At Tsaks Consulting UK, we help businesses across the UK win mini-competitions, contract call-offs, and other secondary tender opportunities when they are already on public frameworks. We have helped over 268 businesses win mini competitions and grow revenue after they have been appointed to public frameworks.
By Jason Cooney, Director and lead bid writer, Tsaks Consulting UK
Challenges businesses face in converting frameworks into work
Many of our clients find getting revenue out of a framework challenging. That’s because although they win a framework and they’re appointed onto the framework, they still are not successful when it comes to call-offs and winning the actual secondary competitions.
For example, we’ve got IT firms, small UK SMEs, even facility management companies, very large facilities management companies who have been successfully appointed to frameworks (all the different types of frameworks: CCS, NHS, Pagabo). However, once they actually win and are appointed to the framework, they are challenged in terms of getting work out of it.
In this article we are going to explore different ways and strategies that small businesses and large businesses that are already on frameworks can use in order to win CCS mini competitions and win secondary tenders and call-offs in the UK so that they can get revenue from frameworks.
Why winning secondary competitions is different.
When you are bidding in a secondary competition, your strategy needs to be different to when you are bidding to actually be appointed to the framework. For example. when you are appointed to a major framework such as CCS or some type of regional purchasing hub, you are competing against competitors who haven’t been screened.
Once you then start competing in secondary competitions and many competitions with CCS, Pagabo and many of the others, you’re actually competing against 20 other approved suppliers. That means they are already approved, they already have the skill set, they already have the expertise, and they already have the experience. It’s a much tougher playing field and you really need to be unique, strategic, and innovative in order to secure work.
What is different about call-off bids?
- Call-off bids are faster and have much shorter turnaround times. Even though you’ve got sometimes six weeks to two months to complete a framework application, when you’re working on a call-off bid you may need to complete it within five to 10 days. That means that you need to have an organized content strategy. You need to have easy access to your information and you need to have an internal process and procedure to be able to create and put forward a quality application in five to 10 days.
- There is a very localized focus in call-offs. That means that even though you’re already on the framework in the call-off, it’s going to be generally about a specific project or a project in a certain local government area. You need to ensure that you tailor all your bid in the call-off or in the mini-competition to the local area and run through in detail the local supply chain. You need to show how you’re going to deal with any localized issues and challenges and site-specific risks that may come up in the project. You need to demonstrate that you’ve thought through not only the services that you provide but also the unique challenges of a specific project or service in the context of the local area or regional area which you will be operating in.
- There’s also the social value aspect. In a mini-competition or in a call-off, whether it be with CCS or another framework organization, your social value needs to be specific. If you’re bidding for a contract in Manchester, for example, then you’re not going to start talking about local value and community organizations that you’re going to support in London. You need to have thought through the challenges that are facing the local area and, from a social value perspective, put in quantified and achievable objectives for what you’re looking to achieve and where and how you will assist from a social value perspective as a result of the tender. Make sure you localize your social value response.
What you can do to win more mini competitions or call-offs and increase your bid win rate all across the UK, irrespective of which framework you’re on.
- Create a modular library that is easy to use and fast. The reality is there’s often a very short amount of time to respond to call-offs in mini competitions. That means that you need to have your bid library handy and updated. You can potentially use AI or you can use Microsoft Word or whatever software platform you want. The reality is that you have to constantly refine all of your technical responses, ensure that they’re pre-approved, have case studies that are relevant to the local area and also the types of services you’re providing, and include them in the documentation whenever you have asked for it. You also need to ensure that all your clients’ compliance documentation is up-to-date. This helps you firstly free up time so that you can quickly put a response together and start tailoring it. It also ensures that you’ve got a consistent quality within your call-off and mini competition bids. More often than not, the same people in the procurement teams at Pagabo or any others will be reviewing all of your call-offs and mini competitions. You always want to give a good quality impression and put good bids forward.
- Pre-market engagement. It’s important that when there’s no tender on at the current time, you take the time to engage and develop relationships with the framework personnel. That’s very important because the procurement team and the buyers within the framework give you the opportunity to provide feedback and provide input. You can put forward any issues or concerns or suggestions which support your case when your competition is released. You can give a professional impression to procurement personnel who will surely be potentially reading your complete submissions and bids.
- Whole of life value. It’s critical that you focus on whole of life value. When you’re putting forward, even in the corner for a mini competition, solutions that show innovation, they also show how you save money for the client over the long term. This shows that:
- You’re not trying to gouge the client and just put the cheapest price forward with more expensive maintenance costs or other costs in two, three, four, or five years’ time.
- It shows the client that you’re on their side.
- It shows that you’ve thought through the implications and explains any of the high pricing that you may have.
It actually helps to justify any higher pricing because you’ve explained the whole of life cost value.
Our team here at Tsaks Consulting in the UK has helped many, many clients who have been appointed to frameworks but haven’t been successful in actually winning any work, winning any call-offs, or winning any mini competitions and so forth. We’ve helped them win contracts with actual work and jobs with CCS, Pagabo, YorHub, and many of the different framework providers.
The critical point we’ve noticed is that preparing the bid and tailoring the bid is critical even for a mini competition. It’s simply not a matter of becoming complacent and saying, “Okay look, we’ve gone on the framework for London and we’re going win work.” Well, it doesn’t work like that. Although getting on the framework, any framework across the UK (London, Manchester, Birmingham, wherever it may be), is a fantastic achievement and really sets you up to drive revenue. What you need to do is focus your energy and time on the mini competitions in an intense short period to ensure that you do bring work in and you do secure revenue and grow revenue for your business.
When to get help from our expert bid and tender writers here at Tsaks Consulting UK
If you have an urgent requirement for bid writing help anywhere in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, or anywhere across the UK. Alternatively you’re looking for an intern bid writer that can come in and really assist you in terms of building a bid library or preparing better quality mini competition responses or contract call-off responses and bids. Give our team here at Tsaks Consulting UK a call.
First of all, we can act as a force multiplier so we can beef up your team quickly and get across your business straight away. We can also help in terms of actually helping you implement the strategies to win revenue once you’re on a framework and win more call-offs and mini competitions once you’re actually on the framework so that your business makes more money.
Call our team here at Tsaks Consulting to talk about how we can help you win your next mini competition.