New Blog Site

We've been busy over the winter period and have decided to move our blog to a dedicated website www.win-tenders.co.uk

Please have a look and feel free to add any comments.

Responding to Tender Questions (Part 2)

Some more tips on how to respond to tenders. NB do also see Responding to Tender Questions (Part 1).

Use the evaluation criteria
Most public sector tenders (and many corporate tenders) will provide you an evaluation criteria ie how they are going to score your response eg

• 30% price
• 60% method statements
• 10% presentation / site visits

This will often be broken down into more detail. Use this to see where you should be concentrating your efforts - in the example above you can see that method statements are more important than just being the cheapest.

You don't always receive this with the tender but do ask for it!

Innovation
Very few organisations want to stand still, they want to do better; this is why showing how you can bring new ideas to a contract is important. In this fast-moving world, things are always changing so innovation also demonstrates that you are flexible and capable of providing more than a 'me too' solution.

Added value
Customers are always looking to get a better deal so adding value is always going to be an important part of your bid. This means offering more 'value for money' NOT being cheaper eg you may be able to add a service to your bid that costs you little or nothing but saves your customer money... this will interest them!

Differentiation
Innovation and added value also help you stand out from the crowd. If they receive five bids that are all very similar but you have shown new ideas, improvements and added value then you are increasing your chances of success.

Alternative bid?
You need to be careful with this and make sure that:

1. you do submit a compliant bid first
2. your alternative bid shows benefit to the customer - not just convenience for you

A client had a great example of this: the tender specification of a component had a lifespan of 10 years but our client showed that for 20% extra cost, a better quality component would last 20 years - that's a saving worth having! (They won the contract.)


Some more to come soon...

Your thoughts or comments are always appreciated.

Responding to Tender Questions (Part 1)

The next few blogs will be looking at how to respond to questions in tenders, PQQs, RFPs etc.

Here are some real basic must-dos - these relate to the earlier blog Tenders and PQQs - Most Common Mistakes

Answer all the questions
Simply put - don't leave any gaps. If you do, you cannot get marked and that means zero points / no score.

Answer the question
Don't fudge an answer - if you are not sure then ask. Also check that you have really answered what is being asked.

Tell the truth!
It's often tempting to give the answer that is expected eg: "Is your company ISO: 9001 accredited?" Too many companies have responded: "The company is in the process of getting 9001 accreditation". Buyers know this normally translates to "No and no intention of getting it unless you really push me".

Therefore give a positive response by adding when it is due to be completed (if you really are in the process) or state that you do not have 9001 but do have quality processes in place / would be willing to get it... or just say no. NB if it is a mandatory requirement, then you may just have to pull out.

Provide all the information requested
Double check that everything is included - buyers cannot give good marks to nothing. A typical issue here is not enclosing correct company accounts, insurance documents or policies etc.

Keep to the point
Make sure that you are really answering the question and be concise. Copying and pasting a similar question without prudent editing can often lead to meandering and inaccurate answers... again risking low scores.


More to follow soon on this important topic...

As always, any thoughts or comments are always appreciated.

Planning for Tenders and PQQs

All too frequently we receive a desperate phone call from someone asking for help when the tender or PQQ is due in tomorrow! Even if we had any capacity, there really isn't enough time to do a professional job.

Here are some simple tips on planning ahead:

Start early!
The earlier you start, the more time you have. Also getting started early takes away some of the pressure of the task looming ahead.

Start a bid file
Get everything you need in one place for easy access and reference. This will save time in future.

Plan & project manage
Setting timescales and making sure they are met will help you meet deadlines.

Read the ITT & instructions (TWICE)
You can easily miss things first time around so always re-read. Also get other members of your team to read to make sure you have not missed or misunderstood anything.

Check commercial conditions
Firstly you need to make sure you are happy signing up to their contract. Secondly there may be some important information hidden away in the conditions eg monthly meetings or service level agreements (you may need to respond to these in your tender submission).

Create check list
1. Requirements - what's needed?
2. Deadlines - by when?
3. Responsibilities - who's doing what?

Try to understand what they really want
Most tenders want 'best quality' and 'best value for money' but what else is required? A bit of research may reveal what they really want to achieve - if you can show understanding and then meet this, you stand a far better chance of success.

Research prospect & competitors
More understanding of the prospect and the competition always helps!

Big bids take time & money!
Be aware of this so make sure you have the resources and if necessary...

Re-qualify?
Is this right for you? See previous blogs:
Win More Tenders by Qualifying Them
Win More Tenders by Qualifying Part 2

Aim to finish early
Planning to finish early gives you some contingency if things go wrong! But more more importantly it allows time to give the submission the 'overnight test' ie leave it and read it again the next day when your mind is fresh - this is when you will see all the little mistakes and areas or improvement.

Any more ideas?

Free Access to supply2.gov.uk Tenders Website

The Government has announced that it will scrap the subscription fee for small businesses to view public sector procurement contracts on its supply2.gov.uk website.

BIS said that firms will now be able to access tenders advertised on the website without having to pay a £180 annual charge. The free service would be "an interim step" toward introducing a single website for all public sector contracts in 2010.

My personal experience of using this has not been great and feedback from clients is not very positive. However, I understand that the supply2 team are helpful if you phone them and so I always recommend to clients to make contact to see if they can make the service work better for them.

I'd love to hear about your experiences - good or bad...

Win More Tenders by Qualifying (Part 2)

Talking to a number of clients recently, a phrase came to mind that sums up one of the most important elements of selecting what tenders to bid for:

"Can we win it?" NOT "Can we do it?"

If you look at the previous Blog on qualifying, it shows the key steps to take - you really have to be realistic... You may well be able to carry out the work required in the tender BUT really, what are your chances of winning it?

Qualifying bids out can be hard as you may feel you are limiting your opportunities but if you do it well, you are just freeing up valuable resources to do something more profitable - maybe creating one really good bid rather than three mediocre bids or simply going home on time tonight?

How to Find Public Sector Tenders for Free

UK private sector companies are not obliged to say when they are tendering. So the only way to find out is by good old fashioned sales methods.

However, pubic sector organisations (eg councils, government and agencies), public funded bodies (eg housing associations, NHS and quangos) and utilities (ex public) all have to advertise their larger tender contract opportunities.

You can pay a service that will check for suitable opportunities and will alert you. This isn't too expensive and is a boon for companies that are tendering frequently.

However, our website shows you how to find pubic sector tenders for free using TED and supply2.gov

If you are new to tendering and want to assess what's out there, or if you are tendering less frequently, it's not hard to do your own searching - and it's free.

There are many other portals like:

www.london2012.com for 2012
www.businessportal.southeastiep.gov.uk for SE councils

If you know other - maybe you could add them?