How to make your construction tender stand out without lowering your bid

persuade

First of all, your bid is designed to achieve a goal: to convince customers that you are the best partner to fulfill this contract. Therefore, while your first priority is to include any required documents and information requested by the customer, your second priority is to construct a prudent argument that supports that goal.

personalise

We recommend that you do not send general bidding documents. Clients will look for a construction company that wants to solve their specific problems, and a bid that is clearly tailored to their needs will impress them more than just one bid that is obviously used for multiple bids.

Research client

Know your customers as much as possible, and you can adjust your bids accordingly. The client may outline what it is trying to achieve, but it has other goals that may not necessarily be shared with you. For example, maybe the client bids the contract because it is worried that it is a complex project with a high risk of failure.

Knowing this, you can highlight your record of completing difficult projects, solve this self-evident requirement, and provide your bid with an advantage that the competition lacks.

Work to scoring system

You will have your own ideas about what should be highlighted in the bid, but you need to make sure that this meets your customers’ expectations. After all, if you invest a lot of energy in low-score areas and ignore high-score areas, your bid will not improve no matter how good it is. This is a key area that needs to be fully understood.

Use selection information

It's tempting to include any information that might be slightly relevant to your bid, but it actually hurts your chances. Too much information will not only make you gentle and clumsy and difficult to digest, but it may also hide your information in the details.

Instead, provide the information requested by the customer, and provide detailed information and evidence that supports the point you are trying to make. Set aside everything else.

Show off your experience

If the contract you are bidding on is similar to work you have done in the past, be sure to use examples of that work to support your argument as the best choice. If you have not fulfilled a similar contract, try to find examples that match some aspects of their requirements; for example, maybe both of these projects require the construction company to liaise with a large number of stakeholders?

Satisfy short

Even if you think that the customer will benefit from the requested alternative, you can only submit non-compliant bids with their explicit permission. Even so, it’s worth including a compliant bid so that customers can compare it to your alternative solutions.

Reflect your words

Unless you are operating in a unique niche market, your bid will be compared with the bids of other companies capable of fulfilling the contract. Your bid also needs to show customers that you share their mindset and goals. One of the ways you can do this is to match and reflect their language instead of using your own favorite terms.

For example, if a customer refers to a supplier as a partner, do the same in your bid. If the client says that the contract is a step towards building more affordable homes to help first-time homebuyers, make sure you emphasize that helping first-time homebuyers climb the property ladder is in line with your values. These are subtle hints that show that you will be a great fit for customers and provide an advantage to your bid.

The first submission is correct

Spelling and grammatical errors are unlikely to cost you the contract, although such errors will leave you with the impression that your company lacks caution or diligence. But more serious mistakes can hurt your chances. Even if this is an innocent mistake, the customer is not obliged to let you correct it, even if it eventually cancels your bidding qualifications.

Remember customer

Customers will not read your bid to understand how great your organization is; read it to understand how you will solve their problems. Therefore, although it may be tempting to include your organization’s history, achievements, company spirit, and mission statement, none of these can solve your customers’ problems. Include background information, but make sure it is customer-specific.

Provide value for money

Pricing may be your most worried aspect of bidding, but it is not the only part of bidding. Break down your price and outline your reasoning about cost, but if you do everything right, your bid will not boil down to a single number; it will represent excellent value for money.

Of course, there is no guarantee that your bid will stand out from the competition. But following these tips will definitely put you ahead, and your skills and experience should be competent.

Construction bidding list

• persuade

• personalise

• Research client

• Work to scoring system

• Use selection information

• Show off your experience

• Satisfy short

• Reflect your words

• The first submission is correct

• Remember customer

• Provide value for money

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