Our Top 10 Tender Writing Tips & Guidelines For Success

While tender writing can be an arduous process, successfully submitting a winning tender can lead to highly profitable and worthwhile projects. If you’re new to tender writing, there are a few things to consider. Most notable to the uninitiated tender writer is the length of the procurement process. It can be resource-intensive and will often require the involvement of multiple team members. As the tender is open to any company, your success depends on delivering a standout, successful tender response. Whether you’re a novice tender writer or you just want to improve your chances with your next tender submission, here are our tender writing guidelines for delivering a successful tender submission. These guidelines have been developed from the process of helping our clients win $500 million in new business, with 85 per cent of our tenders successful. Follow these tips for success – or let us do the same for you!

1. Give yourself time

Your starting point for any tender writing process is to ensure that you meet all the evaluation criteria, have all the relevant documentation, and that your team has the necessary capacity. When planning the tender project, don’t forget to include copyediting and a review to ensure accuracy, persuasion, consistency and compliance in tender documents, as well as an error-free response. This review process is a critical element often overlooked by companies tendering for projects. Your tender submission can benefit greatly from the skills of a professional tender writer.

2. Stick to the script

A key area where many organisations go astray in the tender writing process is failing to answer the specific tender questions – one of the most common tender mistakes. Whether you’re responding to a government tender or corporate tender, the assessors are looking for specific skills, capabilities and experience to deliver on pre-determined criteria and outcomes. Your answers need to be relevant to every question in the tender. Understanding tender requirements and focusing solely on the tender topics respects the assessor’s time and saves you preparation time.

3. Stay on point

When writing persuasive tenders, we often fall into the trap of over-emphasising or over-explaining, using longer phrases that feel more authoritative. A successful tender submission resists the urge to use four words where one would suffice. For example, why say ‘for the purpose of’ when you can just say ‘to’? Or ‘a wide range of’ when you could just say ‘many’.

4. Your voice matters

Tender submissions often cover subject matter that’s dry and technical, which can result in a more formal, passive voice in the writing. Irrespective of the subject matter, using an active voice will lead to faster comprehension of your content, enhance clarity and directness, and increase engagement and authority. A 2019 study by the University of Toronto found that using the active voice gives more credibility to content, increasing the audience’s belief in the message. This is vital in establishing that your company is the perfect candidate.

5. Direct your answers specifically

Even when you’re responding to a tender, the principles of business remain the same. People do business with people they know, like and trust. So, taking the personal approach can set you apart from other candidates. Wherever possible, address your answers directly to the individuals who will be assessing the responses. This helps to establish a stronger rapport when you don’t have the benefit of an in-person meeting or an established relationship. Even if you have worked with the organisation before, this serves to reinforce the relationships you already have.

6. Focus on the benefits

In addition to directly answering the questions, emphasising the benefits that an organisation will gain from working with you is also key. Keeping your focus on the outcomes for them, rather than simply highlighting the services you offer, leads to tighter responses honed to their specific needs. This creates a superior submission and will also keep you focused on the tender questions.

7. Back up your claims

The assessors are looking for hard evidence that you can deliver exactly what they need, so we highly recommend avoiding marketing phrases and claims of being the number one anything! Rather than using relational claims (e.g. ‘we’re the leading…’), provide specific tender writing examples of where you have delivered similar services, identify who this work was for, where possible, and highlight the specific outcomes, benefits and improvements that you delivered.

8. Present well

Your attention to detail could be the difference between a good submission and a winning tender submission. This relates to both the content and its presentation. While ensuring your content is well-constructed, grammatically correct and error-free may not, of itself, deliver you the win, it engenders greater confidence in your abilities. This is why proofreading tenders is essential. Similarly, designing the content with plenty of white space, bullets, numbered lists and clear headings makes the assessor’s job of reviewing your submission much easier.

9. Compliance is key

Many great tender submissions fail because they don’t include all the requested supporting documentation and certification. It may seem obvious, but before you write anything at all, read through the entire tender document and create a tender checklist of everything you need to gather, including any supporting documents and certification.

10. More than just the facts

A well-crafted document that is easy to read and beautifully constructed is a much more likely candidate for winning tenders than one that simply provides the facts. To provide a cohesive and compelling narrative in your tender submission, especially when it is drafted by multiple contributors, the skills of a great copyeditor are essential. Whether you have talent within your company, or you need the services of a professional tender writer or copyeditor to pull it all together, this step can make all the difference to a winning submission.

Get expert help

Many companies view tender writing as a straightforward process, simply collating their existing marketing materials and hoping for the best. But creating a winning tender submission is a skill and an art form that benefits from solid proposal writing techniques and contract bidding advice. Rather than leaving it to chance, bring in a professional tender or proposal writer. As an expert in the development of an executive summary for tenders and the provision of Request for Proposal (RFP) tips, they will enhance your chances of success. For professional help with your tender writing, proposal writing and bids, contact Proof Communications on 02 8036 5532 or 0411 123 216 or head to the contact page.