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Bid Management
Our bid management service is a comprehensive solution for organisations that lack an in-house tender writing team dedicated to creating winning bid submissions.
We act as a trusted extension of your business, offering a holistic, personalised approach that takes responsibility for the entire process.
Our highly experienced tender writing service team develops the strategy, key themes, storyboarding, and bid documentation, ensuring a successful submission. Additionally, we manage the core internal processes, including data gathering, team coordination, stakeholder management, supervision, and governance.
With our vast project management experience, we ensure that every aspect is taken care of. Throughout the project, we maintain open and honest communication and provide access to our unique bid portal technology, ensuring that you remain in control throughout the bid production and submission process.
What is 'Bid Management'?
Bid management is a crucial process that involves the complete management of the completion of pre-qualification questionnaires (PQQs), invitations to tenders (ITTs), and Request for Quotes (RFQs) from start to finish. This may even begin prior to the release of a potential contract.
When a PQQ, ITT, or RFQ is released, the bid manager assesses the organisation for compliance and collects all necessary information to respond to the PQQ or ITT questions. Once collated, a draft is written and reviewed by yourself (the 'supplier') and our wider team of bid reviewers. When everyone is happy with the quality of the bid, the bid is submitted.
Most large corporations will have a dedicated 'Bid Manager'; however, the vast majority of SMEs will give an employee the added responsibility of bid management. In our experience this is sub-optimal and leads to reduced success in the tendering process.
To effectively fulfil this role, bid managers must possess a thorough understanding of both the commercial and operational aspects of their company. This knowledge enables them to write certain portions of the bid and identify the most suitable contributors who can augment the bid with their own expertise and information.
In addition, bid managers must comprehend the requirements of the tendering organisation in order to create a compelling bid that effectively demonstrates why their company should be chosen to undertake the project.
Why You Should Outsource Bid Management
Bid management is critical as bid writing can be a time-consuming and complex process involving various contributors. Therefore, managing it correctly is essential to create a winning bid for your organisation.
This isn't a 'Part-Time' Job
Bid management can be frustrating for businesses without a dedicated bid manager (as per most SME's). The individual given the role of 'bid manager', in addition to their 'normal' day-to-day job, can find the process challenging. Tendering is inherently difficult, with many small details needing to be understood; and simply giving the role to an inexperienced member of staff will usually result in suboptimal outcomes.
Tenders can vary significantly in both size and complexity, ranging from tiny PQQ's to huge ITT's. This can make bid writing and bid management stressful, as there is often a lot to do, many people to co-ordinate, and tight deadlines to make things even more stressful.
Partnering with a bid management business like Bid Writing Network, with a strong team of tender writers and experienced bid managers can help simplify this process. We work closely with you throughout the process to ensure you stand out from your competitors.
Bid Writing Network has a proven track record, with project management of end-to-end bids and over a decade of experience across industries, including construction, recruitment, transport, healthcare, and more.
What is Our Bid Management Process?
Comprehensive Review
Our Bid Management process begins with a thorough review of the tender documents, after which we provide a quote for our services.
We then allocate a 'Lead Bid Writer' who will be your direct point of contact throughout the tender writing process.
Needs Analysis
Our Bid Writer and/or Bid Manager will perform a 'needs analysis' to identify key actions required, generate winning themes, and to understand your unique selling propositions (USPs). The Bid Manager will work closely with you to develop a winning strategy, key themes, storyboarding, and to organise bid documentation.
Organising
Our team then effectively coordinates your internal teams and manages internal stakeholders to ensure all necessary information is secured to create a successful bid.
We take responsibility for managing the entire process, including core internal processes such as data gathering, team coordination, stakeholder management, supervision, and governance. Our tender writers bring vast project management experience and expertise to the table, ensuring that every aspect of the tender submission is taken care of. With open and honest communication and access to our unique tender portal technology, we ensure that you remain in control throughout the tender writing process. Trust us to be your partner in securing successful tender submissions.
Draft Development
We then begin the bid writing process, commencing with the production of a first draft, which is refined until it meets the highest standards of quality. We work collaboratively with you, providing regular updates and opportunities for feedback to ensure that the final product meets your expectations and hits the required quality level.
Our tender writers are equipped with vast project management experience and expertise, guaranteeing that every aspect of the tender submission process is taken care of. Trust us to be your partner in securing successful tender submissions.
Need Help With Bid Management?
Do It Yourself Bid Management
While we don't believe most SME's should manage their own bid writing processes, we appreciate that some will like to try it themselves for a variety of reasons. So here are some of our top tips to get organised as a newly-appointed in-house Bid Manager:
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Deeply Understand the Requirements: Thoroughly understand the requirements of the PQQ, ITT or RFQ and what the client is looking for. This will help you to tailor your bid specific to the client and make the bid stand out from your competitors.
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Conduct a bid/no bid analysis: Determine whether you should proceed with the bid by conducting a bid/no bid analysis. This analysis will help you to determine whether you have the capacity, capability, and resources to deliver the project successfully.
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Develop a clear bid strategy: Develop a clear bid strategy that identifies your unique selling points, key messages, and how you can truly provide value. This will help you to create a bid that is tailored to the needs of the client and demonstrates your strengths as a company. It's useful to utilise a bid management process flow chart to ensure you've taken a step back and considered what needs to be done (and by when).
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Create a writing plan / ‘style guide’: Create a ‘style guide’ and distribute it to all team members who may be contributing to the bid writing project. Include details such as writing style, tone of voice, font, and text size. This will guarantee a clean looking and coherent application. For any external contributors you may work with, ensure that their copy adheres to these guidelines.
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Prepare and plan: Break down the bid into bite-size chunks to help you set deadlines for different contributors. This will make sure the bid is completed on time while allowing time for necessary final reviews from contributors or senior management.
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Try to get creative with design: Make your bid engaging by using flow charts, organisational structures, and diagrams to break down big chunks of writing and help the buyer visualise your information better.
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Hold regular meetings: Regular meetings allow for any new ideas and solutions to be brought to the table as a collective. Don't write a bid in isolation, get external input!
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Use technology to your advantage: Streamline your bid management process by using software, tools, and platforms to manage your team, track deadlines, collaborate on documents, and streamline your workflow.
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Review and Submit: Create a draft, have others check it, comment , then take it back and improve it. Once a final draft is created, have a number of people review it for spelling, grammatical and compliance checks. Then submit it!
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Review and refine: Once you have submitted your bid, conduct a post-bid analysis to identify areas where you can improve and implement changes to your bid management process. This will help you to improve your chances of success in future bids.
By following these tips, you can increase your chances of success in the bid management process and develop a reputation as a reliable and effective bidder.
Why Choose Bid Writing Network?
As a valued client, you will take full advantage of our years of expertise, our quality-assured strategic process, and our unique insights. Our success lies in our ability to fully comprehend your business requirements and the Buyer's expectations from the onset. This enables us to develop a strategic approach to your bid submissions, resulting in the best possible outcomes for our clients.
FAQ's
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I've written my own tender - can you review it for me?Absolutely! We offer three types of bid review services to cater to your specific needs. These include: Review & Comment: A light-touch service where we will review compliance, response structure, unique selling points, and added value. This will ensure you don't miss any key details that may automatically exclude you from the tender. Review & Improve: This is a more in-depth review, where our experts will review your draft tender, comment and assist with improvements on the written content, and then manage the process through to completion for you. Strategy, Review & Improve: A strategic review whereby we will be involved from the beginning of the tender process. This will allow you to draft your responses following our guidance and support. We will support with the storyboard, structure, and win themes of your tender prior to development of the draft. How do you know which service is right for you? We can discuss your requirements with you, and our experts will recommend the appropriate service based on your specific needs. We will also provide an accurate quote for the service recommended. All you need to do is get in contact!
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What are your payment terms?This is a case-by-case basis kind of question, but we usually request 50% of the fee upfront, and 50% on completion of the bid.
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Who will be writing my bid?Your first point of contact will be with Michael, our Director. After a discussion with him about your needs, he will assign you an experienced bid writing lead to work with you on your tender. This bid writer will have all the necessary qualifications, expertise and experience to fully understand what is required when writing a winning tender for you. We will always allocate a bid writer who has the most amount of experience within your industry.
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How can you help me if you don't know my business?We have a wealth of experience spanning almost all sectors and industries. Additionally, during the initial stages of the tendering process we will invest time getting to know you, understanding how your business operates, and your bidding requirements. This may include: spending time in your offices; on-site; speaking with your subject matter experts to gain a greater insight into your operations; and reviewing your previous tenders to gauge how we can improve your existing content.
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How much does bid writing cost?This is very variable and all bids are completely unique. Once we've reviewed the tender document, we are able to give a quote very quickly.