From Panic to Prepared: How to Stay Bid-Ready All Year Round

Why It Matters

Winning tenders often comes down to being ready before the opportunity even appears. If you wait until a tender is live to get organised, you’re already behind. Here’s how to stay prepared all year round, even when there are no tenders on the table!

Keep an Eye on What’s Coming (and what's gone!)

• Pipeline Management: Create a tender pipeline so you know what tenders are coming up

• Find A Tender Service: Look out for future opportunities on the Governments Find a Tender Service Website and set up alerts for immediate notification

• Research and Identify Opportunities: Regularly research and identify upcoming tender opportunities from your targeted client's procurement portals (visit their website and find out which portals they use and if they have published a list of recurring contracts)

• Ensuring Delivery: Focus on tenders where you can fully deliver and meet the buyers' specification and that match your business goals

• Partnering: Consider partnering with another supplier to fulfil the contract, ahead of tender publication and work together to target the exact tenders

• Pre-Market Engagement: Strategically seek out buyers who are engaging with suppliers for extra insights

Updating Bid Documentation

Tenders often ask for the same documents - again and again! Keep them up-to-date so you’re not scrambling at the last minute. It saves time, reduces stress and ensures you're always ready to respond quickly and confidently.

• Regular Reviews: Schedule periodic checks to ensure all documents are current, accurate and aligned with the latest requirements

• Mind the Gaps: Identify missing or outdated content such as expired policies, old case studies or missing accreditations. Take action to update or replace them

• Bid Library: Create a centralised, well-organised bid library with folders for compliance documents, case studies, CVs, policies and standard responses

• Version Control: Use versioning to track updates and avoid confusion over which document is the most recent

• Ownership: Assign responsibility for maintaining each document so nothing falls through the cracks

• Accessibility: Ensure your team knows where to find documents and how to use them. Consider a shared drive or bid management tools

Training Your Team

Investing in training for your team not only improves bid readiness, but builds confidence, reduces stress and strengthens your overall approach.

• Bid Management Best Practices: Train your team on how to manage the bid process effectively, including working with external bid writers, co-ordinating inputs and maintaining quality under pressure.

• Specific Topics: Offer focused sessions on areas like risk management, innovation in bids, social value and compliance - especially where these are weighted heavily in evaluations

• Continuous Improvement: After each bid, conduct a debrief to identify what worked well and where improvements can be made. Use this insight to shape any future training

  Role Clarity: Ensure everyone understands their role in the bid process, even if they’re not writing. From finance to delivery teams, everyone contributes to a stronger submission

• Knowledge Sharing: Encourage team members to share lessons learned, templates and tips. Peer learning can be just as valuable as formal training

Be Ready to Price Before the Tender Drops

Pricing is often the trickiest part of a bid - but you don’t have to wait for a live tender to get started. Here’s how to prepare in advance:

• Know How Buyers Score: Understand how pricing is usually evaluated in your sector - cheapest isn’t always best

• Build a Pricing Framework: Create a basic pricing model you can adapt quickly when tenders go live

• Keep Your Costs Updated: Make sure your internal costs, supplier rates and delivery assumptions are current

• Create a Value Message: Be ready to explain why your price is fair. What value do you bring beyond the numbers?

• Work with Your Team: Agree on who handles pricing, who signs it off and how you’ll respond to different pricing formats

• Review Past Bids: Look at what worked (or didn’t) in previous submissions to improve your approach

Final Thoughts

Being bid-ready isn’t just about reacting quickly - it’s about being proactive. With the right systems, documents and training in place, you’ll be ready to go when the right opportunity comes along.