The tender and bidding landscape in the UK
With changes to procurement regulations, a larger focus on social value and higher expectations from buyers in terms of supporting evidence and also the quality of bids they expect to receive. It has become increasingly competitive to win tenders and public sector organisations are generally stricter with compliance. In order to win a tender, you need to get everything right and come up with a compelling value proposition that really impresses the readers and delivers real benefits to the client.
A comprehensive understanding of the ITT, RFQ, SSQ and other processes is critical to ensure you put together a compelling bid that complies with all the requirements. You need to do more than comply to win a bid, tender or framework in the UK. You need to come up with a story or sales pitch that clearly articulates what benefits the client will receive by selecting you. The evaluators reading your bid, DPS or framework submission will want to know that you have a strong understanding of the project and an insight into the potential challenges. You also need to submit a high quality tender response – something our team of bid and tender writers here at Tsaks Consulting can help you achieve.
Taking advantage of technology in bids and tenders including AI writing
Technology in bids and tenders is very advanced and over the past year it has developed rapidly. Here at Tsaks Consulting, we have always been using bid libraries to ensure our clients can efficiently put together bids and tenders. Our bid library development program helps clients develop an efficient tender and bid writing process.
There has been an increase in AI tender writing software and its popularity over the past six months. Our view is that depending on the size of your organisation, the scope of tenders you bid for and your current capability, they offer great advantage although you need to be careful in selecting the correct software. Auto generated content is useful for developing an initial draft, just like using previous content from a bid library is. It’s important to find the right software and to tailor your bid to the specific opportunity. Our team of bid and tender writing consultants aren’t aligned with any specific software package. We can review your needs and provide you with independent advice on the best vale and most appropriate AI bid writing software for your needs.
Professional Tender and Bid Writing Services
Technology is helpful, however, you need quality bid writers to develop a tailored response with a winning strategy and win themes integrating throughout your bid. In-house resources are helpful and for many organisations, an in-house bid writer is a great asset that can deliver a quality bid or tender. If you don’t have a strong in-house capability, or you don’t bid for tenders that often and therefore can’t justify the cost, our team of experienced bid and tender writers in the UK can certainly assist.
When you engage us, you are engaging bid writers with experience across the UK including in London, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow, across all different industries from building and construction to health. Our professional bid writers quickly understand your business, communicate with your personnel and become part of your team. We bring strategies and methodologies which have been developed based on years of successful bid writing, as well as an insightful, transparent and energetic approach to help you win.
Bid writers from Tsaks Consulting (and nearly all bid writers for that matter), bring a unique blend of organisational skills and persuasive writing. Whether you need assistance with challenging questions, writing policies, or managing and writing an entire bid from start to finish, our tender writers can help.
Strategies and tips for bid development and writing
Before you start writing your bid or tender, you need to develop a strategy of how you will win it. Professional bid writers will ensure you develop a winning strategy from the start and that you integrate these key win themes throughout the bid. That’s what we do here at Tsaks Consulting. We recommend you:
- Read between the lines of the tender requirements and try to figure out what they are really concerned about. Ask yourself why they have asked certain questions and what their priorities may be.
- Based on your experience and expertise, as well as their priorities, develop your win themes. Be careful to look at win themes from the outside in and focus on what sets you apart from your competitors.
- Break down each question and develop a template response before actually writing the response. This is important. Some questions have multiple parts and you need to make sure you score well in each question. Write notes or points for each sub-question and then draft your response. This will ensure your response is comprehensive.
- Make sure your executive summary is direct and concise. You need to ensure it clearly details the key benefits you will deliver.
- Integrate evidence throughout your bid. This is also critical. You need to develop evidence-based content and avoid generic information or content. Instead, provide specific and relevant examples and our bid writers will work closely with you to draw out these examples and testimonials and ensure they are integrated into the bid. Getting started on gathering any supporting documentation, evidence and other information early is critical to ensuring you develop a quality bid.
Training and coaching for your bid writing team
It’s generally a good idea in the long term to develop your own in-house capabilities especially if you are a large organisation. This can help you write bids more efficiently and you only need to engage consultancies like us here at Tsaks Consulting when you have resource gaps or need expert help and advice.
Our team of bid writers can provide tailored tender and bid writing coaching to help ensure your team responses to frameworks, DPS and ITTs with professionalism and confidence. We also offer a bid review service. This is a great tool for business to get prior feedback on what they need to improve with their bid prior to submission. It also allows for information and knowledge transfer – upskilling your team and providing insights into strategies we adopt to help you win.
What to consider when selecting a bid writing consultancy to help you win government contracts?
Here at Tsaks Consulting UK, we provide a broad range of services to our clients from bid reviews to writing support and more. It depends on our clients situation and the assistance they require. We believe when selecting a bid writing consultancy like ours you should consider:
- Specific industry experience. Has the bid writing consultancy, and more importantly, the specific bid writing who will work on your bid, got experience in your industry?
- Specific framework experience. Has the bid writer got experience in writing bids to your specific PCBO (for example CCS or Yorhub)
- What capability gap do you need to fill? Do you need someone to take over and manage the entire bid or just keep things ticking along for a week while a key stakeholder is away?
- What is the current capacity of your team?
- Do you need help with strategy and project management or writing? These are often two different skillsets and you need to ensure the consultant you engage as experience in either or, or both.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I engage a bid writing consultant when the bid is released?
Yes – that’s generally a good idea. That way we can develop win themes and get everything organised straight away. Of course, if you have started the bid yourself and have got stuck, then feel free to give us a call at any stage of the process and we will assist.
There is also a lot you can do before the bid is released to prepare testimonials and collect evidence ready to include in the bid.
Are all businesses using freelance bid writers or bid writing consultancies?
No not all. Although many of our clients here at Tsaks Consulting are businesses you wouldn’t normally expect from across the UK. All of when have one objective – to win public sector tenders. Many of them engage us here at Tsaks Consulting UK for help after they have previously lost a bid or tender.
What is the best tender writing service in the UK?
This is a subjective question. Tsaks Consulting is a highly experienced bid and tender writing consultancy with a very high success rate and experience helping businesses fro
