Overview
Writing commercial bids in response to tenders is both challenging and time consuming. It helps to have a good understanding of the overall process, how your bid will be scored, and how to manage and write your content well, to get maximum scores. The overall aim is to win tenders bringing new contracts into your organisation in an efficient and effective way.
This course will walk you through all stages of the bid writing process so that you understand how to write good bids, how to get the best scores and best practice in the industry. Bids are usually subject to time, budget, and quality constraints, and you will learn what these are and how to work around them.
This training is interactive and uses case studies, discussions, exercises and break out rooms to help you practice new skills and polish existing ones. Your trainer will also have time to answer your specific questions.
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the commercial bid process and make informed bid/no bid decisions.
- Analyse tender documents to identify key requirements, risks and evaluation criteria.
- Understand how buyers evaluate tender submissions and maximise scoring opportunities.
- Build a Tender Ready approach, including developing a Bid Library to save time on future opportunities.
- Plan and structure persuasive bid responses that clearly demonstrate value and customer benefits.
- Write clear, evidence-based responses that maximise evaluation scores.
- Apply practical bid management techniques to manage deadlines, resources and quality throughout the bid process.
- Work effectively with subject matter experts to gather accurate, relevant and compelling bid content.
- Develop a longer-term approach to bidding through capture planning and continuous improvement.
- Use feedback, case studies and organisational best practice to strengthen future bids and improve win rates.
Agenda
09:20
Registration and GovPD Welcome Address
09:30
Speaker Welcome Address
09:45
Part 1. Understanding the Bid Process
- Understanding public sector procurement and commercial tendering.
- The stages of the bid process.
- How bids are evaluated and scored.
- Choosing the right opportunities using a structured Bid/No Bid process.
- How to identify the ‘Win Themes’ for your bid.
- Exercise – Identify win themes for your products and/or services.
- Developing and maintaining a bid library
- Exercise – Analysing a specification and identifying key requirements.
11:00
Break
11:15
Part 2. Part 2. Writing Persuasive Bid Responses
- Common bid writing mistakes and how to avoid them.
- Understanding evaluation criteria
- Answer planning – plan responses before you start writing.
- Structuring answers for clarity, compliance and maximum impact.
- Exercise – Answer planning
- How to write compelling body text.
- Using evidence, benefits and customer outcomes to strengthen responses.
- Editing tips for power and punch
- Exercise – Improving a bid response.
- An overview of Social Value?
12:30
Lunch
13:15
Part 3. Bid Management Planning
- Practical bid management tools and planning techniques.
- Managing resources, deadlines and quality throughout the bid process.
- Working effectively with subject matter experts.
- Managing clarifications and reducing submission risks.
- Understand the importance of a review process
14:30
Break
14:45
Part 4. Building Long-Term Bid Success
- Embedding bidding best practice across your organisation.
- Using case studies and evidence to strengthen future bids.
- Capture planning and preparing for future opportunities.
- Learning from feedback and measuring success.
- Creating a culture of continuous improvement.
16:00
Trainers Summary and Close
*Programme subject to change
Course Instructor
Alison Reeves
Alison has been writing bids for over 25 years and has a background in training, technical writing, marketing and copywriting. Her clients span several business sectors including IT, Commercial Cleaning, Security, Manufacturing, NHS and Social Care and are made up of a variety of clients including large multi-nationals, SMEs, family businesses and Charities. She also helps clients win funding and grant applications.
Alison has long been passionate about supporting organisations to write their own bids and has run 100s of training courses over the last 15 years. She also helps her clients to build effective bid libraries and content.
Who should attend?
This course is designed for professionals involved in preparing, writing, or managing competitive bids and tenders, including:
- Bid writers and proposal professionals responsible for producing tender responses
- Business development managers seeking to improve win rates in competitive procurement processes
- Sales professionals involved in responding to public or private sector tenders
- Project and programme managers contributing to bid content and delivery planning
- Senior leaders and directors responsible for bidding strategy and contract acquisition
- Finance, commercial, and operations professionals supporting pricing, resourcing, and compliance in bids
- Consultants and freelancers who regularly respond to client tenders or proposals
- Marketing and communications professionals contributing to written bid content and messaging
- Subject matter experts involved in providing input for tender responses
- Professionals new to bid writing who want to understand the full end-to-end tender process
The course is suitable for both new and experienced professionals who want to improve their understanding of the bidding process, enhance their writing quality, and increase their success rate in winning contracts.
Get In Touch