Responding To A Tender? 6 Golden Points To Keep in Mind

It is extremely critical to carefully evaluate tender opportunities before you send in your response. It could be a deal-breaker or deal-maker document for your business. A well-researched tender, followed by a planned response, increases your chances of success and reduces time-wastage and costs to your business.

Let’s look at the 6 golden points to keep in mind while responding to a tender.

#1: Examine the tender request.
The first step in planning a tender response is to read each and every line thoroughly in the tender document be it annexures or declarations. All government tenders often refer to their tender document as invitations to offer (ITOs), request for tender (RFT) or request for proposal (RFPs). Each one of them will have these elements included:

a. A brief outline of the job's requirements
b. Pre-requisites that the providers/suppliers must meet
c. instructions about the tender process that will be followed

TenderTiger advises you to read the tender specifications, contract terms and conditions carefully before crafting your response. Also, once you understand the tender request, you will then need to examine if the opportunity is a good fit for your business.

#2: Confirm your business's capability for the job. After you have examined the tender request, you then need to confirm your business's capability for taking up the project.
a. List down all of the components of the job.
b. Identify the tasks and requirements you can confidently meet, and any factors you have concerned about. The best way to do this is to go back to any recent similar project you have worked on.
c. Ensure you have the necessary licences, registrations or accreditations.
d. Verify you can deliver all of the specified goods or services within the required time frame. If you can't, consider finding yourself a consortium partner who will assist you reach the goals on time.
e. Analyse and scope your costs to ensure a good return on your investment in the project. Stay focused on what the tender specification is asking for. Extra information shared has often done bad than good.
f. Perform an advance risk analysis taking into consideration all the risks you may encounter if you win the contract and how you will you minimise them.

#3: Research the buyer.
Once you've found a tender you want to bid for, the next step is to do some research about your potential customer. This step not only involves gathering as much information as you can about the government agency requesting the tender but also what kind of projects they have outsourced in the past.

For example, does the agency have a strong environmental concern? Is this tender particularly time-sensitive? What issues are driving the request for tender? Gathering such vital information about your potential customer will help you tailor a bid to their specific needs.

#4: Develop a marketing pitch.
Refer to your marketing strategy and prepare a short marketing plan which addresses the pain points of the tender. This marketing plan should help you define how you will market your business for this particular tender. Use it to identify any key messages you will use in your tender response and the products, information resources and reference material you will attach to the tender.

#5: Plan your tender proposal.
Set up a meeting with your team to gather all the supporting documents you will require while you submit the tender response. We recommend you keep the major ones (e.g. company licence certificate) handy as all tender responses will require them. In order to develop a competitive tender, you will have to take a systematic approach. Give this responsibility to a veteran employee who can coordinate the process and maintain the latest version of your tender document.

It is very important to stick to submission timelines as that gives the first impression of business ethics to the tenderer. It is a good idea to submit your tender response at least 2 to 3 days before the deadline. Make sure you schedule completion dates for all components of the tender document, particularly if other people - such as employees or your business partner - are writing parts of the tender response.

#6: Consult all project contributors
Before you commit to completion dates, you must take a pulse of the same from the respective team who will be delivering it, if you win the contract. In your planning procedure, you must consult and involve all the people who will work on the project.

Arrange a meeting at the outset of your planning process to plan the pitch and main thrust of your tender response. You may also like to use this session to consider:

a. the resources and budget you will allocate for the tender response document.
b. the internal resources and budget you'll require should you win the contract.
c. factors influencing your prospects such as your competitors, your track record and the CVs of the project heads clearly stating their competencies which are required for the project.

You may also want to read about tips to write a great tender response.