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Bid Writing Tips: ‘Is Cheaper Better?’

Bid Writing Tips

Do all buyers look for the cheapest price? Yes. And … No. The answer is in fact a little more complicated than a direct “yes” or “no.” In this article, I’ll be talking about why this is the case and doing some good old myth-busting regarding some common misconceptions surrounding the procurement and tendering process in the UK. If you’ve read any of our past blogs you will not be surprised that things are rarely so straightforward in public procurement.

In fact, one of our top bid writing tips is not to be put off by what you hear on the grapevine about public government tenders. These provide a great, sustainable and reliable source of income to help businesses manage their incomings and outgoings; accurately project cashflow; recruit and ultimately expand.

Pricing – what is it?

Pricing in public procurement is the buyer’s assessment of the schedule of rates or quotation that a supplier provides as their fee for the delivery of the goods and services requested in a tender.

Bid Writing tip #1

Pricing can come in many manifestations and most tenders typically involve some form of pricing element whether this be:

  • A confirmation of adherence to a budget.
  • A quotation for the works in the form of a grand total.
  • A schedule of rates.
  • An hourly or daily fee for individual professionals. 

Yes, it is true that buyers will scrutinise pricing. Who wants to pay more than they have to for anything? Buyers want to make sure they are getting the absolute best value for money. And who can blame them? Price is a key factor in the evaluation of tender submissions, but it is important to understand it is not the only one. Instead, buyers look at a balance of price and quality and use proportionally weighted scores assigned to each element to ascertain the “MEAT” – the most economically advantageous tender. For more information on this, check out our Tender VLE video on “Sourcing the MEAT.” Rather than a rather narrow view of “who puts in the cheapest quotation,” this approach allows buyers the chance to make a comprehensive assessment of the supplier/suppliers who will bring the best overall value for money to their organisation.

Bid writing tip #2

Pricing is important but there are many instances where it is actually weighted as the smaller element in the evaluation. Hence, it is important not to overlook the quality aspect of your submission. Don’t just rush the quality, go in cheap and hope for the best – it rarely works!

Bid writing tip #3

Buyers are, believe it or not, prepared to pay a little more money for a supplier in whom they have real confidence to deliver the contract. And the only way to instil this confidence in a buyer is to put together a truly cracking quality submission! If you’re needing a hand with the quality aspect of your bid, need a second pair of eyes, have questions, need guidance or need someone to take the whole writing,  bid management and submission process off your hands altogether, contact us today. No matter your problems, queries or level of familiarity with tendering, Hudson Succeed have a service for you.

Every buyer has the right to make their own assessment of price and each is constrained by different regulations, it is true that in most cases, the lowest priced tender will score the most points for the price aspect of a bid.

Top Bid Writing Tip

Don’t get caught out with pricing. Make sure the rates/total/quotation you provide is as competitive as it can be:

  • Mediate your pricing depending on where you are in the country

You can’t price for a job in rural Cumbria and expect to get away with charging London rates, for example. Hence, a top bid writing tip is to not only know your business but to know the area in which you will be delivering works and price accordingly. Do your research into the local area where you are bidding to deliver work. It might be tiresome, but it will help you price more accurately and appropriately, and as my old Head of Sixth Form used to say “Nothing worth having is easy.”

  • Don’t assume

Don’t make the mistake of thinking if you price a job at an extremely low rate that you will win the contract. First of all, if you do win the contract you are beholden to deliver the works for that price, even if it might not be profitable for you. Second of all, buyers can smell sneakiness a mile off. Many tenders include clauses that allow buyers to reserve the right to reject tenders with abnormally low rates because of the corners that would need to be cut in terms of quality in order to realistically deliver the works for such a low rate.

  • Make use of your graduates and interns

Hiring them out for a job will not only provide valuable experience that they can thing bring back to the company but will allow you to charge a much lower daily rate.

  • Do your market research

If you can, find out what your competitors are charging for similar jobs, and priced accordingly. It pays to do as much research as you can to make sure you don’t get a nasty surprise after the evaluation when you find out most of your competitors were cheaper.

  • Read the specification

It might seem like an obvious one, but it is vital to understand the particulars of the job at hand and price accordingly. Don’t make the mistake of not factoring in several important job considerations into your pricing such as travel costs, staff overheads and expenses and ultimately finding yourself out of pocket.

It depends on the type of tender

With tenders such as an RFQ (Request for Quotation) the buyer may simply choose to award the contract to the supplier with the lowest quotation/cheapest schedule of rates, outright. In an SQ for example, pricing may not even be a factor, suppliers will instead have a list of minimum criteria to meet and if they do so, they’re through to the next round. It is important to make sure you are aware of what’s expected of you in terms of your submission and respond accordingly.

Don’t overlook quality

If there is a quality element present – never overlook it no matter how cheap your company might be. This is an assessment of the past experience, and technical and professional ability of prospective suppliers and might involve competency questions, questions on skills and qualifications, and scenario-based questions.

Top bid writing tip

Cheap does not necessarily mean effective. It is particularly important in the public sector for example, that public money spent on goods and services is spent effectively. Hence, it is generally regarded as more important for buyers to find competent suppliers with the most relevant skills, experience and qualifications than it is for them to find the cheapest quotation.

Whilst pricing effectively will help, this is no substitute for a robust quality aspect. If you’re struggling to showcase your skills, experience and ability to deliver in the way that you’d like to, contact our team at Hudson Succeed today for dedicated, one to one support to help you see success in your tendering and procurement efforts.

Of course, if a tender is scored on a 100% price basis, but still includes a quality aspect, you probably won’t need to exhaust yourself by spending all of your time writing detailed quality responses. Instead, in this example, you’d be best to focus on ensuring your pricing is as competitive as possible to maximise your chances of success. And vice versa. Generally, it is a myth that the cheapest supplier is guaranteed to win. There are numerous factors at play in the evaluation of tenders and it is always important to not completely disregard other aspects in favour of one.

In Conclusion

Remember, if you need a hand understanding the bid management process, how to tender, the areas on which to focus, could do with some more top bid writing tips or need someone to take the tender process of your hands altogether, contact our team of Tender Writing Consultants today who will be delighted to see how they can help.

Need assistance when writing your next bids and tenders?

Now you’re a bit more familiar with what’s required, you may be looking for some writing support. Writing isn’t everyone’s strong suit and that’s ok. Outsourcing a bid you’ve found to bid writing specialists can help you secure that next contract.

Here at Hudson Succeed, we pride ourselves on being bid writing experts. We hold an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of collective bid writing experience. We offer four levels of bid writing support to suit every business need. You may not need the whole bid written for you; you may simply need it proofread before you submit. We can help with that. Our services include:

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect bid for your business, send it our way. Our Bid Writers can take care of the whole thing for you they’ll even submit it on your behalf. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready 4-week programme is perfect for businesses that have never tendered before. A Bid Writer will work with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully. Tender Ready offers your business:

  • A 12-month subscription to one Hudson Discover
  • Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding Professionals.
  • An Organisation-wide Bid library, including 3 case studies, 5 CVs and policies.
  • Additional flexible benefits.

Tender Improvement

If you’ve been tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts, our Tender Improvement package can help. Our Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents. They will work with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to a Hudson Discover portal and additional tendering development services.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own tender response and need it double-checked for errors, Tender Mentor can help. A Bid Writer will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar, or spelling mistakes. They will also ensure it’s in line with the specification before you submit. This is a great way of improving your skills and understanding of how to polish your tender.

Discover Elite

Upgrading to Discover Elite can help optimise your tendering efforts – even when you’re busy. Our two new time-saving tools can improve your competitor awareness and success rate when bidding for a contract.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Healthcare and Technology, for example.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
  • Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

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