You’ve spent endless hours on your tender and with 24 hours until submission time, you believe you’ve given it all you’ve got.
But have you?
Take the time to sit down and read through your tender submission (yes, again!) whilst asking yourself these questions:
- Do you have a go/no go process in place? Yes? Good. And you followed it? Awesome.
- Do you have a bid management system which allows for at least 1 draft for review/feedback and then a final which is approved prior to submission? Brilliant! Well done.
- Do you have an agreed win theme/strategy? Have you created a tailored executive summary at the beginning of the response document, answered all the questions and clearly articulated ‘why you’? This one is important. If you haven’t done this, there is a strong chance they won’t know why to choose you. If you only focus on one thing in the next 24 hours, focus on this!
- Have you scanned the environment for any information that may help you to tailor your submission? You have? Nice work.
- Have you used clear concise and interesting language – easy words, short sentences and limited use of jargon, abbreviations or acronyms? Regardless of what the techies say, the evaluation panel will include technical and non-technical evaluators, so it is wise to cater to the full spectrum of possible readers.
- Does your tender speak in benefits, not just features? Does it ask the question ‘So what?’ If it doesn’t, you better get editing!
- Do you have clear indexing and cross-referencing? Excellent!
- Have you proved everything you assert? Ensure you have used relevant case studies and testimonials. Don’t take anything at face value — the readers won’t. Challenge your authors to provide you examples of why this solution works, where it’s worked before, why it’s better than competitive solutions.
- Is the presentation aesthetically pleasing and the document easy to follow? It is? You’re nailing it!
If you answered yes to all the above, then congratulations! You have most likely written an excellent submission. However, if you have found yourself saying no, or even if you aren’t 100% confident on your ‘YES’ then reconsider your content and make the most of the next 24 hours!