Bids, Tenders and Proposals: Winning Business through Best Practice (Bids, Tenders & Proposals: Winning Business Through Best)

Matching the bid specification

• Is the bid fully compliant? If not, how is it at variance?

• Is the document structured in a way that makes it easy for the client to check against the bid specification?

• Does it respond to points that the client had emphasized or specified precisely - for example, commitment to the availability of key personnel, competencies required of staff or the scheduling of time inputs and deliverables?

• Is it a complete response, in terms of its technical content and the breadth of its analysis?

• Does the bid focus sharply on the project and on the closeness of match between what the client requires and what your team can do?

• If the bid puts forward an alternative approach or a variation, have you presented a convincing argument for this? Is the variant solution accompanied by a conforming solution?

• If you were invited to comment on the bid specification or terms of reference, did you use the opportunity constructively?

Projection of value and benefit

• Does the bid put across the message that your response offers added value that clients would not be able to obtain from competitors?

• Are the outcomes of the work described in terms of the benefits intended by the client or just as services provided by your firm?

• Does the bid convey a sense of creativity and dependable innovation?

Emphasis on strength of team/partnership

• If a partnership, group or consortium is proposed, does the bid explain the rationale for its formation?

• Does the bid identify clearly the personnel forming the work team? Does it emphasize critical 'winning-edge' points about the team, their experience and their knowledge?

• Do the CVs communicate the experts' professional and management strengths in ways that are particularly relevant to the requirements of the work?

• Does the bid provide supporting evidence that the nominated experts possess the required competencies?

• Is there an appropriate balance between information about the technical competencies of the team and information about your contract management skills?

• Is there evidence that team members have worked together successfully on comparable projects?

• Does the bid express a sense of team integration and commitment?

Insight into client issues and requirements

• How well are client issues and requirements analysed?

• Does the bid contain original material resulting from your own research and perceptions rather than repeating or paraphrasing data supplied by the client?

• Does the bid show empathy with client values and processes, and an understanding of the client's working environment?

• Does the bid ignore social or political issues that ought to have been recognized and discussed?

Accessibility of information in the bid

• Is the content of the bid structured efficiently in terms of its delivery of information?

• Does the bid possess a convincing logic?

• Are the parts of the bid signposted to assist navigation through the document?

• Is there a bid response matrix?

• How much cross-referencing is there from one part of the document to another?

• If there is a bid summary, is it used effectively?

• How are headings and sub-headings used? Do they highlight outputs and benefits or inputs and services? Is there a logical hierarchy in the use of headings?

Effectiveness of communication style

• Is phrasing consistent within the bid and with the client's documentation?

• Are key selling points placed up front and projected strongly and explicitly?

• Does the bid appear to have been written expressly for the occasion, rather than assembled by copy-and-paste methods?

• Are all technical points and issues adequately explained?

• Is the text free of errors in grammar, spelling, sentence construction and punctuation?

• If there are numbers in the text, do they add up correctly?

• Are appendices or annexes used appropriately for material such as extended CVs, summaries of experience and detailed statistics?

• If the bid is to be read by evaluators whose first language is not English, does the way it is written take this into account?

Business thrust

• Does the bid have a businesslike feel, as if you have done the job before?

• Do the logistics of the assignment, in terms of getting the work done efficiently, appear to have been thought through in detail?

• Is there a sense of looking ahead to problems and difficulties that might arise and building in the means to avoid or overcome them?

• Does the previous experience outlined in the bid focus on work that is recent, relevant and related to the subject of the bid?

Quality of methodology

• Are your work methods explained logically and comprehensibly?

• Is it evident how each component task and activity in the work programme will be addressed?

• Is there a direct relationship between activities and outputs?

• Are tasks itemized to an appropriate level of detail?

• Are options and alternatives analysed?

• Are innovative or challenging aspects of the methodology highlighted?

• Does the bid avoid the temptation to include project solutions?

Projection of management capacity

• How well does the bid convey your strength in managing teams and contracts?

• Is there an appropriate emphasis on performance monitoring and progress measurement?

• Does the text refer effectively to mechanisms for quality assurance and risk management?

Quality of presentation

• Does the bid look like a professionally produced document and a competent business offer?

• Is there evidence that someone has thought about the design of the document and its appearance?

• What is the quality of the page layout? Is there a balanced relationship between column width, font size and line spacing?

• Do tables have an efficient layout? Are they captioned and numbered consistently?

• Is there sufficient graphic content?

• Is the style of graphics competent and consistent throughout the document?

• Are text and figures well integrated? Or are there discrepancies between them?

Relationship between technical and price information

• Does the tender price match the technical content of the bid?

• If the client required separate technical and financial proposals, were these developed in tandem?

• Were any work components or inputs underpriced or overpriced?

• Were contingencies included for high-risk elements?

Bid management

• How efficiently were the development and production of the bid managed?

• How well had the context of the bid been researched?

• If there was specialist technical input to the bid, how effectively was it coordinated?

• Were there factors that caused difficulties or delays? Could these problems have been foreseen?

• Were any particular resources lacking or insufficient? If so, why?

Implementation

• How accurately was the bid translated into work on the ground?

• Were correct assumptions made about the project environment, work output, team competencies and so forth, when developing the bid?

• Did you recover the costs of your investment in the bid?

Client feedback

• What information came from the client about why the bid succeeded or failed?

• Have further invitations to bid been received from that client? If not, do you know why?