Before you spend hours drafting a tender response, make sure the tender is really right for your business and ensure you've got all the tools you need. This quick guide will help you in deciphering a tender.
1. Planning
- Find the right opportunities
Australian Tenders brings all the current, future and awarded tenders published around Australia and New Zealand into one system, giving you that single source of truth. With a multiplicity of tender notification services available, you want a service you can trust, a well-designed alert system supported by a hard-working team who care for the growth of your business; that’s us! Our service means you don't have to scour the newspapers and internet for new contracts and tenders, leaving you more time to get the job done.
- Go into the process focused and committed to seeing it through
Before you commit, it’s essential to take a long hard look at your business capability and ask yourself if it’s ready to take the massive step into tendering. Our recommendation is to trust your gut. Only you know your business well enough to answer this question. Don’t be afraid to seek professional advice and support at this stage because a bit of investment at this stage can reap significant gains if you win.
2. No Detail Too Small
- Read the tender in full
The heading and summary might look perfect for your business; however, the devil is in the detail. Make sure to take notes and read through the document thoroughly to ensure this job is within your business’ capabilities. Ultimately, you want to understand the requirements of this tender inside and out to be sure it’s worth your precious time and resources.
Ask yourself, “Do we bid or not bid?”
- Evaluation Criteria
Read the evaluation section of the tender to understand what you will be measured on.
3. Know your pricing structure
- Understand what makes up your business's pricing
Having a clear understanding of the differences between value and price will help you present this in your response. Research awarded tenders in similar industries and know who your competitors are to see if your business is competitive price-wise.
4. Register your interest
Once you’re confident this is the right job for you and your business, make sure to register your interest with the buyer. Late tender submissions are never accepted, so our advice is to put the dates in your calendar now!
It’s also always good practice to keep note of any briefings, such as site inspections and meetings, and add these to your calendar as well while you’re at it.
5. Answer the question
- The essential part “writing the response”
Be sure to complete all the requirements in the tender.
Use an active voice and adopt a persuasive and confident tone to demonstrate your capability and professionalism. Also, try to get straight to the point with your answer and only include relevant concise information.
Answer every question; do not refer to other questions for the answer as more than one person is likely to be evaluating the response. They may not have that other answer in their pack!
If you don’t know the answer to a question – don’t ignore it, but instead ask the buyer for clarification.
During a tender process, there may come a time when buyers and contractors request a capability statement. Start a Capability Statement that states what your business can do and what makes your business unique from its competitors. If you’re new to this process, we’ve got you covered; check out our ultimate guide to writing Capability Statements.
Make sure you address each of these evaluation criteria in your response.
- Prove you’re in it to win it
Back up your answers with evidence; this can be photos’ licenses, CV’s, policies & procedures, testimonials or reference sites.
6. Review
- A second pair of eyes
There’s nothing wrong with getting a second pair of eyes to go over your work. When it comes to this stage, it’s always good to receive feedback and be open to criticism. The last thing you want is to claim you pride yourself on your attention to detail, then submit a tender response with typos.
We have many useful blogs to help you on the tendering journey, some of which we have linked above, but you can check out the rest of our blogs here.
