Background
At Tender Victory we tailor our training sessions to match the industry and objectives of our audiences. This tailored approach applies to the delivery of all of our training, including the Tender and Bid Writing training
The organisations to which we have delivered this training have included numerous SMEs from varying industry sectors. In this case study, we focus on our security systems client.
The client had a bid team consisting of individuals that were experienced within the organisation and its business development, but they lacked experience in bid writing. Accordingly the client sought a training sessions that would act as a refresher course for the experienced members of the team and a valuable introduction to the newer members of the team. We therefore developed our training materials to deliver training that would enable all attendees to better understand how to prepare for tendering; in addition to how to put pen to paper and draft tender responses that would result in success.
This bespoke training package included industry specific references and examples.Personalising our content to each organisation’s industry facilitates greater engagement from the trainees, resulting in an improved learning experience for participants.
Challenges
Due to the scale of their organisation, the bid team was continually busy with live tender submissions for regional and national tenders.
Implementation
In order to deliver training that worked with the client’s busy bidding schedule, we shaped our training as follows:
- We combined our “Tender Writing Training” with our “Understanding Public Sector Procurement”training, delivering the content in one single day, rather than over multiple days.
- In the practical sessions, we used live tenders and difficult questions as examples to work through and discuss, enabling the client to benefit from a seminar based approach. This added value and also benefited their time.
We understand that when trying to create bid responses, the main challenge our clients face is understanding what is expected. Or, in other words, what the public sector buyer wants to see and read in their response. In our “Tender Writing Training” course we cover “understanding public sector procurement” which breaks down the jargon and helps the client to understand what is being asked of their organisation and what they need to demonstrate. In this course we outline in detail how to write winning responses by breaking down the questions to understand what the buyer is seeking. Attendees learn how to ensure their answer goes into enough depth to give the buyer confidence in their organisation’s abilities to deliver on their promises.
Result
The attendees raised relevant questions as the training progressed, enabling us to break off into detailed discussion points that added value to their training and understanding of the subject matter.
Towards the latter half of the course, the practical sessions delivered some great discussions around the table, which contributed brilliantly to attendees’ recognition of the importance of creating of writing plans when formulating tender responses.
Summary
The client used the knowledge they had gained in our training to successfully respond to public sector tenders.