6 tips for winning business development tenders

Winning business development tenders could take your organisation to the next level. The only problem is, do you know how to write a winning bid?

In this blog, we’ll tell you six tips for producing a winning tender response. Keep reading to find out what they are!

1. Find the right opportunity

Before you do anything, you need to find the right opportunity to bid for. It’s okay to be picky at this stage. If you tender for every opportunity that comes along, you’ll end up wasting your business’ time and resources.

So, when you start searching for business development tenders, consider the following:

• Do you have enough experience?
• If it financially viable?
• Do you meet the financial standing?
• Can you offer something unique in the market?
• Does this fit with your long-term strategy?
• Do you need to outsource any work?
• Does your company have the ability to deliver the work on paper?
• Do you have time to deliver the work?
• If you were in the buyer’s shoes, would you choose yourself for the project?

2. Produce a well-written response

Our next tip is crucial for increasing your chances of success. When you bid for business development tenders, you need to produce a well-written, high-quality proposal. The quality of your response is important, as this will make it easier to convey information to the buyer.

So, you should use simple, clear, and concise language in your bid proposal. Aim to make your response as enjoyable to read as possible. If they have to jump through hoops to understand your response, you’re unlikely to win the bid.

3. Demonstrate your experience

Next, you need to demonstrate your relevant experience to the buyer. They’ll expect to see previous contract examples that show you’re capable of delivering the work. So, before you respond to business development tenders, gather your evidence.

Ideally, you’ll have two to three case studies from the past five years. It’s important to only include evidence that is relevant to the contract you’re going for. This will assure the buyer that you have experience with similar contracts and are the right supplier for the job. 

4. Add value to the contract

To increase your chances of success with business development tenders, try to add value to the contract. In the public sector, contracts must have a minimum weighting of 10% for social value. This means that at least 10% of the evaluation marks will be focused on social, economic, or environmental factors. For instance, this could include:

• Supporting COVID-19 recovery
• Creating job opportunities
• Tackling climate change.

5. Follow the buyer’s instructions

When you’re trying to secure a contract for your business, it’s crucial that you follow the buyer’s instructions. Whether you’re bidding for e-learning contracts, business development tenders, or any other type of consultancy contract.

What do we mean by this? Well, in the tender documents, the buyer might have included guidance for formatting and submitting the tender proposal. If that’s the case, you need to follow these instructions. So, if they’ve stated that a question requires 500 words, a couple of sentences won’t suffice.

Likewise, you should always follow their submission instructions. For example, if an electronic submission is required, the buyer won’t accept a postal submission instead. 

6. Proofread and edit your response

Finally, it’s important that you take the time to proofread and edit your tender response before you submit it. Submitting a proposal that is full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors won’t do you any favours. The buyer might think you’re unprofessional and could assume that you don’t care about the bid.

So, to win business development tenders, you should thoroughly review your work. To help you do this effectively, try the following:

• Asking someone else to proofread your work, such as a peer or colleague
• Waiting a few days before reviewing your response, so you can tackle it with fresh eyes
• Outsourcing to professional Bid Writers through a Tender Mentor

In summary

To win business development tenders, remember our six tips for success:

1. Find the right opportunity
2. Produce a well-written response
3. Demonstrate your experience
4. Add value to the contract
5. Follow the buyer’s instructions
6. Proofread and edit your response.

Consultancy Tenders

Are you looking to tender for business development tenders? Why don’t you visit Consultancy Tenders?

Consultancy Tenders streamlines the tendering process to save you valuable time when finding business development tenders.

Benefits of becoming a subscriber include:

• Locating public and private sector opportunities in one central portal.
• Receiving daily updates of available tenders, direct to your inbox.
• Filtering your search by relevant keywords, budget, location, and more.
• Access to your own Account Manager, who’ll answer any queries you have.
• Your dashboard will automatically filter tenders to show you relevant opportunities.
• We manually track opportunities from over hundreds of sources daily.
• We host exclusive tenders that will not be posted on any other site.

Here are five examples of business development tenders that we’ve previously sourced on the Consultancy Tenders portal:

Sustainable Business Development Project

South Downs National Park Authority – South East – Budget: £50,000

Business Analyst  

Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority – Scotland – Budget: £70,000

Business Development Support

Cornwall Council – South West – Budget: £160,000

Digital Springboard – Business Growth Programme

East Suffolk Council – Eastern – Budget: £190,000

Town Deal Business Case Development Support

Cornwall Council – South West – Budget: £1,750,000

Want to start finding business development contracts with Consultancy Tenders? Book a free live demo today.

Need assistance with consultancy projects?

You may not have the time or resources in-house to write a winning tender response. Outsourcing to tender writing specialists can help you secure your next contract.

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, provide four levels of bid writing support services. Our Bid Writers have over 60 years of collective bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. Whether you’re new to tendering or need your response proofread – we can help.

Tender Ready

Tender Ready is the perfect programme for those who are completely new to tendering. You’ll have access to an expert Bid Consultant to answer any questions that you may have. You’ll also get a year’s subscription to our Consultancy Tenders portal.

Tender Improvement

If you have already been applying for tenders but aren’t seeing success our Tender Improvement package can help. Our Bid Writers will go over your previous submissions and provide feedback and guidance.

Tender Writing

Have you found the perfect contract for your business but are struggling to start? Send it over to our Bid Writing Team and they can write the whole response for you. If you use our Tender Writing service, they’ll even submit it on your behalf!

Tender Mentor  

Our Bid Writers can look over a bid response you’ve already written, checking it for errors before you submit. Sometimes you just need another pair of eyes to go over your response and our Tender Mentor service can help.

A subscription to Consultancy Tenders could increase your chances of securing a business development contract. With the time saved and numerous opportunities found, Consultancy Tenders can feed seamlessly into your business development strategy. With a subscription to the portal, you receive:

• Unlimited access.
• A dedicated Account Manager.
• A free 20-minute phone consultation.
• A daily email bulletin.

Contact us today to find out more!