Guarding

What to do when a tender bid is unsuccessful?

by Mark Rowe

A tender bid writing company, Snap Edition Ltd, looks at ways organisations can use an unsuccessful tender bid to their advantage, resulting in an increased chance of success.

Being turned down for a tender bid that you’ve invested time and effort in can be a disheartening experience. However, finding out where you went wrong can be a valuable exercise which will dramatically improve your chances of success next time. Feedback and discussion is key to understanding why your bid did not make it through to the next stage – both within your organisation and with the local authority. Public sector procurement staff are well versed on what makes a winning tender, and they will be able to help you understand where your weaknesses are in order to develop stronger tender responses in the future.

If you are unsuccessful with a bid and want to find out why, you can ask for feedback from the relevant public sector organisation (usually the local authority) within 20 days. The information about the contract is subject to the Freedom of Information Act, which means that you have the right to ask for detailed information about the bidding process, although this may incur a fee.

You also have the right to contest the decision made. To do this, you must formally write to the relevant government department outlining the reasons you are contesting their decision. Your letter should be professionally written in a non-emotive manner, and you should request a response from them. In most circumstances the procurement department will have strictly followed the rules, and the decision will have been made based on the most economically advantageous tender bid. If you do not intend to contest but are simply asking for constructive feedback, you should make them aware of this from the start.

To gain the most from the review process, you should consider an internal and external review. The internal review will focus on establishing if the resources allocated to completing the tender bid were sufficient; if the document was easy to navigate and score; if the organisation met all of the compliance requests – ie policies, procedures, rules and regulations, and; if the document looks professional.

During the external review, establishing how your organisation fared in comparison to the competitors will be the focal point. Areas to consider include cost, appearance, and relevance of the answers to the bidding criteria, what differentiates your organisation from the competitors and vice versa.

In smaller organisations in particular, the person responsible for writing bids is usually someone who has gained writing experience within their career, but has a number of other responsibilities and has no formal tender writing or procurement training. This is where an external perspective can help. Understanding how bids are scored and government procurement works is a huge advantage, and if you don’t have those skills available in house, you should always consider external help.

About the firm

Snap Edition team provides tender writing services to enable businesses to produce professionally written tender bid submissions. Snap Edition also provides proof reading and auditing for completed tender documents, as well as tender training.

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