Writing bids and tenders

General duration

1 or 1.5 days depending on needs

Target group

This program scrutinises the detail required to write a successful external proposal, be it a letter quotation, bid or tender. This is such an important area for business growth and success but so often prospects are lost through porr submissions. This program focuses on examples from the organisation. The facilitator will send a pre-course questionnaire to participants asking them to submit three pieces of writing they have recently prepared.

From this material, the facilitator:

assesses their writing ability
gains a thorough understanding of the written work they prepare, and
extracts examples for use as training material within the program.

This personalises the program and learning points become more relevant and specific to the participants as they use their own work as examples and training material. Participants also have a personalised coaching session with the facilitator on day 2.

Learning objectives

At the completion of this program, participants will be able to write a bid which matches and addresses the needs of the client.

Course content

Communicating in business

The difference between academic writing, creative writing and business writing
The Government Style Guide as a source of technique
Internal style guides

The composing process

The 4-step process to writing
- Gather material for the specific purpose of the document
- Use a spidergram to order information
- Draft
- Edit

Tender

How tenders are assessed
Working in accordance with the Request For Tender (RFT) instructions
Addressing each criterion concisely in the format required
Addressing each criterion with detailed supporting data and evidence
Respecting the word limits
10 reasons why tenders fail

Creating logical content to address the criteria

Using a spidergram to develop detailed content and to create a logical flow

Wordsmithing techniques to help the points 'pop':

Sentence length and structure
Main message first
Passive/active voice
Conversation style
Use minimum words
Modern formatting techniques and visual presentation
Word choice to match the reader
Personalise through pronouns
Positive phraseology
Using AI to polish the document
Issues with using AI for content

The format of an external proposal

The difference between a quotation, proposal and tender

Letter quotation

Structure
Content
Tone

Proposal

Understanding the reader
Contemporary standard structure:
- Our understanding of your needs
- Our solution
- Business benefits
- Fee
- Our experience
- Project team
- Additional formatting:
  - Cover page
  - Executive summary
  - Table of contents
  - Appendices
  - Version control
  - Headers and footers
  - Reference pages
  - Tables, graphs and pictures
- The use of pronouns to create personalised proposals
- Using words and concepts familiar to the reader
- The need for greater formatting and consistency as the complexity of the document grows
- Writing a convincing argument
  - substantiating claims
  - statistics
  - specifics
- Features/benefits
- Appropriate level of glamour
- Writing a covering letter