1. SCLO Consulting Helping your business grow

2. Tender Best Practice - Agenda Opportunity Identification What to Bid for? Creating a Bid/No-bid Matrix What Makes a Winning Tender Effective Planning Using a Bid Plan Key Do’s Key Don’ts

3. Tender Best Practice – Opportunity Identification Requirement to publish tenders in a variety of locations once value reaches £10,000, Examples of where to find opportunities: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk https://procontract.due-north.com http://www.sourceleicestershire.co.uk http://www.sourceeastmidlands.co.uk https://www.eastmidstenders.org

4. Tender Best Practice – What to Bid for? Have target priorities – and set parameters Look at the timeframe – is it realistic? Is it a punt or a do you have a chance of winning? Does the outcome justify the input? – how big is the job compared to the contract value? Can you allocate the time to do it?

5. Tender Best Practice – Creating a Bid/No-Bid Matrix Bid/No- Bid Matrix Ensures consistency Have a scoring criteria Type/Delivery Location Value Review and evolve Effective Sign-off Process Who needs to give the final go-ahead Who needs to sign off the content Who are your internal stakeholders How will the winning tender be implemented

6. Tender Best Practice – What Makes a Winning Tender Answer the question! Not what you want to say The How, Who, Why, What and When Never assume the reader/marker knows your business or understands an acronym Use the space given – the reader is expecting a certain level of detail Clear and concise answers Make your response easy to read – think about the reader, how have you laid out your answer? Answer to the layout/breakdown of the question Be compliant

7. Tender Best Practice – Using a Bid Plan Why use a plan? Keeps you on-track with key actions and dates Allows prioritisation Ensures everyone is on the same page and allows effective diary planning Keep it simple Plan but not to the nth degree – it isn’t a military operation Try and stick to it The tender is important, make the time

8. Tender Best Practice – Key Do’s Be sure the tender is for you Give yourself sufficient time – understand when your deadline is and work back from that point Read the specification and the associated documents – highlight the key elements as you go Understand what you have to submit – don’t get to the deadline and realise that you don’t have a document, this could lead to non-compliance Plan effectively and create a check list Write a bid plan and build in sufficient time of review and changes Check, check and check again Have a submission process

9. Tender Best Practice – Key Don’ts Leave it to the last minute Write the bid in your ‘spare’ time Assume – if you are unsure ask a question Cut and paste too much Submit without checking

10. Tender Best Practice - Questions

11. Tender Best Practice Steve O’Hare SCLO Consulting www.scloconsulting.co.uk steve.ohare@scloconsulting.co.uk 07879 442629 @SCLOCon Steve O’Hare