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

Summarizing the bid

The purpose of the summary is to give decision makers an immediate message that communicates the benefits offered by your bid. Though it is probably one of the parts of the bid that are written last, when the document can be viewed as a whole, it ought to be one of the first items to appear in the bid, ahead of the main technical sections, and it must be a convincing statement in itself, with its own logical flow and structure. It should not simply present a section-by-section pr cis of the full text.

• Brevity. The summary has to be brief because decision makers - the people who will be approving or endorsing the choice of the number one bid - have (or like to think they have) intense pressures on their time. If you want their attention, you have to offer a statement they can read quickly. It may be the only part of the bid that some of them will read, so its effect can be crucial. Make the summary no longer than is necessary to say what is essential and short enough to carry impact. Four pages in total should be sufficient for any bid, however detailed or intricate, but a one-page summary is best.

• Benefits. Creating a 'summary of benefits' rather than a 'summary of the bid' is a useful approach some firms adopt. Besides directing attention to the outputs the client will achieve, it demonstrates that you are able to view the contract from the client's standpoint and identify with their priorities. For example, your client research may have revealed a particular concern about the way changes in project requirements can affect timetables and budgets: if you can offer monitoring and control procedures that minimize the risk of overruns and delays, you will want to emphasize this benefit. Take account of the information you have about the bid evaluation procedure. If you know that a high proportion of marks will be awarded on the quality of the team, make their strengths and the benefits of their experience salient points in the summary.

• Logic. The summary can also be phrased to emphasize the closeness of fit between your offer and the client's requirements, stating the reasoning behind the bid and reflecting the progression of logic leading from an understanding of client needs to the structuring of the team and delivery of the work programme.

• Essentials. Start to write the summary by listing the essential points that come out of each section of the bid, so that you have a set of points corresponding to the bid structure. Then decide which need to stay and which can go. Include only strong supporting points: there is no place in a summary for details or discussions of issues. Leave those for the main text of the proposal. Each point has to earn its keep by adding weight to the impact. Every statement has to be consistent with the key message, building an image of clear purpose and direction.

• Emphasis. Give the summary an emphatic style of presentation. Set it out in a way that makes it easy to read. The most effective summaries are often sets of bullet points, written in a crisp and punchy style. Headings and graphics may be appropriate within the summary: think about including a matrix of benefits, for example, bringing together specialist expertise, local experience, outputs and deliverables and other key features.

• Make the summary unmissable. Locate it in front of everything else except the title page and letter of transmittal. Print it on a different-coloured paper from the rest of the document.

• Basis for presentation. The summary offers a framework on which to base a presentation to the client, if this is part of the bid procedure (Chapter 23). Use points from the summary to headline the content of the presentation.

Displaying your response

If you have prepared a bid development worksheet as advocated in Chapter 8, you will find it easy to use it as the basis for a response matrix. This is a counterpart of the compliance matrix widely used in procurement for goods and supplies. The matrix itemizes the requirements defined in the bid specification, as well as other matters raised by the client, and indicates where these points are addressed in the bid (Figure 12.3). Its inclusion at the front of the bid offers benefits for both the client and yourself:

• It guides the client directly to specific items of information, provides a checklist against which the content of the bid can be assessed and makes the task of evaluation easier.

• The list of client requirements (the left-hand column in Figure 12.3) gives you a checklist of the items that have to be addressed in the bid.

• It enables you to demonstrate your coverage of the client's requirements in full.

• It looks businesslike and communicates a sense of practicality and helpfulness.

• It can put your bid in a better light than competing offers in which the client has to hunt down information.