Steps to Preparing a Tender Response

Register the tender in your tenders management system. Even if you decide not to bid, track opportunities over time and your success rate.

Print two pages to an A4, back and front (flip on the long edge) to review more efficiently. If you need large print, ignore this.

Read the entire document. Highlight important points. Write down the closing date and time — your immutable deadline.

Determine what your chances of winning are.

If your chances are sub-optimal, decide whether to submit. Sometimes strategic benefits outweigh the costs.

Companies that don’t strategically select tenders tend to “shotgun” proposals hoping something hits. The downside:

• Increased volume pushes staff into templated responses — and templated losses.
• Random effort wastes critical resources.
• Poor quality bids reduce your chance of winning.

Once the decision is made to submit, assign a realistic budget.

Disciplined companies determine the cost of winning business at the activity level, not at the salaried level.

As a benchmark: bidding for work worth $500,000 should cost around $11,200 or take around 224 hours of internal staff time.