Value propositions are nothing new, they’ve been around for a while, but not everyone knows the importance of having one, especially when it comes to writing your bid response! In this post, we’re going to dive into what value propositions are, the different types, why you should have one, what to include, and finally the 4 easy steps to write your value proposition. What Are Value Propositions? Simply put, value propositions are small statements that clearly explain what your company does and how it fills a need in your industry. It communicates the benefits of your product/service and shares ..read more

Did you know that researching the buyer can be just as important as reading all the tender documents? Not only does it help you understand how the buyer works, but it also allows you to pinpoint areas within your tender response that will meet, and exceed, their expectations/requirements. Why does that matter? Because it gives you a higher chance of winning the contract & can potentially help you deliver the works as well – if you know the buyer inside and out, you can ensure that the way you run the works aligns with their expectations, follows all their policies/procedures and that you l ..read more

The Strawman Proposal was developed as a hypothesis-driven, problem-solving technique. The idea of it is to create a draft version of your proposal for criticism and testing, and then use the feedback to make any necessary improvements to help create a rock-solid proposal. But How Can This Be Used in Bid Writing? Often used in a rhetorical sense, ‘strawman’ refers to a figure made of straw – easy to pull apart, destroy, and rebuild. The Strawman Proposal concerns itself with the potential improvements, innovations, or adjustments based on an original draft. This technique can be used to help y ..read more

Are you an SME in the public sector looking to make your first bid? This guide to bidding will cover all things from what a bid is to top tips and bid feedback! So, What is a Bid? A bid is a tender, proposal, or quotation submitted in response to a request from a Contracting Authority. By law, Government agencies are required to issue bids publicly whenever they are in need of a specific product or service. Tenders come in various forms, including Requests for Information (RFI), Requests for Proposals (RFP), and Requests for Quotations (RFQ). The bidding process means that a transparent and fa ..read more

Do you want a career that varies and allows you to be creative, whilst also working collaboratively with a wide range of people? Start a career in bid writing! Specialising in bids and tenders can offer an amazing long-term progressive career for the right people. What are the Responsibilities of a Bid Writer? Before you start a career in bid writing, it’s a good idea to understand some of the roles and responsibilities you would be expected to complete on a day-to-day basis. Bid writers can wear many different hats, depending on the type of bid they’re working on, but on a typical day their t ..read more

Ensuring that you’re bidding for the right tenders and making appropriate bid decisions for your business can be difficult, particularly when you’re new to bidding. There’s plenty of advice swirling around if you want to start streamlining your processes and getting on top of the procedures necessary to make great bid decisions to win more work successfully for your business. But is it all smart advice? Here, we aim to guide you through the acres of advice on making informed bid decisions, and the key information you need to engage with the bidding process in an experienced and consistent way ..read more

Climate change is becoming a large focus throughout the world, and each year the UK Government spends £300B of taxpayers’ money working with thousands of suppliers that assist in supplying a wide variety of goods, services, and works across the United Kingdom. Isn’t it about time that there was a legal obligation for public bodies to ensure that the works they contract for have a positive impact on the environment? What is Climate Change? Climate Change refers to a long-term shift in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, but since the 1800s, human activities have been ..read more

If you’re new to bidding finding a relevant tender, or responding to your first bid, can be quite daunting! We’ve put together a 2 part SME guide that covers the basics of what you need to know and some helpful tips to get you started. What are Bids and Tenders? A bid is a tender, proposal, or quotation submitted in response to a request from a Contracting Authority. By law, Government agencies are required to issue bids publicly whenever they need a specific product or service. Tenders come in various forms, including Requests for Information (RFI), Requests for Proposals (RFP), and Requests ..read more

Sitting down to write your value proposition can be quite daunting. To try and take this feeling away from you, we’ve been sharing our knowledge across blogs, and social media, in the hopes of making you feel more comfortable in all aspects before you start. Step One: Your Company Within bid writing, you always have to write as if the company running the tender has never heard of you before – 9/10 this is the case, which is where a value proposition can be extremely useful. We’ve mentioned this step in previous blogs, but it is one of the most important ones. You need to be able to explain you ..read more

Working to deadlines can be overwhelming, especially if there’s a tight turnaround on a bid. There are a few things you can put into place, internally, to help ensure your bid submission runs as smoothly as possible. In-House Deadlines: Writing a bid submission can involve multiple members of your team, sometimes you can’t write an answer without information from another person and that can set your timeline back a little bit. To ensure this doesn’t happen, give your team a deadline to get the information to you! Best practice would be to set a deadline for when you want each question to be fu ..read more