General guidance on successfully winning public sector contracts via the tender process, presented as a series of bitesize pieces of advice

SMEs account for 99.9% of UK businesses, with competitive public sector tendering often overlooked by many due to the prevailing perception that the tendering process, by nature, favours large national/international organisations. In actuality, the UK government has taken great strides to make public procurement more accessible to smaller businesses and social enterprises.

Nonetheless, for many organisations, a lack of awareness regarding the tendering process, limited time/resource to respond to tenders, and a lack of formal internal processes which make answering quality-based questions difficult, can all act as a barrier to competitive tendering.

However, with more than £290 billion worth of public sector contracts released annually, competitive tendering (when done well) is an incredibly effective means of supporting organisational growth whilst guaranteeing income via a pipeline of work over a fixed contract duration.

Furthermore, with the reforms addressed in The Public Procurement Bill due to come into force (simplifying the process for SMEs), winning work via competitive tendering has never been a more attractive option. Executive Compass, experts in bid writing and management, explain below what SMEs can do to win more work through public procurement.

Lay the groundwork

It may seem counterintuitive to be told not to dive in feet first and begin bidding for opportunities immediately. However, without having the infrastructure or plan in place, your early efforts will most likely be wasted. Instead, take the time to:

• Formalise (or update) your policies and procedures – buying authorities often ask for copies/evidence of policies and procedures which are then scrutinised to ensure they are sufficient.
• Do your research – you don’t want to get halfway through a tender and realise you are non-compliant. By researching the requisite accreditations/memberships, and by understanding what the common thresholds and minimum criteria are, you will be better placed to put in place a winning infrastructure to bid successfully. Using free-to-use government sites such as Find a Tender and Contracts Finder will give you a good indication of what tenders are available.
• Agree your bid strategy – internally, you need to agree a) what services you are bidding for; b) geographic location; c) contract values. By putting in these parameters, you will be able to better filter opportunities based on what you can competitively tender for, informing your bid/no bid decision.

Establish a bid management process

A significant aspect of tendering (and something that is often not talked about enough) is the importance of remaining compliant. It does not matter how well written your quality responses are, if you have not completed all aspects of the tender, or provided all requested attachments, the authority is within their rights to reject your tender.

It is important that you assign someone internally to manage the submission who can then delegate aspects of the bid to the most suitable person/team, manage a clear timeline for completion and compile the documents into their final form before submission. By doing this, it limits mistakes as it establishes a clear method of checks and balances.

Be specific

It can often be tempting to produce narrative responses that explain what you will do using a standard methodology. However, if this methodology can be transplanted from tender to tender without edits or amendments, then it will be unlikely to win.

Responses should be tailored to each authority’s requirements and reflect your local understanding.

For example, health and safety measures should be proportionate to the works, and include evidence of local considerations such as the site setup, local area etc. By doing this, you will reassure the authority that you have read the specification, you have considered exactly what their requirements are, and that your proposed approach to service delivery does offer an effective solution to their needs.

Review and edit

Never submit your first draft without reading it first. Ideally, and time permitting, you should have a second person in your organisation to read responses in their entirety in order to:

1. Check that you have answered the question. This may sound basic, but it is easy to veer off topic, or include non-relevant information without realising it.
2. There are no mistakes/errors. For example, if you have repurposed information from a previous tender, it is good practice to check you have not left information pertaining to another authority in the response.
3. See if they can strengthen it. By having someone else read the response, they may raise ideas/processes that you had not considered, thus strengthening the tender.

A final readthrough is always needed, and it is good practice to use a proofreader to check formatting, grammar, spelling, and sentence structure to ensure your submission is presented as professionally as possible.

Learn from experience and mistakes

Don’t be put off if you lose your first, second or even third tender. Bidding is competitive and it is often a case of trial and error whilst you develop the experience and capabilities to complete high-quality submissions. Some easy wins to achieving this include:

• Using the whole word limit – it has been given for a reason and by producing responses significantly under the stated word limits means you aren’t explaining key points in enough detail
• Answer each element of the question in its entirety
• Be assertive in your responses. Don’t avoid making commitments as it can come across as vague and uninspiring.

Feedback should always be sought for losing tenders, with lessons learnt used to inform future submissions. For example, if the authority calls into question your quality management approach, review where it can be improved and use this in the future.

Conversely, experience gained via contracts won should also be used within the responses to evidence how you will apply learning and continue to drive quality forward.