Tender Writing Training And Support

Tender writing is difficult. There is no doubt. But as public sector companies launch huge frameworks providing a plethora of opportunities for suppliers of all scopes, sizes and service offerings, private companies expand into tendering. They do this to try and get the best value for money out of their suppliers. It is a wise move for any business that hasn’t already, to avail themselves of a good level of tender writing training.

Below are just a few of the challenges many business owners and directors struggle to manage when it comes to tendering. These challenges may become more manageable with some valuable tender writing training:

Word Counts

We often hear of clients who are new to tendering talking of having previously fallen foul of word counts. These are something to carefully look out for. Write too much and any words you write over the limit simply won’t be considered. Write too little and your answer risks looking ill thought through, rushed, or somehow otherwise wanting. Tender writing training will help you understand the information you can be realistically expected to convey within given word counts, and where to look out for sometimes hidden or ambiguous word limits.

Time Management

It’s hard to fit in writing a proposal, or sometimes several proposals, while running a business, hitting sales targets and managing staff. Time management is, however, key when tendering. Tender writing training will help you understand how to break down the whole tender pack into a succinct list of requirements and how to plan out the workload and assign specific responses or duties to your team, accordingly.

Key Requirements

It’s tempting to rush ahead with a tender response and write what we think a buyer wants to hear. But it is vital, even under pressure, to take the time to reflect and ensure you understand the requirements, and what the buyer is looking for in an excellent response. Tender writing training will help you understand the key parts of the documents such as the specification and to digest this in such a way as to inform and improve your response.

Understanding the Questions

The same can be said for the questions in a bid. We’ve heard many stories in the past about clients with other priorities ploughing ahead and answering a question based on an improper understanding of what it is actually asking, costing themselves valuable quality marks. It’s easy when you’re under pressure to, for example, answer “how” you train your staff instead of “why”. Mistakes like this will cost you vital quality marks, but tender writing training will give you the tools to quickly digest question requirements and conceptually assess what is needed for an excellent response with speed, accuracy and efficiency.

Key Information

It is easy to miss key details and important information when you’re unfamiliar with a process or working under pressure. This is especially true considering the mountain of often superfluous information that comes with a tender pack. It is easy to overlook a key date for a site visit, change to a submission deadline or other such important piece of information. Tender writing training will help you to understand how to quickly digest tender documentation, scan them for information and pull out the facts and figures you need, without being distracted by other, relevant but less important information. Tender writing training will also show you how to keep on top of regular information updates from the purchasing organisation, known as “clarifications” to make sure you have all the information at your fingertips when approaching a bid.

Different Types of Training

There is a variety of support available for businesses who are struggling to see success with tender writing.

Consultancy support: You can outsource your tender writing efforts and also receive some comprehensive tender writing training depending on the package you select if you outsource your procurement and tendering endeavours to a consultancy like Hudson Succeed.

Workshops: Many companies run tender writing training days and workshops for executives looking to improve their tendering efforts or to get started in tender writing. Beware though, these are useful sessions but often come at significant cost and involve business owners and directors sacrificing vital office time to attend.

Conferences: There is a multitude of national procurement and tendering conferences, many of which are free to attend. Procurex, for example, is a free of charge series of lectures, conferences, workshops and networking events run across the course of a day, dedicated to helping businesses see more success in tendering.

Tender VLE

Tender VLE is the UK’s first, free of charge, online, tendering and procurement related, virtual learning environment. Tender VLE provides comprehensive tender writing training in a blended format with a mixture of videos, links for further reading, blogs and very soon, quizzes, questionnaire and interactive exercises.

Tendering can be extremely difficult, off-putting and stressful. After decades of working in tender-related activities on both the buyer and the supplier side of the table, our experts are here to cover all aspects of tendering, from basic to intermediate, to expert. Complete with everything you need, Tender VLE will set you on your way to tendering success.

Moreover, if you are in need of additional support, contact Hudson Succeed where our experts will be happy to talk about how we can supplement your tender writing learning and development endeavours.

What Next For Tender VLE?

At Tender VLE we are looking forward to the future. We are excited to be embarking on the following:

• Our own bid writing and tendering accreditation for suppliers to showcase their tendering prowess in future bids.
• The launch of new, interactive activities, quizzes and more immersive online and digital content to open up new and effective ways of conveying tender writing training, to make it as accessible and engaging as possible.
• The launch of channels, playlists and videos and content from even more experts.
• The launch of our excel package, giving advanced tender writing training.

Conclusion

We know that tendering is hard and is filled with a plethora of often ambiguous details, considerations and requirements. But with the right tender writing training, supplemented by free online resources such as Tender VLE, you will be unstoppable!