More than $30 billion is being spent through the bidding process in Australia, yet many companies downplay their opportunities to reap the rewards of generating profitable contracts. I have seen many companies that are too busy responding to bids to stop and look for ways to start winning bids. I have asked many companies about their strategy for responding to particular bids, only to find that there have been none. I have asked companies what criteria they used to determine which bids they should respond to, only to find again that there are none. This is not a good start for any bid, especially when we consider how many hours should be spent submitting a bid.

It’s important to recognize that a winning submission is the end result of a chain of events done well. This chain begins with the offer selection process and ends with the final presentation before a bidding board.

Why is a bid presentation the most important sales document you will ever write? It is easy. The document you submit is the only basis on which the buyer can make a decision and judge your business on its ability to deliver the requested result. In other sales situations, you can follow up on a proposal with a phone call and discuss any areas the buyer isn’t quite sure about. Being able to follow up on a proposal also gives you more opportunities to sell the benefits of your company’s products or services. However, in a bidding situation, the document has to sell all aspects of the project and offer better solutions than the competition.

The 1st element – Existing Relationships When responding to offers, you must identify whether you are the right candidate for the contract being offered. There is no point in answering if you do not have a clear understanding of the company or organization requesting the tender. It is important to gather information about the offers available in your industry. This will give you valuable information and insight into the potential market, who your competitors are, and what current solutions buyers are looking for. Depending on the industry, many bids are recurring and constantly resubmitted, so you can prepare to respond more effectively to future bids. This also allows you to educate and inform as well as build a relationship with potential clients which drastically improves your chances of being invited to bid.

A great source of information on bids are notification companies who can provide you with bid information specific to your industry, which is easily accessible on the Internet.

The second element – Be one of the few answers Many bids are won before they are published. When a company publicly requests an expression of interest, it has already personally invited others based on past relationships to bid on a future project. These organizations will typically look at 3-5 vendors to determine who will be the best provider of a solution. They will then publish the tender to open the response to other potential vendors in the market. If you’ve been invited to bid, your chances of winning are dramatically increased because the organization that asked you to respond understands your capabilities to deliver on projects. Therefore, from a strategic point of view, it is important to build relationships that add value to potential prospects in the market.

The third element – Does the tender follow your marketing strategy? One of the key questions to ask yourself in your bidding process is what are the other opportunities around a bid? For example, if a company was looking for a recruitment firm to consult on developing systems and processes to help develop its HR capabilities, then the company also needs executive recruitment assistance as an additional service. This would be outside of the original request for offer and may be one of several opportunities available for additional work. Another question to consider is whether the tender will produce a strong strategic alliance. This means that by getting involved with a company, can they open the door for you to do business with their customers or other areas of the same company and can they use their expertise to add value to their customers? This will drastically improve your chances of dealing with like-minded companies.

The fourth element: is your bidding team resourced and available? As mentioned above, an offer is the most important sales document you’ll ever write. To maximize your opportunity, you need to be prepared to respond efficiently and effectively. You must clearly differentiate your service and process, and you must prioritize the offer appropriately to meet the submission deadline. You must have selection criteria that determine whether you are ready and able to respond and whether the offer matches your delivery capabilities. It’s also important to improve your team’s writing skills so you can communicate effectively in your submission. Allow additional staff or help when you bid or bring in outside assistance to help you put together your document. You’ll need all the help you can get to meet a big project deadline.

The 5th element – Have 75% of your document ready before launch You can create a template for most of your documents before a bid is published. This will drastically improve your responsiveness, as you can have the following items prepared in advance:

• Your mission statement
• Company Background
• Executive Summary
• Referees and testimony
• Current business activities
• financial statements
• Security and health at work
• Quality Assurance Certificates
• training programs

The presentation of the proposal must already be decided and designed. There must be a management process for your document. Your cover page, tabs, diagrams, and text layout should be prepared in advance and have an image library available that has templated graphics for use in your documents.

The 6th element – Do you have a competitive advantage? It is important to identify your competitive advantage in your offer. There must be a clear indication of what makes your company an obvious candidate to win the contract. Things to consider when listing that show what sets you apart from your competitors are: you may have specialized services; its distribution systems are state-of-the-art; the experience of his team is highly technical; your service is geared towards solving the frustrations people have with your industry; and can provide extensive backup and support beyond the standards. A key consideration may be, by using their services, that you will reduce your costs and contribute to your bottom line. Part of their point of difference is their pricing policy. The following are issues to consider:

• Eliminate marketing expenses unrelated to pricing
• Consider the lifetime value of the customer, not just the offer itself
• Consider the value of more sales opportunities arising from existing relationships
• Consider the strategic advantages of external relations

The 7th Element – Clearly articulate your understanding of buyer culture, requirements and value in the presented solution Five things that can dramatically demonstrate your understanding of customer needs:

1. Write in a way that reflects the culture of the acquiring company (use their terminology and style in your writing)
2. Clearly articulate your understanding of the requirements and demonstrate that you have the ideal solution
3. Articulate your value for money
4. Demonstrate your compliance and non-compliance
5. Write in the same order as the specs (Q&A approach)

Five ways to avoid making blunders:

1. Failing in the ability to do the job, without including case studies or referees to illustrate competence.
2. Trying to teach the buyer a lesson (you already have an idea of ​​what you want, so stick with it)
3. Criticizing the bidding requirements
4. Not answering questions or submitting pages backwards and misspellings
5. Submit a bid after your deadline

The 8th element – Presentation and Submission To set your document apart from your competitors, you need to look different from others – you want them to be attracted to your document. Here are 7 things to consider:

1. Take your offer out of the stack first – use your images to reflect your corporate brand so the document represents them (if you use their images and logos, be sure to get permission from the buyer to do so)
2. Reflect the design of the tender documents
3. Show a level of commitment to win within the presentation
4. Keep your readers interested visually (use flowcharts, images, and graphs throughout the document)
5. Make it easy to find specific sections of the document (use tabs to separate different sections)
6. Have color testimonials with photos on file for digital printing
7. Use digital printing to enhance the presentation of your document and use quality paper for printing (laminate the covers and use paper that enhances the photographic quality of your images)

The Ninth Element – Your ability to deliver This is very important – make sure you can fulfill the contract. This includes meeting budgets, distribution, service and technology. If there are additional costs involved outside of bidding, be sure to clearly articulate the possibilities for the potential to increase investment and the procedures for doing so. Remember that this is a legally binding contract, so be sure to double check everything before handing over your document.

The Tenth Element – More Bidding and Sales Opportunities Evaluate the value of ongoing relationships with the organization, such as its credibility for the next bid and other sales opportunities that arise from within. By providing a high level of service throughout the contract, this will dramatically improve your chances of renewal. For consistency, please submit ongoing reports with the same level of commitment as your bidding document. This should be pretty easy since you have all the information from your research. Bidding is an exciting game that can generate an enormous amount of business, whether you are a small or medium business or a large corporation. The point here is that preparation and strategy are the keys to a winning bid.