Here are 12 key Twelve Tendering and RFP Tips that will help any company develop better formal business proposals (RFP responses).

We are here to help if you are short on time.

Welcome to DynamicProposalsNZ’s free bid-winning resources. We are here to help you – businesses with great products or services who aren’t getting the success you deserve from submitting formal business proposals (responding to RFPs).

We have developed an easy step-by-step process and bucketloads of tips to help you. We introduce you to the latest support technology, including AI writing assistance and proposal management software, so that you can create great business proposals yourself for a fraction of the traditional time and cost.

Self navigate through our free online resources or better still check out our online products or contact me directly for help.

Mary-Anne Webber, Founder DynamicProposalsNZ

Tendering and RFP Response Tip #1 Avoid Standard Responses

Responding to RFPs and tenders is not about sending in a standard “About Us” type presentation with some pricing attached. It’s really important to read the RFP/tender to understand what the buyer wants and reflect this back to them in your response.  Read over some past responses you have done. How much of the first five pages of the document have you talked about you and not shown that you understand the buyer and what they have asked for? Try not to use standard stock images unless you really have to. I reviewed two documents from two different suppliers recently and they had both used the same stock image. How would that make a buyer feel?

Tendering and RFP Response Tip #2 Know Your Buyer

Try to get to know your buyer as well as you can before the RFP or tender is due. Don’t make assumptions about what is important to them. Read the RFP or tender documentation carefully. Go and see them to talk it through. Don’t make assumptions about what they think about you, good or bad. Make sure you are really clear on who is doing the evaluation of your tender.

Tendering and RFP Response Tip #3 Organise to Win

Depending on the complexity of the RFP or tender, you may have between 3 weeks and six months to respond. The time allowed for a response is set by the buyer based on how much time they think it will take you to respond. Proactive companies start work on the first day an RFP or tender comes out or even before and develop a work plan for how they will put their best foot forward. Standard companies leave it to the last week, even the last couple of days. This forces them into generic response mode. Use your time leading up to the deadline well.

Tendering and RFP Response Tip #4 Put your Best Self Forward

I know so many great companies that make themselves look so average when it comes to responding to RFPs and tenders. Very often companies will generically sell the sector or the category, not themselves. For example, they will talk about the benefits of outsourcing, rather than the specific benefits of outsourcing with them. Use plain English so buyers can easily see how good you are. Don’t assume that everyone reading your proposal is from your industry or that they understand Kiwi English or business jargon.

Tendering and RFP Response Tip #5 Showcase Your Competitive Advantage

Don’t be afraid to highlight your competitive advantages throughout the proposal. Keep them specific to you and validate wherever possible. For example:

Our websites are easy to edit.

Vs.

Our websites are easy to edit (96% of our customers find our websites significantly or very significantly easier to edit than other websites. Source: Annual Survey).

The survey results could even become a call-out in your main response document.

Tendering and RFP Response Tip #6 Write and Present to Win

When you receive the Request for Proposal (RFP) or tender, take the time to write out the points you think are going to help you win the business and ensure they are included in the proposal. Follow the order of the RFP if one is provided. Use plain English and be consistent with the words you use. Organize your writing into clear points that are easy for buyers to follow. Look for evidence points for everything you write about yourself.

Tendering and RFP Response Tip #7 Price to Win

• Price to Win is a methodology used by large companies to help them put their best prices forward – it’s about determining the lowest possible price to win the contract while achieving a reasonable profit. It involves modelling costs and prices, competitors’ prices and the buyer’s budget. Smaller companies can follow a similar approach using a whiteboard and a team brainstorm.
• A lot of buyers don’t put a weighting on price alone. Instead, they evaluate Value for Money. Value for Money criteria is different from Price criteria in that it balances how well you have met the other RFP criteria with the price you have offered. Make sure you understand whether the criteria is Price or Value for Money.
• Be very clear on what the buyer is asking for and respond to that, and no more, in your pricing section. I have seen so many great companies lose tenders because they have made assumptions the customer wants more than they have asked for and included that in their price, pushing their price above competitors. If someone wants a Suzuki Jimny, don’t give them a price for a top-of-the-line Toyota Land Cruiser.

Tendering and RFP Response Tip #8 Showcase your Value-Adds

Sometimes a buyer sets the scope of what they want too narrowly to achieve their objective in your opinion. For example, they ask for a website, but don’t ask for functionality you know would make a big difference to them, or hosting, maintenance, security, and SEO support. Don’t take it upon yourself to increase the buyers’ scope for them in your RFP response. You risk overpricing yourself and losing the business.

Instead separate the value-adds into a new section and price them there. This will keep your price competitive while showing that you can really help them to achieve their objective.

If the buyer’s scope is not clear, it’s ok to contact them to ask them for more information.

Tendering and RFP Response Tip #9 Keep Your Win Costs Down

Think about the value of the work and the appropriate amount to spend winning it.

Tip#1 Don’t tender for work you are unlikely to win.

Tip#2 Each time you respond to a tender, keep your drafts and work. This will give you a great back catalogue for future RFPs.

Tip#3 Spend your time wisely. For example if you are not used to using Canva (great tool though it is), when you are 48 hours out from submitting a tender is not the time to start learning how to use it.

Tendering and RFP Response Tip #10 Keep Future Doors Open

If you don’t win a contract for work, don’t exit the relationship with the buyer. Instead use it as a learning experience and look for other opportunities with the buyer.

Tip#1 ask for a debrief. Ask the buyer how they came to their decision, why you were not chosen and for constructive feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of your proposal.

Tip#2 maximize the value of the debrief. Aks questions like “how did I rank with the others both on solution and price”. What did the successful tenderer have that we didn’t have?

Tip#3 ask about other opportunities. For example, you may not have won the website tender, but you could win the SEM (search engine marketing) business.

Tip#4 remember that in New Zealand, people move roles and things change. While you may not win this round, keep up positive relationships because you don’t know what might come out of it.

Tendering and RFP Response Tip #11 Deliver on Your Promises

New Zealand is small. People talk. Your greatest source of new business is a happy buyer. If you win a contract to supply a good or service, make sure you deliver what you said you would deliver, when you said you would deliver it, for the price you said you would deliver it. If you can’t deliver what you have promised, your could lose the contract or worse. Most importantly, in a small country like New Zealand, you could damage your reputation, and that could take a long time to repair.

One of the key things you can do to ensure you deliver on your promises is not to overpromise in the first place. It’s easy in a tendering situation to overpromise to get the business, thinking you will sort out the over promise when you win the business. Unless you are 100% certain you can sort the overpromise, just don’t do it.

Tendering and RFP Response Tip #12 Keep Learning and Improving

If you win a tender, or don’t win a tender, keep learning and improving for next time. Seek out buyers’ feedback, both positive and negative and use it to identify your strengths and areas for improvement. Regularly take actions to improve your products and services and let your buyers and prospective buyers know. Keep improving your tendering capability. What was a good tender ten years ago is unlikely to be a good tender today. By showing buyers and prospective buyers you are listen and respect their views, you are showing them you are committed to excellence.

Thanks for taking the time to read this free DynamicProposalsNZ article. I hope it was helpful. I have written and evaluated 1,000+ business documents and hundreds of business proposals and tender responses.  Let me put that experience and success to work for you. I love helping businesses put their best selves forward in bids, tenders and RFP responses. Self-navigate through my free online resources or better still check out my online products or contact us directly for help.

Mary-Anne Webber, Founder DynamicProposalsNZ