Member Article

Writing a bid can be a daunting task!

The rewards for getting it right and winning can be massive. Nowadays, contract awards of billions of pounds are commonplace. Thousands of jobs can be created and reputations made. For even a small company, winning a major bid can change it forever.

On the other side of the coin, losing is a painful experience. Years of work can be wasted by a bid that does not make the grade. A company’s competitive position can be seriously undermined by simple mistakes. Most companies still teach the art of bid writing (and make no mistake, it is an art) by looking at what has gone before. Previous bids are reviewed, whether they were winners or not, and many have been left to make the most of it.

This is how I learnt! I was given a pile of previous bids and told to read them all, as if the secret of the Holy Grail was held within those pages.

When I had to write my first bid it was like navigating through a thick fog with no idea of where I was going. Needless to say, we didn’t win.

Because of the confidential nature of the information in any bid, it is difficult to talk to customers and suppliers about their approaches and learn from their mistakes. So it is left to learning by experience, with hard lessons learnt from failure before you appreciate what it takes to win. This is both costly and mentally punishing.

During our almost 35 years of bid writing and training, we’ve learnt that bids should be:

• Interesting to write (and, dare we say, ‘enjoyable’, or at least ‘satisfying’);
• A challenge every time - a bored writer will create a bad bid;
• Something you’re proud to put your name to;
• A document that the customer really wants to read (otherwise, why write it?);
• Aimed at winning, every time ( - is there another reason? Actually there is, but that’s for another day).

We can even tell you how some companies build a business by never writing bids; and why you should never win every time!

David Ward - GreyMatters Academy

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by GreyMatters Academy .