Parallel Thinking

Public sector industries tend to be under a great deal of social scrutiny, particularly when it comes to environmental factors or legislative considerations which are ingrained in the public sector, such as health and safety. It is essential in public sector tendering that your bid highlights your strengths in these areas, and that you share the same core values which are of importance to the client.

A strong organisational fit between the client and contractor is vital, especially during evaluation stages. The contractor’s ability to work well and integrate with the client’s approach can have a strong influence on the ultimate success of the bid.

MEAT

Although the bottom line price will always play a significant role in bidding success, it should not be confused with value. Public sector organisations are under a magnifying glass of scrutiny, and rightfully, must justify spending taxpayer’s money. By stipulating MEAT as the goal in selecting a contractor, public sector clients can navigate around being forced to accept the lowest price in favour of inferior work. MEAT stands for Most Economically Advantageous Tender and essentially translates to value for money. When it comes to big contracts, it’s not how much the client wants to spend that counts, but what they can successfully achieve with their budget.

It goes without saying that the contract should be equally economically viable for the contractor – and projects should always be realistically deliverable and profitable first and foremost.

Backup

Public sector contracts tend to be high value, large scale projects, and with big investment comes big asks. It’s essential that you can demonstrate relevant experience, describing the skills of the people attached to the project. From senior management through to the operations team on the ground, the bid should effectively demonstrate what you are bringing to the table and the added value that comes with your team.
At the end of the day, the highest scoring bid wins the tender, and at Win That Bid, we’re all about winning – it’s what we do best. As the UK’s biggest bid writing and tender process specialists, our experts have extensive experience in construction and civil engineering projects in both public and private sector work. Our bid management team can guide you through all stages of the process, from initial tender selection right through to the final bid presentation. Get in touch for more information by calling 020 3405 1850 – and visit our site to learn more about our bid services.

Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has recently stated that The National Infrastructure Plan (NIP) for the next 20 years will include an investment of £375bn in construction and civil engineering projects. In addition, the insurance industry also plans to spend £25bn over the next five years.

Tendering for the projects included in this investment will be fierce and winning the contracts will go beyond merely attempting to undercut the competition with price. The successful bids will deliver a proposal that highlights how your organisation can offer the best solution, inspiring confidence that you can deliver on budget and to programme, with innovative and sustainable solutions.

Stand Out From The Crowd

When attempting to bid for contracts within an industry as competitive as construction, it’s essential to differentiate from the competition to ensure that your bid stands out. By examining the core competencies of your business and its competitors, Win that Bid can identify, develop and isolate the key reasons why your business is better than the rest.

It’s All In The Details

In order to maximise your success rate on the bids your company decides to submit, it is essential to examine the requirements, and ensure that each question and its required detail is addressed. From the initial planning through to the drafting and review of each response, a detailed Bid Management Plan is a key element of a successful proposal document. The Plan will assist in mapping out your plan to meet the client’s needs, and will also functions as a visual demonstration to the client that all of their requirements have been met.

To be successful with your bids, being thorough is non-negotiable as it is very easy to miss vital elements of a question. However, bids do not always arrive at the right time from clients. You could be busy with current contracts, have insufficient resources or just not enough time, but if it is a targeted bid, you still need to complete the documents professionally Win That Bid specialise in giving businesses the resources and extra capacity to get a winning proposal put together in time.

Match Your Capabilities

It’s important to remember that the bidding process is a two-way street and, as much as a client may get to choose which company to employ to develop their project; the client must also be a good fit for your business. Whilst it is wise to focus your efforts on bidding for contracts that concentrate on your strengths, it is tempting to try and diversify your portfolio. It is important to select the right schemes to avoid wasting your time and potentially leave you with less business.

At Win That Bid, our APMP qualified team are experts in the bidding process and our Project Intelligence team identify projects that are an ideal fit for our clients. With extensive experience in construction and civil engineering projects, we can help your company secure your next construction contract and benefit from the significant planned investment.. As the UK’s biggest bid writing and tender process specialists, our experts can prepare and write proposals that are proven to win contracts for both UK and international projects. Get in touch for more information by calling 020 3405 1850 – and visit our site to learn more about our bid services.

Embarking upon a new business prospect can be daunting – but it shouldn’t be. The key is to deliver a pitch that gives your prospective client or customer no choice but to accept, and the fact of the matter is that there really is a formula for winning bids. Writing outstanding proposals takes a wealth of business acumen and a great deal of character – and we have all the techniques you’ll need for maximum impact.

Behold the ultimate guide to effective proposal writing.

Rule #1: Romance them.

One of the most important things to remember when constructing a winning proposal is that your future clients want to hear everything they already know about themselves, coming from you. Start by giving them the full preliminary research treatment so that you are going into this with all the facts.

By knowing not only what they are and what they want but also what they need to progress in their industry, you can push all the right buttons and create an instant feeling of being understood.

Rule #2: Take ‘no’ off the table.

This may seem somewhat obvious, but presenting your future clients with a proposal that refuses to take ‘no’ for an answer is an excellent way of avoiding having to take ‘no’ for an answer. This is easier than you might think – the key is to close your proposal with a feeling that what you are offering them poses only benefits and they’d be very foolish to pass on your business. Profitability is what is really going to sell your offering.

Rule #3: Show them the money.

Repeat: profitability is what is really going to sell your offering. As a business professional, you will of course know that money talks – and the same is true when writing your business proposal. For all flattery and strategising may prove effective persuasive tools, there’s nothing that tempts prospective clients like monetary benefits. If the bottom line of your pitch really stresses to them that you’re going to make them a more profitable business, how can any they possibly turn you down?

Rule #4: Shut off the conveyor belt.

While it may be somewhat tempting to recycle elements of previous proposals during the bid writing process, you should at all costs avoid giving any desirable client a conveyor belt proposal – put simply, an impersonal copy & paste job. Sprinkling your proposal with personal touches and demonstrating a real understanding of their values and goals is a guaranteed way to keep them reading. It is a universal truth that everyone’s favourite word is their own name – and the same is true of businesses. Switch out multi-purpose mission statements for genuine brand knowledge and you will have one very engaged reader.

Rule #5: Create urgency.

Of course it’s true that whoever you are writing a proposal for is the object of your desire – at least for the duration of the bid writing process – but it certainly doesn’t hurt to be bold, even in the midst of your pitch. The idea is to (subtly) suggest that this is a time-sensitive offer which has a very real expiry date – and subsequently persuade them to take action as quickly as possible. Approaching a business proposal with this kind of confidence is a very smart move which could put you in a powerful position.

Rule #6: Be their hero.

And last but not least, the ultimate business proposal strategy is to establish yourself as a problem solver. Identify the obstacles the company faces and then instantly address ways to overcome them (backed up with actionable strategies and measurable targets). If they can see that you know exactly where they are lacking and can fill in those gaps quickly and successfully, you can just about guarantee that you win that bid.

At Win that Bid, we’re experts in bid writing and can help you secure your dream contracts. By writing positively irresistible proposals, you can engage and win potential clients with ease – and we’ll get you there.

As guests of The British Ambassador, Win That Bid attended The British Embassy, Qatar to celebrate the Queen’s Birthday.  Their Excellencies Major General Hamad bin Ali Al-Attiyah, Minister of State for Defence and Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry, joined the Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP the British Secretary of State for Defence, British Ambassador, Nicholas Hopton and over one thousand guests of the British Embassy, in celebrating the Birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

In attendance were members of the British and Qatari communities, the Diplomatic Corps and international business and government, media guests, plus teachers from the British schools in Qatar, along with British Embassy and British Council staff, which also celebrated the strong partnerships between the UK and Qatar.

Guests were kept entertained by the talents of the Doha military band, Doha Jazz and the UK’s visiting Urban Playground parkour team (who will also be appearing at Souq Waqif over the weekend), as well as live painting by British artist Rachel Gadsden.

The UK’s Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said:

It is my great pleasure to return to Qatar today and to be here in the company of so many of our Qatari friends to celebrate the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Qatar and the UK have a long and historic partnership, which the UK values greatly. We have worked closely together for many decades now, including on active service in Libya in 2011, and I was delighted today to be able to discuss with HH the Emir and HE the Minister of State for Defence Affairs ways in which to strengthen the long term defence partnership between our two nations.

Ambassador Nicholas Hopton said:

The Queen’s Birthday Party is a chance for us to celebrate our important partnership with Qatar and to thank our Qatari friends and the wider community who have worked in support of our bilateral partnership. Many of our guests here work tirelessly to improve the close relationships between our two countries, whether through increased trade, education, health or cultural links. Over the last year, the bilateral relationship between Qatar and the UK has gone from strength to strength. We saw over 80 cultural events take place in 2013 as part of the Qatar/UK year of culture. And this month, through events organised by the British Embassy and the British Council as part of British Festival 2014, we have been celebrating the legacy that was created and looking to the future.

https://www.gov.uk/government/world-location-news/british-embassy-doha-celebrated-her-majesty-the-queens-birthday

Some facts:

• This stunning iconic structure comprising three bridges connecting the airport in the south to the city and the cultural areas in the north will be the symbol of Qatar, much like California’s Golden Gate Bridge. 
• The bridges will provide access for car users and will transport pedestrians by foot or cable car over the top. There will be an immersed tunnel and underwater marine interchange allowing boats overhead to pass.
• From the city West Bay Bridge will be a tied arch 700m long. It will be the largest tied arch in the world. Cultural City Bridge is a multi-span cable stayed bridge of 13010m and Sharq Bridge providing access to and from the airport will be a tubular haunched structure of 600m.

The event was well attended by the construction industry from throughout the world. Ashghal’s presentation made up of themselves, Fluor (PMC) and Calatrava (architects) was outstanding, the content of which can shortly be found on Ashghal’s website.

In terms of contracts, they have been divided into 9 parcels:

• 2 x enabling works (land and marine)
• 3 x each bridge
• immersed tunnel and marine interchange
• surface street modifications
• systems integrations
• operations and maintenance

Expressions of Interest are being registered now, to apply go to the Ashghal Public Works Authority’s websitehttp://www.ashghal.gov.qa/en/Pages/default.aspx

This super structure is without a doubt the most exciting project in the world right now.

More UK government bids than ever:

Adding to that outsourcing pressure is the new localism bill that aims to force local authorities in the UK to procure more than 25% of its business from local companies through government contracts. UK opportunities are good – there are more UK government tenders to go for, and that’s all before we consider tendering in Europe.

Which UK government tenders would you like to win?

Our advice is always to play to your strengths. Use government tenders to bolster your strongest business, not to try and open up new markets.

Finding UK government contracts

For UK government tenders we recommend Tenders Direct. It’s comprehensive, free to search for public tenders, UK based, and shows the last year of tender opportunities so you can get an idea of what’s possible. For a quick calculation, think in terms of getting shortlisted for one in three public sector tenders and then winning 60% of those (assuming we’ve selected and written the tender).

Tenders Direct isn’t free (you can, however, save £150 using our promotion code here) but they save you time by manually filtering the public sector tender opportunities you receive.

UK government bidding project management

Use our bid management service to help you win government tenders in the UK, Europe and worldwide.

Because successfully winning public tenders is partly about selecting the right tenders, we then manage that stream of tender opportunities on your behalf, usually under a 10 or 20 per annum Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) bid management service.

We maintain a library of your key documents such as insurance and policies, ensuring we only spend time on key points of difference when completing a tender document. Effective bid management is about managing time and resources.

To win UK government contracts, use experienced people

If you just need someone to organise the initial stage of your bidding process, you can take over from here. However, our bid writers have a minimum of 15 years’ experience and most have come from the procurement world and know many of the buyers and organisations – so we can help with all stages of winning a bid through invitation to tender (ITT), right to the final presentation.

In these later stages it’s very important to know the buying organisation – their culture, policies, and supply chain. Here we have a head start, because our experienced team knows the government buyers and their scoring methodologies, so we are able to help you create content that presses the right buttons.

(If you are working on larger or more numerous bids, it’s worth knowing that – as the biggest tendering consultancy in the UK, we can provide extra muscle as and where you need it.)

For professional bid management, to improve your win ratio, or when you need more skilled resource while tackling government tenders, call Win That Bid on 0203 405 1850 or email us at hello@winthatbid.com.

Often, the work is right on your doorstep, and opportunities to bid for construction tenders will increase with the implementation of the new localism bill. This aims to force local authorities to seek out local companies to complete their contracts. Of course, there’s also a global market of private companies out there, just waiting for you to claim a slice of the construction contracts that are available.

This world of opportunity means you should consider carefully before writing a construction bid. Is the contract one that you really want to go for? You’d be well advised to concentrate your construction bid writing in areas that are the core strengths of your business. There will be other opportunities to open up new markets through word of mouth and other avenues. For construction bid writing, stick to what you know best and gather some great feedback for a job well done. That completed tender is then likely to lead to referrals for more varied work.

Tenders Direct is a useful place to seek out construction bids. This comprehensive database is easy to search in quite focused geographical and work-related areas, so you can easily see where the construction bid opportunities are.

We have partnered with Tenders Direct to offer you a bid management service tightly focused on your areas of expertise. Using our promotional code, you can save £150 on your registration fee.

Through our Bid Management Service, we can then manage your construction contract opportunities, assessing how each potential contract fits in with the scope of your business. We will then filter 10 or 20 Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQs) per annum to you. This way, our bid management service saves you time and energy on hunting down construction bid writing opportunities – so you can concentrate on the work you really want to do.

On your behalf, having scoped out your best fit construction bid opportunities, we can help you through all the stages of the bid writing process. From our experience, if you use our full construction bid writing service, you can realistically expect to be short-listed for one in three construction tenders and win sixty per cent of those bids.

We hold a library of your key documents such as insurance and policies, which will need to be submitted for every tender. Using those, and in close consultation with you, we can complete the whole bid writing service for you.

You’re in charge. Having been presented with the construction tender opportunities we find for you, if you want to take over the bid writing process from there, you can. Alternatively, we can handle the entire process for you.

Our construction bid writers have over 15 years’ experience in procurement and other relevant disciplines. They are familiar with many of the organisations and individuals buying construction services. That makes them ideally placed to help you through every stage towards winning a construction tender, from the invitation to tender, right up to the final presentation.

Knowledge of the buyer is crucial to securing construction contracts. Buyers want to deal with contractors who fit in with their culture and who will follow their policies. As we know these buyers well, we can put you ahead of your competitors – with our team of experienced construction bid writers helping you to present your bid in a way that will score you highly in bid comparisons and demonstrate to buyers exactly why you are right for their job.

We are the UK’s largest tendering consultancy, which means we have the knowledge and expertise to help you win major construction contracts.

For professional bid management, to improve your win ratio, or for a full construction bid writing service, call Win That Bid on 0203 405 1850 or email us at hello@winthatbid.com.

Until the award of the 2022 World Cup, few people had heard of Qatar, now construction opportunities are abound.

With a population of just 2 million, a landmass the size of Wales and vast oil and gas reserves, the country has the highest per capita GDP in the world. This new found wealth has brought with it an appreciation that energy is finite, and as a result, the government has extensive development plans for the country and need help to achieve its vision:

“By 2030, Qatar aims to be an advanced society capable of sustaining its development and providing a high standard of living for all of its people. Qatar’s National Vision defines the long- term outcomes for the country and provides a framework within which national strategies and implementation plans can be developed.”

Qatar’s future is dependent on successfully establishing itself as a centre of excellence in areas such as education, medicine and sport. The investment in infrastructure has commenced (to the tune of $220 billion).

Unsurprisingly, British and international businesses are arriving in their droves to invest, build, advise and deliver construction projects.

Outside of the energy sector, the largest tenders to be found are in construction (hotels, stadiums, accommodation, offices, schools, universities and shopping malls), transport (highways, railways, port expansion, new airport) and utilities.  Companies looking to capitalise on this growth need to review the opportunities that this exciting new market has to offer. Win That Bid opened its Doha offices in 2013 and is ready help you achieve this.

The government’s goal is to make it easier for companies to plan ahead, something that has traditionally been difficult for organisations working with the public sector. Skills gaps can be identified and dealt with earlier. Moreover, it is evidence of a laudable transparency in government spending that can only help improve processes and efficiency.

Back in April business secretary Vince Cable laid out the reasoning behind these plans. “Frankly, we’ve been too short-term in how we’ve done procurement in the past. Our key competitors in Europe already see procurement as an integral part of a proper industrial strategy and it’s time we did the same.” Recent procurement scandals and political rows have made it difficult for the government to prove it has any kind of industrial policy at all, and rather overshadowed the wave of initiatives, ideas and proposals streaming out of the cabinet office.

This initiative comes at a time when many businesses reliant on government contracts (especially those devoted to major infrastructure projects) are struggling. Construction giant Balfour Beatty recently issued a profit warning based on a dearth of major schemes, while a former Laing O’Rourke executive recently told the press that lack of infrastructure investment and planning in the UK would lead his ambitions elsewhere. Infrastructure schemes have fallen by half in the year to October, while £3bn of construction work is behind schedule or even entirely halted as a result of planning appeals. Friends and colleagues in the construction sector have sitting around waiting for suitable bids to emerge.

The Pipeline can give companies time to plan ahead which they might not have had before. Win that Bid’s vast experience in a number of sectors can help you make best use of that time, to be ready to grab the opportunities ahead.

• Be direct and concise.
• Avoid block text. If it becomes unavoidable, break the page up with images, charts and text-box quotes.
• Avoid using generic boilerplate sales language. We’ll discuss why below.
• Words like would, could, might and may reduce the sense of quiet assured confidence in your bid, creating doubt in the mind of the reader.
• One idea per sentence. What you really should avoid when bid writing is giant run-on sentences full of commas and different notions, that confuse the reader and reduce the flow of the document to a thick viscous sludge that causes the client to struggle for breath like a beached whale, as demonstrated by this sentence. Aren’t you glad that’s over?

Research the client

When writing a bid be client focused and personalised. One company’s non-specific generic boilerplate reads much the same as another’s, and will likely bore the reader. More to the point, a cut and paste job will fail in one of the basic goals of the bid – to demonstrate that the bid writer has a clear understanding of the goals, issues and problems faced by the client.

Determine who the reader of the bid (and its separate sections) will be. Are they informed enough to understand the specifics of your solution or are they seeking to employ you to provide a service with which they are technically unfamiliar? You should also write with personality in mind, even if you know yourself to be writing a bid for a team to read. Pragmatic thinkers will be interested in results, and look for direct language, brevity and the strong use of graphics to quickly illustrate a point. Analytical thinkers will prefer a focus on detail and accurate facts, with charts and graphs.

In general, it is best to avoid lots of Technical Jargon in an Acronym Soup (TJAS), even if you are expecting an informed audience. Anything that slows down reader comprehension will hurt the bid. If the client is using different terminology to that commonly used in your organisation or even your industry, it will normally be best to use their wording.

Given the sheer scale of many bids, applying these ideas can seem like a frightening prospect. Win that Bid can pass the lessons learned over many successful bids to your bid team.