So, you’ve got a tender that looks just right for your business and want to give it a shot. If it’s your first tender submission, you’re probably wondering how to go about it, if you’ve got the time and energy to put into it, and whether you should just get an expert to do the hard work for you.
Writing a tender that ticks all of the boxes can be a pretty complex business, and it’s not just about answering questionnaires or filling in forms. It’s about constructing a rational and compliant submission that tells an incredible story about your business so you can win that lucrative contract.
10 Reasons to Get Professional Help
If you choose to go down writing the tender response the DIY route, well done to you and good luck — here are some tips that will help you do a great job.
But if your writing skills are a bit on the ordinary side, here are ten reasons why we think you should use the services of a professional tender writer.
1. Tenders can be Intricate Documents
For this reason, your response needs to showcase your expertise, experience, and, of course, your proven track record. Mass amounts of documents usually come along with the tender pack.
So, a professional tender response writer can evaluate which of those documents need to be included in the response and whether there’s any tricky stuff lurking in the depths of the requirements.
2. It’s Time-Consuming to Write Them
Typically, a professional tender writer will complete your submission much faster than most business owners for whom writing is not a core skill. Completing a full tender is very time-consuming if you have to do it yourself.
Tender writers are very experienced in the terminologies used in a wide variety of complex tender submissions, including Government and Corporate tenders.
3. Great Value for Your Money
Once a professional tender writer has completed your tender, you’ll have a well-written document that you can use parts of in your response for your next tender.
Typically, you should be able to use around 50% to 70% of the existing text to cut and paste into your new tender. That means great value for your money as you can reuse the text over and over again.
4. It’s Reusable
You can use a big chunk of that information that the professional tender response writer had put together for other purposes, such as advertising and sales materials, brochures, flyers, websites, etc.
That represents more savings as you no longer have to make a separate investment for all those purposes.
5. Writing Tenders Requires Skills and Experience
Creating awesome tenders requires the skills and experience of an excellent and professional tender writer.
Depending on the frequency of your need to create tender responses, you can hire an internal tender writer dedicated to doing tenders, or you can outsource someone with such skills and expertise on a per-need basis, like TenderWise.
6. Tenders have to be Compliant
A professional tender writer ensures that your tender complies with each Request for Tender (RFT) requirement. Failure to adhere to these requirements is the major reason why many tenders don’t make it on the first attempt.
If no one within your organisation has this expertise, investing in a professional tender response writer might be a good idea.
7. A Professional Tender Writer can Complete all Documents
Most tenders want to see evidence of your Health & Safety, Environmental and Quality Management Systems. If you don’t already have these, a professional writer can usually get the full suite of documentation for you that’s aligned with all of the required ISO standards.
8. They Need Trained Eyes to Review and Proofread
Aside from writing, tenders need to be reviewed and proofread thoroughly by a set of trained eyes. The review process performed by a professional tender response writer can be the difference between a winning and a losing submission.
Without this process, you are at risk of non-compliance and other errors that could easily cost you the bid.
9. Ultimately, it's all about establishing teamwork.
The professional tender writers' first task is to understand your business. Secondly, they will know why you think you should win. They will bring you invaluable objectivity that internal personnel could have without bias. Since this is the case, they will be able to challenge you to identify facts to support your answers for each question accurately.
10. It’s Cost-Efficient
In the words of Red Adair, the world-famous oil well firefighter – “if you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, hire an amateur”, and see how much that costs you.
My Final Thoughts
If you would like to make sure to make the most out of your investment for your winning tender submission, TenderWise can help.
We've written loads of winning tenders across a wide range of industry sectors, including cleaning tenders, construction tenders, professional services tenders, security tenders, and more. We can help you, too. Just give Pauline a call or a chat on 0400 514579, email me at pauline@tenderwise.com.au or contact us here.
Want to know what my clients say about my services? Check them out here.