IT'S ALL ABOUT THEM: Three tips for a client-focused submission

By Kate Burrows, Managing Director, Tender Training College

The fundamental principle to a winning bid, I believe, is a client-focused response.

Putting yourself in the client’s shoes at every stage of the bid process enables you to develop a more effective solution that's going to meet its needs and objectives.

The ‘client’ is both the tender evaluation panel that reads and scores the submissions, as well as the entity itself that has released the tender – i.e. the business or government agency.

There are a number of reasons why a client-focused response is important, but for the most part it is because it is people buying people.

If you go into a car yard and tell the sales person you want to buy the safest family car and they offer you a Lamborghini – they obviously haven’t listened to your requirements. While possibly tempted, you may also get quite frustrated at them for wasting your time.

We connect to the client, show alignment and build trust through our tender submission when we communicate the following:

• An understanding of the client's needs and expectations 
• A solution that meet its requirements and objectives, and addresses any problems or concerns it may have.

Here are my three tips for a client-focused response:

1. Understand what’s important to your client

Getting a good understanding of what’s important or of value to your client early in the bid process will help shape your approach and overall narrative.

It is important to do a thorough client analysis to determine:

• The client’s objectives for the contract.
• How this contract fits with its broader business objectives and strategy.
• Its key risks and concerns for this contract.
• What the requirements in the tender document tell us about what the client wants.
• What does successful contract delivery look like for the client.

The outcomes from this are a number of client priorities or ‘hot buttons’ that we can use to build our bid strategy and approach.

2. Address the client directly

It is surprising how many tender responses I read that are generically written and don’t directly include the client’s name.

For example, the text appears something like this:

“We apply an integrated end-to-end service delivery solution for all of our clients to deliver them cost efficiencies.”

Consider these alternatives if the Australian Government is your client:

“We will apply an integrated end-to-end service delivery solution to the Australia Government to deliver it cost efficiencies",

or,

“The Australian Government will receive cost efficiencies as a result of our integrated end-to-end service delivery solution.”

Refer to the client specifically in the tender response – make sure their name is in the introduction and throughout the document.

Secondly, if we can tell them the benefit of our approach as highlighted in the examples above that is even more compellingly.

3. Write to your audience

Our job in a tender response is to write the offer as clearly and simply to the audience (the tender evaluation panel). This will enable the evaluators to:

a) Easily find the answers to the questions they are looking for.
b) Understand your offer, and how it will meet the contract requirements and objectives.

To achieve this, there are a number of tender writing tips we can apply:

• A clear structure that reflects the questions and the sequencing as they appear in the client’s document.
• Simple language and easy-to-read sentences.
• Explain your offer thoroughly.
• Tell the client the benefits of your approach, and how it will help to meet or exceed the requirements and its objectives.

To learn how to write a client-focused response, join our next Tender Writing Masterclass. Next class is May 12 and 19 May, from 2pm-5pm.