1. Study the documentation  

Start by thoroughly studying the documentation. It may seem obvious, but many promising bids fail due to the careless reading of tender documents and missing critical information. Extract every detail from the invitation to tender (ITT) to understand the evaluation criteria. Identify any areas that need clarification early on and try to initiate dialogue with the buyer as soon as you can to get the clarification you need as quickly as possible.   

  

2. Comply with the instructions  

When is the deadline? Is the format just electronic or hard copy, too? Are there word count limits? What are the rules regarding confidentiality, publicity and transparency? 

Don’t let a minor technical error ruin your entire proposal. Tenders are rigorously organized, and evaluators appreciate focus and relevance but punish deviation. Make sure you answer all the questions thoroughly and check off all the required boxes to avoid any penalties for noncompliance. 

  

3. Establish an overall plan  

Strategic planning helps you concentrate your efforts and use resources wisely, even when daily business tasks are demanding your attention. A thorough and honest evaluation of how well your company’s goals and abilities match the tender’s expectations is only going to help. See it as a chance to deal with potential project issues before they even happen. 

  

4. Organize your team  

Most tendering exercises will see bid writers working alongside subject matter experts and other contributors. Ideally, this collaboration brings a diversity of perspectives which guards against siloed thinking and improves the final output.   

But, in practice, there is a risk of collective harmony and teamwork being disrupted by disagreements and duplication of efforts if roles aren’t clear, tasks aren’t delegated carefully and responsibilities aren’t properly outlined. To keep everything running smoothly, set up a clear team structure, make communication easy, and agree on how to work together. This ensures everyone knows what they’re doing and can work together effectively. 

 

 5. Be ruthless with time management 

The stressful late nights and dramatic last-minute rush to make the closing deadline are a familiar feature of tender responses. In reality, no project will run without unexpected considerations that end up causing delays. That’s why it’s important to plan ahead and include some extra time in your schedule just in case. Sometimes making pragmatic, even harsh, calls early in the process can reap rewards later on.   

 

6. Never neglect research

Thorough research is crucial for writing a successful bid. You need to understand the client, the contract details, market trends, and your competitors. Make sure you gather detailed and insightful information. Think about how you’ll find and use this information to craft a winning bid. 

 

7. Analyze the client 

It would be short-sighted to base a bid solely on tender documents. Insight into the client organization’s recent history, market position, and any challenges they are facing can prove decisive. 

Determining precisely what the buyer requires from the supplier beyond what is plainly stated will help you to create a winning bid strategy.  

 

8. Scrutinize the competition 

Take some time to figure out who else might be bidding. By carefully studying your competitors, you can identify key areas where they have a potential advantage or indeed a comparative weakness. Naturally it also makes sense to follow the likely contenders’ business activity closely during the tendering period. 

 

9. Identify win themes

Win themes are strategically crafted statements or ideas that underline the key benefits and differentiators of a company’s proposal. Win themes are critical because they help to clearly articulate why a company is the best choice for a particular contract, aligning their strengths directly with the client’s needs and priorities. To effectively identify win themes, it is essential to conduct a thorough analysis of the client’s requirements, objectives, and challenges. This involves meticulously reviewing the bid documents, researching the client’s industry and specific pain points, and leveraging insights from previous interactions with the client. By understanding what the client values most, a company can develop compelling win themes that resonate strongly, increasing the likelihood of winning the bid. 

 

10. Keep price in perspective

Generalizations are unhelpful here. Today, understanding the ‘bottom line’—how price compares to other factors like quality and compliance—is critical. Each tender uses a specific formula to evaluate these aspects. Remember, the goal is to offer the best value, not just the lowest price. To win, you need to know how each tender weighs these elements and plan your bid to match. This approach ensures you use your resources wisely and increases your chances of success. 

 

11. Evidence every claim

Avoid making unclear or unsupported claims as they lack credibility and impact. Showcasing your skills and unique strengths effectively requires solid evidence. This might be in the form of case studies, statistics, market analysis, or testimonials – whatever it is, make sure you provide evidence. 

 

12. Make it easy to pick you

Don’t just list your organization’s qualities, explain them clearly and then clearly show the buyer how your offer meets their needs. Don’t rely on the buyer connecting the dots themselves – do it for them.  It can feel a bit uncomfortable and cringe worthy or like you are being condescending in your writing, but you need to get over that. Your buyer will be reading through dozens, maybe even hundreds of submissions. They don’t have the time and energy to connect something you said on page 10 to something on page 100 and so you can’t rely on them doing that either. Make sure you do it for them.  

 

13. Be persuasive but grounded

In tender writing there is a natural inclination to present the bidder in the best possible light. But be wary of hyperbole and unsubstantiated claims. Tendering by its nature is a more restrained, objective and rigidly structured discipline than other forms of sales. Overly ambitious or aspirational content without evidence undermines credibility. 

 

14. Stay impeccably well-informed 

 For bid writers, staying informed about industry developments is never wasted time. By keeping up with the latest news and trends in your sector, you can better identify opportunities and challenges, allowing you to tailor your proposal more closely to the client’s needs. Highlighting this knowledge in your bids not only showcases your expertise but also makes your proposal more persuasive and likely to succeed. 

 

15. Remember, every word counts

Yes, writing a bid is a disciplined exercise involving the orderly completion of set questions. But it’s still writing. 

Use simple and direct language to make your point persuasively. A clear and consistent tone is key. Well-structured content can significantly boost your proposal, whereas unclear and vague content can harm it. Language is a powerful tool in bid writing and using it effectively can make your proposal stand out. 

 

16. Use visuals for impact 

Complement the narrative with illustrations or other imagery that can visually demonstrate your bid’s claims as much as possible. Diagrams and graphs are not just ornamental additions but crucial tools to present information with directness and clarity. Complex data should be presented in an easily accessible format. The types of media allowed will be specified by the tender – make full use of your options. This also goes back to point 12 above – ensure your visuals make it easier to choose you, not harder. 

  

17. Be sympathetic with layout 

Put yourself in the evaluator’s shoes: they may be as tired and under pressure when reading your submission as you were when you wrote it. They will be assessing many entries, and those that their eyes can navigate readily will be welcomed. Dense blocks of text, whether on screen or page, will not serve you well. But well organized and sympathetically laid out content certainly will. 

 

18. Check your content exhaustively

While spelling and grammar may not be officially weighted in the scoring, impressions matter. There is no excuse for inconsistencies and sloppiness. Modern software means editing, proofreading and formatting standards should be uniformly high. Equally important is making sure all accompanying information is included. By the time you submit a bid, you should have absolute peace of mind that you have left nothing to chance. 

 

19. Stand out from the crowd 

 Regardless of how many tender responses are competing for a given contract, it helps to differentiate your bid. Not in an attention-seeking way, but by subtle measures that make a lasting impression, and ideally highlight your unique value propositions. How much room there is for corporate branding will vary from tender to tender: but find a way to show your individuality. You could achieve this by incorporating your company’s logo, color scheme, or other distinctive features in your tender response. Make sure that these elements are used appropriately and are not overpowering. The goal is to strike the right balance between standing out and maintaining a professional and respectful image. 

 

20. Use AutogenAI

At AutogenAI, our cutting-edge generative AI solution is helping organizations write more winning bids, tenders and proposals than ever before. Our advanced software can allow you to perform sophisticated text transformations to generate high-quality winning prose at the click of a button, extract insights from large documents in minutes, and evaluate your responses against tender requirements in seconds. 

AutogenAI uses advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create language that’s not just human-like but also persuasive and tailored to your business needs. By analyzing your companies documents, such as past bids and case studies, it picks out the most compelling pieces of information to include in your bid. We call these pieces “Lings.” 

AutogenAI evaluates each Ling for its relevance, credibility, and impact to ensure your proposal is powerful and up to date. It then uses the best Lings to craft winning bids that are specifically designed to meet the proposal’s requirements and highlight your company’s strengths. 

This approach is what makes AutogenAI the most effective tool at leveraging AI to quickly generate content that is not only accurate but also compelling and tailored to your specific needs and those of the proposal. 

To discover how AutogenAI can work with you to achieve more successful bids, get in touch today.