safety and other initiatives throughout the course of the contract. This will reassure the government entity that you will implement a robust safety and quality methodology, rather than simply attach a few documents to your bid to comply with the tender process.
- Develop and demonstrate a clear commitment to social value. You can read more from our team on how to write an effective response to social value questions here.
Common errors to avoid and reasons for losing your construction tender or bid
The Tsaks Consulting UK team is one of the UKs leading bid and tender writing consultancies specialising in construction bids and tenders. 65% of the bids we work on are related to the construction, building and trades sector. As such, we work on many different bids every year for a broad range of construction and maintenance bids and tenders. Some of the key reasons we see clients miss out on valuable contracts include:
- Submitting a generic bid or proposal. This is always tempting as it’s quicker and easier to use generic content in a bid. You may even get AI to write some responses for you. The hard part – and the high scoring part – is to tailor the response and written content for the specific project or framework you are bidding for. In addition, it all needs to be a consistent tone throughout your bid or tender.
- Not allocating enough time to write your bid or tender – and then creating a poor submission. This happens a lot to many of our clients when they do not engage our help. They get off to a flying start in preparing their bid and then day to day operations and their day job gets in the way. All of a sudden the days slip by, they lose track of the tender and control of the tender process and there is a mad-rush at the end. It’s important to allocate the resources early on to complete the tender and have regular check-ins to ensure progress is on track.
- Getting the pricing wrong. Anything within the pricing that is unusual is often an alert from procurement teams. That means not understanding the scope of the project and pricing too low can have a negative effect on your result. In addition, pricing too high can also be a problem. Another issue is errors in the pricing. You need to be very careful not to rush your pricing response and make an error. Tender documents are often complex with assumptions and addendums being released constantly all of which often have an impact on pricing.
- Social value: take it seriously and come up with some well thought out initiatives. We have had many well qualified clients lose bids because they did not provide enough information and detail on social value.
How to get help with your next construction bid, tender or framework from a professional bid writing service
Contact our team here at Tsaks Consulting UK for help with your next construction industry bid or tender. We help businesses across the UK including in South East, London, North West, West Midlands, East of England, South West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands and the North East. Our team of expert bid writers can help you:
- Write your bid or tender response to a framework. RFT, RFP or DPS.
- Review your bid to ensure that it complies with industry best practice and provide advice on what to improve and how.
- Create a bid library so you can develop quality bids in the future. In addition, we can provide training for your in-house personnel to ensure you improve your in-house bid writing capacity.
- Identify construction industry contract opportunities for your to bid on.
Contact our team today to discuss how our professional bid writers can help you win.