Introduction
Welcome to December’s instalment of the Red Pony Express, in which Peter concludes his pocket guide to the successful preparation of a tender response and I try to boil down the rules for composing a bulleted list to three. I fail. There's four.
As always, we hope you enjoy reading and look forward to seeing you again in the new year.
Regards,
Andrew Eather
Senior Consultant, Red Pony
Writing a tender and living to tell the tale - part two
Peter Riches
In the first part of this article, we looked at what you need to do before you start writing your tender. In this second part, we look at some tips for developing your response to the request for tender (RFT).
How to structure the response
One of the first questions will be: how should you structure your response? In many instances, the issuing agency will stipulate a structure and provide a template or document for your response.
If they have provided a template, be sure to use it. If they have provided a list of the information you are expected to provide, use this as your section headings. Often agencies will include the key selection criteria in the RFT.
Again, this is a valuable clue as to what their expectations are for the response and what sections your document will need.
Identifying your strategic themes
Before you start writing, it is vital to know what the key messages or strategic themes of the response will be.
Why should your tender be chosen over other submissions? If you haven’t already, you will need to come up with an answer to that question.
Do you have extensive experience with similar projects? Do you have a lower cost structure than your competitors? Do you provide a warranty or guarantee for the deliverables? These become your strategic themes. Choose three or four at most, and reiterate them throughout your response wherever possible.
Creating a response matrix
If you are developing a large document with multiple contributors, it’s a good idea to create a matrix listing each section, noting who is responsible for providing the content and indicating its current state (e.g. first draft, peer reviewed, edited and proofread).
Check the list regularly to see what sections and which authors are meeting their deadlines, as well as those who might need some assistance.
Providing additional value
Can you provide any ‘value adds’ as part of your response? This is an aspect of your offer that the issuing agency may not have previously considered or specified in the requirements, but will provide them with significant additional value. An example of a value-added service might be an offer of free maintenance on goods provided as part of the tender for the first 12 months.
Your value add should be specific and of real benefit to the client. It might just be the reason for choosing your offer over those of your competitors.
Conducting reviews
Reviewing your response is critical, but often it is the first thing to be compromised as the deadline looms. Plan your reviews at the start and build them into your schedule, giving plenty of notice to the people involved.
Depending on the type of tender you are submitting, you should, at a minimum, review the content for factual accuracy (particularly if it contains technical information), from a business perspective (is the management team happy with the terms and pricing) as well as conducting an editorial review (spelling, grammar, expression, etc.)
Printing the final document
Another thing to plan for is printing. If you have to submit a hard copy (or copies) of your response, allow time and budget for this. It’s amazing how often paper will jam, ink cartridges will run out and files will become corrupted when you have a deadline to meet.
If using a commercial printer, book the job well in advance and give them a clear indication of the size and requirements of the document(s) you need printed.
Getting over the finish line
Occasionally the issuing agent will extend the tender deadline. However, this is extremely rare, so don’t plan on it happening in your case. Usually the deadline is just that and late submissions are automatically disqualified.
Make sure you know exactly how many copies are required, and whether they must be hand delivered, posted or submitted electronically. Don’t leave it to the last minute - even submit the day before if you can. After all this work you don’t want to trip at the last hurdle.
The warm afterglow
Now that you have successfully submitted you can relax … for the moment at least. The purpose of a tender is to get you to the next stage, whether that is an invitation to provide a presentation or attend a formal interview, a request for further documentation or to enter into contract negotiations.
If your tender is successful, congratulations on a job well done. If not, don’t be afraid to ask for feedback and look for ways to improve your next submission. Creating a successful tender isn’t easy, but if you choose your opportunities carefully and understand how to produce a compelling response, this can be a lucrative way to build your business.
Bulleted lists
Andrew Eather
A bulleted list is an asset when you are supporting your argument. It’s a liability when your discussion is so underdeveloped that you rely on dot points to make your case for you. Only use them once you have already made your central point in the text and simply wish to provide some supporting evidence, examples or instructions.
Conventions that apply to bulleted lists change with the weather… and from one industry to the next.
They’re very particular about the use of the semicolon in the law; in fact, they’re very particular about a lot of things, given that the placement of punctuation can have some very expensive consequences. In the less consequential professions, however, things can be a little more freewheeling.
Some people regard lists as a Licence to Capitalise and go berserk. But keeping in mind that the items in a bulleted list are more often than not functioning as an extension of a sentence, lower case is usually best.
Another common error is to ignore ‘parallel structure’. What’s that? Well, how often have you seen a list like this:
You can collect the following items from the playgroup:
• beach balls
• soft toys
• picture books
• and don’t forget first aid equipment.
That last point should either have a sentence all its own or it should lose the first three words so it matches the rest of the points on the list.
The convention now is to eliminate all punctuation at the end of a line until a full stop at the end of the last point. It is thought that all those commas or semicolons look messy and don’t add much in the way of meaning since it’s obvious a break is intended as a new line is starting. I agree.
If the bullet points are complete sentences in their own right, then start each point with a capital letter and finish with a full stop.
So, golden rules for bulleted lists are:
• parallel structure
• no punctuation at the end of a line
• full stops only for full sentences.
I would add a fourth: brevity.
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