Tender Responses - What To Say And How To Say It In Your Tender Responses
The content, style and tone of voice of your written responses to tender questions say a lot about you and your organisation. Opinions of course vary as to what represents ‘best practice’ but you can develop a defined house style which you find, from experience, is consistently well received by the market. Here are some key style attributes that you should engineer into your responses:
You are writing for the discerning corporate buyer: they want to know clearly and easily who you are, what you do and how you go about it.
- most of your pre-qualification and tender responses should be written in a calm, factual and professional style
- this is not the place for sales hyperbole or the kind of language you might use in a sales brochure
Use a logical topic breakdown structure so that your responses flow in a sensible and easily understood way:
- break down topics into levels of seniority - spend time breaking each topic (or even the entire body of what you do) into this hierarchy before you start writing
- reflect each level of the breakdown in a precise title hierarchy, with section headings and numbering to identify ‘rank’ and seniority
- your hierarchy can then drive the compilation of your document’s table of contents
Make sure that all the elements of your tender response hang together. They should all be written to a consistent:
- format - page width, table layout, font, pitch, bolding, titles, numbering, bullet style
- tone of voice - active, direct speech, concise, short sentences, simple words
- style - factual, unambiguous, appropriate levels of detail, correct punctuation and English
Parts of your PQQ and RfP response will be about you and your organisation. This is where you should be positive and compelling:
- show that you really understand how you contribute value to the buyer’s business
- don’t hold back on your key attributes, especially those that set you apart from other likely competitors
- be specific on why you consider that are the right organisation to be awarded this contract
Researching, drafting, agreeing and formatting approved tender response material is a laborious but necessary process. You can use well-authored material regularly as part of your ‘RfP route to market’:
- save it and build a strong response library for those standard and predictable tender questions
- you can then readily adapt them with a little tweaking for your next tender response
Getting sound, consistent practice in place from the start lays the ground for automating your responses to tender at a later stage - reducing the time taken to create a first draft from days or weeks to minutes!
RfPSolutions can help fast track your tender response development, getting you quickly to responses that stand out.
RfPSolutions provides bespoke tender response consultancy from supporting that important new RfP through to full tender programme development, automation and management.
If you are you considering tendering for the first time or looking for more from your responses to tenders, contact http://www.rfpsolutions.co.uk to see how we can help you raise the level of your tendering game.
To order your free copy of our Guide to Effective Tendering, visit http://www.rfpsolutions.co.uk
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