What to look for when hiring bid writing services in Australia
Putting together a tender application can be a complex undertaking and can often take weeks, if not months of time to finalise. Many businesses preparing for their first tendering opportunity find that the process can be all-consuming and may distract employees from their own jobs. This is a major reason why so many organisations, small and large alike, choose to opt for the services of tender and bid writing professionals. For the inexperienced tenderer, having access to the unmatched advice of expert bid writers is often the difference between a winning and failing tender proposal.
Because preparing tender proposals is often also a money-intensive process in addition to being time and resource consuming, hiring a bid writer is often the best bet to ensure all your efforts aren’t in vain. But with so many tendering services out there, some with expertise in your particular industry and some who may work across the board, it can be difficult to choose the right service for you.
But before we go into how to find the best bid writing service for your needs, let’s take a look at what bid writing entails.
What does bid writing mean?
The primary job of a bid writer is to prepare documents that have the highest chance of winning contracts for your business. More than just writing the tender proposal itself, this job will also include doing research, preparing all the required documents, ensuring compliance, meeting deadlines, editing and proofreading as well as following up on a bid after submission and getting feedback regardless of the outcome. Bid writers are also often called tender writers, proposal writers or even technical writers.
Things to Look For When Hiring Bid Writing Services
- Excellent Attention to Detail
A major part of the responsibilities of a bid writer includes their close attention to detail. When hiring a bid writer, you expect that all answers will be answered correctly with a minimal chance of any typos, spelling or grammatical errors slipping through. The bid writer you choose should have the ability to read between the lines to understand what the tenderer is really expecting from a proposal and then create a strategy to better sell your business. - Industry Knowledge
Especially important for those working in highly specialised industries, such as healthcare or power generation or even those bidding for government contracts, your bid writer needs to understand the nuances of your industry and the special considerations they will need to take when preparing a proposal. Successful tendering is the result of striking the right balance between skill and industry knowledge. How you approach a government tender will differ from the methods you use for a private tender. A bid writer with experience in your field will know exactly what information to include in the proposal to set your response apart from the competition. - Personalised Approach
One of the biggest mistakes rookie tenderers make is copy pasting information from previous tender responses to all of the contracts they tender for. Although a bid writer would have worked with several other companies in your industry to help them win contracts, the writer you choose should approach each tender opportunity with the understanding that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to tendering. They should be looking at each tendering opportunity from a completely new lens and tailoring their responses based on your company’s USPs. Your chosen tendering service should be able to quickly identify your business’s size and level of expertise and tailor a response that best fits your unique situation. - Demonstrable Results
If your chosen bid writer has previously worked in your industry, how much success have they had winning contracts? Although it can be impossible for even the most experienced of bid writers to win every tender they prepare a proposal for due to the highly competitive nature of hte process, knowing their track record can be a good indicator of how well they deliver what they promise. Ask your bid writer for a list of the tenders they have recently won for their clients as well as those they lost. Also ask them for referrals and get in touch with these referrals to understand more about the writing service’s processes from their clients themselves. - Writing Skills
Perhaps the most important skill for any bid writer worth their salt is good writing skills. Striking the right balance between writing persuasively and being subtle but succinct is a learned art and not everyone has the skill of writing assertively without coming off as pushy or boastful. In addition to being persuasive, your bid writer should also have the skill of explaining tough concepts in a simple, informative manner. Your tenderer may not understand the particulars of what you do or your expertise may be in something considered too complex to be easily explained. It is the job of the bid writing service you hire to be able to quickly understand content, restructure and edit it so that it is easy to follow and understand.
