What does answering a public tender cost a firm?
A public sector tender is a fixed-format exam with a deadline. The firm reads the invitation, the specification, the evaluation criteria and the clarification log; confirms it meets the conditions to take part; answers a set of scored questions within strict word limits; attaches policies, certificates, insurances and CVs; and submits through the buyer's portal. Then it does the same again, with slightly different questions, for the next buyer.
To cost it, list the people who touch a typical tender and estimate each one's hours: the bid lead, the partners or directors who write technical answers, the people who find evidence and the person who formats and uploads. Add those hours, multiply by each person's charge-out rate, then by the number of tenders you submit in a year. Count the hours sunk into tenders the firm later withdrew from, too. The unbillable hours calculator converts weekly bid hours into a yearly figure, and the audit shows bid work against the firm's other unbilled time.
Why does every tender get written from scratch again?
Most firms have answered the same themes dozens of times: quality management, mobilisation, contract management, sustainability, safeguarding, data security, social value. The content exists. But each buyer phrases the question differently, weights it differently and sets a different word limit, so the old answer never quite fits. Someone opens three previous bids, copies the best paragraphs, cuts them to length, changes the buyer's name and hopes the evidence is still current.
That rewrite costs the most senior people's time, and it is also where marks are lost. An answer stitched from earlier bids tends to describe what the firm does in general rather than responding to what this evaluator is asking. The evidence may be stale: a policy that has since been updated, an accreditation with a new expiry date, a CV for someone who has moved on.
How is a public tender different from a private proposal?
A private proposal is a persuasive document the firm shapes itself, and it has its own page under proposal and bid production. A public tender under the Procurement Act 2023 regime is shaped by the buyer. The questions are set, each answer is scored against published criteria by evaluators who follow a marking scheme, and the contract is awarded to the most advantageous tender on that scoring. There are typically two kinds of question:
- Participation questions, covering whether the firm can take part at all: its standing, finances, insurances, experience and any grounds for exclusion. Much of this is factual and repeats across tenders.
- Award questions, scored against the criteria and weightings in the tender documents: the quality of the method, the team, the approach to risk, and often social value, which is often scored as its own element.
Both reward precision. An answer that plainly addresses each criterion, in the order the buyer lists them, is easier to score well than a stronger answer the evaluator has to search through.
What does a rebuilt tender response process look like?
- The tender pack is read for you. Every question, sub-question, word limit, weighting, mandatory requirement and deadline is extracted into a response plan, including clarification deadlines.
- A bid or no-bid summary is drafted early, setting the requirements against what the firm can evidence, so the decision is made before the writing starts.
- Each question is matched to the library: approved answer blocks, current policies, accreditations, project examples, CVs and social value commitments, each with an owner and a review date.
- Answers are drafted to the criteria, structured the way the buyer's marking scheme is structured, and kept inside the word limit.
- A compliance check confirms every mandatory item is answered and attached, and flags any evidence past its review date.
- The bid lead reviews and edits, adds the contract-specific thinking only the firm can supply, and approves. Nothing is submitted without that sign-off.
The library improves with each bid: when an answer is rewritten well, it becomes the new starting point. If your compliance evidence is scattered, compliance evidence is a closely related rebuild.
What changes for the bid team?
Technical authors stop starting from blank pages and old files. They receive a draft answer that already addresses the criteria and fits the limit, and they spend their time on what wins marks: the specific approach to this buyer's contract, the risks particular to it, the right example. The bid lead stops chasing people for CVs and certificates. Directors see a no-bid recommendation before their time is committed. And the firm can respond to more of the right opportunities without adding bid staff.
Which firms tender for public work often enough?
Facilities management companies bid for public estates contracts and framework lots. Managed service providers compete for public IT services, often through frameworks and call-offs. Engineering consultancies, environmental consultancies and architecture practices bid for consultancy commissions from councils and public bodies. The team has worked up to project-director level across four frameworks and seven tier-one contractors, so the rhythm of framework bidding is familiar. The team includes a civil engineer who worked as a Works Manager on TfL LoHAC and at Interserve, Jackson Civil, Barratt and Ringway Jacobs.
How is the tender process rebuilt in 30 days?
Week one reviews your last few submissions with the bid team, and, where you have them, the evaluation feedback, to see where time went and where marks were dropped. It also gathers the evidence and answer content into a first library. In weeks two and three the process is built to read tender packs, plan responses and draft answers in your house style, and it is tested on a live or recent tender so the bid lead can judge the drafts against the real marking scheme. In week four the bid team is trained and the next tender runs through the new process. Thirty days of support follow go-live, and how we work sets out each stage.