Creating Winning Bids

Basil Sawczuk

• Publisher: RIBA Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000705119
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

'Creating Winning Bids' sets out the key stages in the production of a winning bid. Based on tried and tested methods, and using a simple step-by-step process, it will improve your chances of success in what can otherwise seem a daunting and complex process. Distilling the author's experience of over 25 years of bidding in the public and private sectors, it is packed with practical tips about what your client really wants to see. Beginning with a concise look at how to find new opportunities for work, it examines the various types of bid that can be made and includes invaluable explanations of the jargon used in the bidding process – from OJEU to PQQs.

Illustrated throughout with useful diagrams and checklists, and covering a range of procurement routes, this guide will help anyone from the sole practitioner to the large firm with a dedicated bidding team to create practical and perfectly-tailored winning bids.

Chapter 1
Finding opportunities to bid for work

Not so daunting

For a small consultancy it might seem quite daunting to start bidding for work. There are so many opportunities available that it is often difficult to know where to start and how to deal with new opportunities as they arise.

This guide takes you through the many types of opportunities that exist and sets out how to quickly evaluate those that are most likely to be successful for you. Once you have decided which bid to pursue, the first step is to identify the key points that the potential client is looking for, then consider how best to address these points to improve your chances of securing the project. The guide details how to plan the process of bid preparation, how to create the document, how to incorporate your experience and additional information within the main body of the submission and how to use appendices creatively and effectively.

First, we will consider what is required to successfully bid for work, scrutinising the process and explaining some of the jargon that is used in the bidding process. Then we will detail the types of bid and the various ways in which a bid can be made.

One word of caution is needed here: this guide provides an approach to creating compelling winning bids but does not deal with the contractual aspects. You may need to take advice from lawyers, advisers and professional indemnity (PI) insurance providers when entering into a contractual relationship with clients.

Bidding to win work

When starting up a consultancy, the opportunities for new commissions will probably come through existing relationships, recommendations and perhaps as a result of some form of marketing. As the firm grows and the portfolio of completed projects increases, the consultancy’s credibility will be enhanced and the opportunities to successfully bid for more work will increase. The ability to use your past experience and current resources to increase your workload makes bidding for work both exciting and rewarding.

In the past, work was awarded on the basis of existing relationships, especially in the private sector; however, there is now a trend towards clients becoming more selective. As a result, most clients will use some form of bidding process to:

• reduce the risk of making the wrong choice
• satisfy shareholders (or the public if the work is in the public sector) that the selection process was fair
• achieve value for money
• select a consultant whose ethos matches their culture
• ensure that the consultants are financially stable, have sufficient resources, appropriate experience and the necessary systems and technology in place to suit the demands of the project
• obtain input from the consultants at an early stage.

Given this trend, more and more opportunities are available through some form of bidding process. To improve the chances of success, some investment of time must be made to gather information that will be required in the bidding process. However, once this initial effort has been made and sufficient information gathered in presentable formats, it becomes a matter of simply reworking the data for subsequent bids.

Many small consultancies believe that bidding for work in a competitive environment is only for the bigger consultancies. This is not true. Some major private sector clients have smaller projects available where a smaller consultancy, with fewer overheads, could have a better chance of winning the work. Also, virtually all work placed by the public sector, regardless of value, has to go through some form of bidding process. The smaller, lower value projects may be particularly attractive to smaller firms.

Most consultancies will be experienced in submitting proposals. Proposals tend to be a response to a discussion with a potential client, where the client asks for some information to assist them in the decision-making process. The temptation in this situation is to send the client a brochure or other general information. However, this may not prove sufficient to secure the work, especially if competitors are able to produce more bespoke and compelling proposals. Therefore, knowing how to produce a compelling bid will also dramatically increase your success rate when submitting a proposal in a situation where there is no bidding process.

So, what does it take to successfully bid for work? Listed below are a few attributes that would certainly help:

Understanding the bidding process

Many consultancies, especially smaller firms, are deterred from bidding for work because they do not fully understand the process involved. This is understandable as there is no standard bid process. Large, complex projects, by their very nature, may have a long process with many stages. Smaller projects, however, might involve a simple exchange of letters.

Where public money is involved, UK projects must adhere to European Union (EU) procurement laws and there are set procedures that must be followed. These procedures vary depending on the value of the contract.

It is worthwhile taking some time to understand the bidding process and considering whether it is worth expressing an interest. In simple terms, the bidding process could follow the following sequence:

Types of bid

Negotiated contract

If you have a good existing relationship with the client, you might not be involved in a competitive bid process but would instead negotiate the contract. This may still require some form of bid documentation. In these situations you should consider the following points:

• Take the time and effort to submit a good proposal, ensuring that your suitability for the project is beyond question – don’t give the client a reason to seek an alternative proposal.
• Refresh your existing relationship – don’t let the client think that you are taking the relationship for granted. Deal with your existing client as if they were a new client that you are trying to convince to appoint you.
• Enhance your service offering – your client might have been approached by your competitors and they may be offering better value for money.
• Obtain feedback whenever you can – emphasise the good points in your proposals or bid and demonstrate how you have addressed any shortcomings.

Bidding direct to the client

Single project

A private sector client has a degree of flexibility in terms of the format and procedure of the bidding process. Public sector projects within the EU, however, have to comply with set procedures.

The procedure for public sector projects is primarily determined by the project value. If the value of a project is below a certain threshold, then the procedure is more relaxed. Smaller consultancies may wish to target these lower value projects and there are a number of websites that list these opportunities. The website www.supply2.gov.uk is a good starting point to find low-value public sector opportunities. It is free for local searches but a fee applies to regional or national searches. The Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) website lists all the public sector projects above the value threshold.

Where a project is above the value threshold, then the public sector client may opt for one of the following:

Restricted tender process	The consultant (service provider) will have to respond to an advertisement expressing an interest in tendering. They will then have to complete a PQQ to demonstrate that they have sufficient experience and resources to meet the client’s needs. Only those who are subsequently shortlisted and invited may submit a tender.
Open tender process	This differs from the restricted tender process in that all those who request the tender documentation will be invited to submit a tender. There is no shortlisting with a PQQ stage. Instead, the information that is normally requested in the PQQ is requested as part of the tender. This procedure is often used if the timetable does not permit the separate PQQ stage or the marketplace is limited and the client wishes to stimulate extra interest.
Negotiated tender process	This uses a PQQ stage but allows the client to negotiate the contract terms within strict guidelines. This process is rarely used and is usually confined to exceptional circumstances, such as when a rapid response is required in emergencies or where a particular company is the sole provider of supply, or relevant experience or capability.

Therefore, when bidding for a single project direct to the client, consider:

• targeting the private sector where the process may be simpler and involve less red tape
• that there may be an opportunity to negotiate without the need for competitive bids in the private sector, which is rarely the case in the public sector
• targeting the low-value projects within the public sector where there may be limited competition from larger competitors. Equally, if you are a larger consultancy then perhaps you would not be able to compete on price against the smaller competitors who may be targeting the lower value work.

Framework contracts

In a framework contract or framework agreement, the client has a programme of work over a period of time and agrees in advance the price, terms and conditions and quality standards with those interested in bidding. To maximise the efficiency of the marketplace, the work might be divided into value ranges, thus allowing each bidder to pitch for one or more of the value bands. This allows the smaller service provider to compete with the larger consultancies on lower value projects without the need to pitch for the bigger projects, where the likelihood of success (based on experience) would be limited. Typical question formats are shown in Figure 1.1.

A framework contract will not necessarily guarantee you the work, it simply means that you have been put on a shortlist and may still have to bid for each project as it comes up. Some frameworks are structured in such a way that the projects are given out in rotation to those on the list, so as not to commit too much work to one supplier and risk overloading them. This method rewards all those who made it through to the shortlist.

Figure 1.1: Typical questions within a framework bid document

The benefits of a framework agreement are that it:

• offers the client reduced fee values due to the promise of a given volume of work
• gives the cons...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• About the author
• CHAPTER 1 FINDING OPPORTUNITIES TO BID FOR WORK
• CHAPTER 2 WHAT TO ESTABLISH BEFORE TENDER OR PRE-QUALIFICATION RELEASE
• CHAPTER 3 CREDIBILITY, CAPABILITY, COMPATIBILITY AND RELIABILITY (THE 3Cs + R TEST)
• CHAPTER 4 IMPROVING YOUR CHANCES OF SUCCESS THROUGH BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR COMPETITORS
• CHAPTER 5 PREPARATION AND PLANNING THE PROCESS
• CHAPTER 6 CREATING THE DOCUMENT
• CHAPTER 7 USING APPENDICES
• CHAPTER 8 SHOWING OFF PAST PROJECTS
• CHAPTER 9 OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
• INDEX