Tendering is a great way of earning revenue, right? So, what’s stopping you?

Jun 2, 2020

Winning a public sector contract builds cachet in the eyes of other public bodies, because of the directly relevant experience. This leads to it becoming comparatively easier to win other public sector contracts.

On paper, the idea of being able to secure a long-term source of regular ‘bread and butter’ revenue from the public sector is appealing. Scheduled ongoing work to fill capacity puts your CapEx to work more efficiently, plus would enable a business to better forecast variable costs. Another benefit of long-term contracts is that scheduled work over longer periods mean that a business can leverage its buying position with suppliers to negotiate down the cost of larger volumes of raw materials.

Additionally, winning a public sector contract builds cachet in the eyes of other public bodies, because of the directly relevant experience. This leads to it becoming comparatively easier to win other public sector contracts. The knack though, is gauging to what proportion of work a business wants to gain from public and private sector and that decision would be based on constant monitoring of the client portfolio, to ensure the right blend of clients to manage risk.

So far so good. So, why doesn’t everyone try to win public sector work? Larger businesses, which have invested in building up robust in-house tendering skill and processes will routinely pursue public sector contracts. For these businesses, the public sector has come to represent an established proportion of their client portfolio. But what of SMEs, which are just dipping their toe into the ‘tendering water’. For smaller businesses, the tendering process can appear an insurmountable hurdle. Whilst small business owners are savvy, commercially aware, agile and expert in their fields, it doesn’t follow that they will be expert in tendering. Put simply, maintaining a sustainable business is the art of deploying finite resource, in order to maximise return. So, if a business wanted to go for a tender, but didn’t have in-house tendering skill, it follows that their chances of success would be limited if they prepared the tender response themselves, right?

SME owners (quite rightly) need to focus on the day-to-day running of the business, meaning that during trading hours, it wouldn’t be possible to work on a tender response. This would also introduce the risk of opportunity loss; not being able to focus on generating revenue, because you’re spending that time working on the tender. Factor in also that there may be several people in your business that are contributing to your tender response, meaning that given the amount of time spent to prepare the tender, it would be impossible to calculate the overall cost to the business of preparing the tender. Where that tender would be put together by your own people, who possibly don’t have tendering experience, how can you know you’ve answers the questions correctly? The whole experience could prove costly, not just in terms of time spent on your tender, but in the lost opportunity of having not put that time to more efficient use, in order to generate revenue, only to find that tender response is unsuccessful. This is an all too common outcome for many smaller businesses, leading to them being put off going for other tenders.

Consider also the ‘whys and wherefores’ of what supporting evidence you may need to provide, which accreditations you may think that you are required to provide and the idea of tendering for some businesses becomes quite off putting! Why would you therefore, try tendering, if your business doesn’t think it would have a chance of winning in the first place?

Let’s rewind. The idea of winning a public sector tender to yield ongoing, profitable revenue, with payment terms that are typically thirty days is an appealing one. Instead of facing the probable pitfalls you’d likely encounter if you attempted the tender yourselves, why not bring an expert in to support you? With a consistent 75% win rate, bringing in Tenderwin significantly increases your chance of success. Instead of the uncertainty of not being able to calculate how much your tender response would cost to prepare, Tenderwin takes as much of the ‘donkey work’ of preparing the tender as possible from you, plus our costs are fixed.

This means that you are able to focus on running your business, whilst maximising your chance of winning the tender, plus also containing your risk, because you’ll know exactly how much it would cost. Tendering should be seen as one of a number of sales activities or ‘routes to market’, all of which incur cost. The efficacy of working with Tenderwin on your tendering activity however is that we screen those businesses that we would consider to have an excellent chance of success for any given tender. It is down to the business to undertake their own due diligence and to decide whether they want to go for the tender, however Tenderwin has to be clear that there is a sufficient fit of the tender’s specification and the business’s ability to meet those requirements.

Tenderwin would never guarantee a win, because that’s simply not credible, however with over nine years of continuous trading and being continually immersed in public sector tenders, we are considered by our clients, our peers and ultimately, our track record, as experts in the field of public sector tendering. Our role is to guide, advise and navigate the client through the tendering process, with the aim of winning the tender and to ensure the client is in a position to achieve profitable yield, otherwise, what’s the point?

The reality of tendering is that it can be highly competitive, but not just in terms of pricing. To be successful, one must sufficiently demonstrate your understanding of the tendering authority’s situation; what it wants to achieve, its organisation  and wider operating environment, plus that your offer presents a well-judged blend of managing risk, plus demonstrating value-add. These variables should be nuanced throughout the tender response and this is how Tenderwin is able to differentiate the quality of its responses.

To discuss how tendering could benefit your business, contact Daniel Bouvet on (07990) 524513, or email Daniel here.