Tendering to win business can be a game-changer for field service companies, offering a pathway to bigger projects and significant revenue. If you are keen to explore this route to market, there are a few things that you need to know before you start pulling together your first tender submission and we’ve prepared this blog to help you.
This blog will explore:
What tendering is
The stages of the tender process
How to win a tender
How to show Compliance and delivery
How to Demonstrate who you are
What to include in the submission
How Rugged Data can help
First of all, what is tendering?
Tendering is the process that a buying organisation goes through to select suppliers of a particular product or service. Formal and structured, the tender process is designed to help them fairly and equally evaluate suppliers and establish value for money in procurement.
Tendering to win business refers to the competitive bidding process that a company actively participates in to secure contracts or projects. It involves preparing and submitting proposals or bids that convince the client that your company is the best choice to fulfil their requirements.
If you are interested in tendering to win business, it represents a fair and open playing field where you will be evaluated on set criteria. It usually follows a clear question and answer approach for you to demonstrate how you can meet their requirements.
These are the various stages that you might have to go through.
Tendering to win business – the stages
Expression of interest
Typically, a notice of a tender is submitted by the buying organisation and you will be invited to express interest in the work. An outline of the work is provided and you will be invited to register your interest in order to receive more information.
Pre-Qualification stage
There may be a pre-qualification stage whereby you will be asked to provide basic information to pre-qualify to the next stage. This is like a smaller version of the main bid and just helps the buying organisation to narrow down the suppliers that they invite to tender.
Tender stage
Heading onto the full tendering stage, where you provide extensive information and evidence to support your proposal to provide the services. This would include a comprehensive financial breakdown or pricing, demonstration of technical capability, experience and quality.
Evaluation of bids
The client will evaluate all the bids received against their pre-set criteria and determine the extent that the bid meets the requirements. There may be an invitation to present or meet with the client to discuss the offer.
Negotiation and award
Based on the evaluation and any further communication with the client, they will select the most suitable bid and award the contract to the successful bidder. There may be some element of negotiation prior to award, but the decision will typically be communicated through the official portal and you will be informed with feedback. There is often a cooling down period before the contract is formally signed by both parties.
How to win a tender
Winning a tender takes a lot of effort and requires more than just competitive pricing; it demands a comprehensive strategy that demonstrates capability, reliability, and added value. Here’s what you need to know about submitting a tender and giving yourself the best chance of success.
Show compliance and certifications
Field service companies tendering to win business need to provide clear evidence of compliance within the industry, whatever that looks like for you. This could include detailed quality assurance processes, health and safety procedures, or environmental and other legal processes that are relevant to your job.
Supporting documentation
Include copies of things like:
- Your policy documents and working procedures
- Certification list and copies of certificates
- Certificates held by key personnel within the company
- Audit reports or assessment results
- Training records
- Quality records
Demonstrate experience and expertise
Highlight your teams’ past successes. This could include a general overview of your business, it’s history and background to demonstrate how long you have been in business & why you started. Demonstrate the industries that your business supports by providing evidence of clients you have worked with. Some of the ways you can showcase your work include:
- Case studies – describe the scope, challenges & solutions that you have implemented and highlight what the outcome was for your client.
- Project summaries – like a case study but shorter snippets of past projects demonstrating the value and summarising what you did.
- References from clients – Ask past clients to give you statements of reference that you can use as evidence.
- Industry awards – List any awards or recognition that your company has received from third parties.
- Client satisfaction metrics – If you track client satisfaction through any other means, such as surveys or completion rates, provide breakdowns of those results.
Explain how you will deliver
When you start tendering to win business you will need to find a way to demonstrate exactly how your field service business will deliver the work once you are successful. Your potential client needs to be able to see how you work and be confident in your ability to deliver, so don’t hold back. Show them the nuts and bolts of your service and give them the information they need to make their decision. Things to include in your delivery plan are:
Your approach to project management
Show how you will manage the project by providing a comprehensive plan complete with timelines, milestones and key deliverables. Talking about best practice project management theory like Lean or Prince2 will make your assessors feel reassured that you know what you’re doing.
The tools you will use for the job
Talk about and demonstrate any tools that you use to help you do your job. Whether that’s specialist equipment or software, explain how you use it and how it benefits your customer.
For example, field service companies that use Rugged Data can provide their clients with evidence of work done, by way of time or date stamping, photographs and geolocation data. This demonstrates compliance which is obviously a great benefit for the client.
Systems like Rugged Data may also allow you to realise further opportunities to do business with the client that might not already be part of the tendering process. For example a fire safety organisation we worked with, was able to offer PAT testing as well as the fire safety services that they were tendering to win. This was an extra bonus for them and for the client.
There are huge advantages to some of the systems and tools that you use every day and by highlighting them, you will position your company as a forward thinking and reliable partner, enhancing your credibility and improving your chances of winning the tender.
Your approach to customer service
Explain what your potential client can expect from you in terms of customer service. How frequently will you provide updates, what reports will they get, how will you communicate with them? Support this with testimonials from customers that can vouch for your approach.
Risk management plans
Show how your company handles any potential risks to the job by providing thorough risk management documentation. This could involve identifying operational risks relating to things like equipment or your people on the job, health and safety risks which could include potential for injury or exposure to hazards and environmental risks which could be associated with things like waste disposal or environmental factors. By demonstrating your plans to overcome the risks, you will show your ability to anticipate and handle any challenges that may arise and give your prospective client the peace of mind that you are a reliable pair of hands.
Your team profile
Since your team are a big part of the delivery effort, it is important to put them front and centre and show off their good qualities! Talk about their background, their qualification, their experience on the job and highlight any future training they may have.
Demonstrate the kind of company you are
Tendering to win business presents an opportunity to showcase the kind of company you are at your core, hopefully one that will help you build trust and appeal to your audience.
Tenders often ask you to demonstrate things such as social value, environmental responsibility, community engagement and brand values. Here are some ideas for your response.
Social & community impact
Describe what you do to support your local community. Things such as creating jobs in the local area, providing training and participating in community projects. Highlight examples of where your company has made a positive impact on the community.
Talk about your company’s contribution to the local economy including support for other local businesses, charitable donations and any volunteer work you have done. If you run apprenticeships and internships, provide details.
Explain any policies and practices you have that promote diversity and inclusion within your workforce and share or demonstrate your commitment to creating an inclusive work environment.
Environmental impact
Set out your approach to sustainability by discussing how you aim to reduce carbon emissions or minimise waste. Be sure to mention any suppliers using eco-friendly materials or who promote sustainable practices.
Set out how your business manages waste, recycling and disposal of hazardous materials. An ISO 14001 accreditation is a great way to demonstrate your commitment to sustainability.
Demonstrating ethics and values
You can tell a lot about a business by their values, so be sure to include yours. Talking about the things that matter most to you, and importantly how you behave day-to-day, provides a real insight into your field service business and helps your customer make a real connection with you.
Make sure you get across your key marketing messages
Winning a tender for business is as much about providing a strong and compelling story as it is about showcasing your technical capabilities and experience. Ensuring that your tender submission gets across your key marketing messages is a crucial part of creating a strong, persuasive bid. Here’s why this is important and how you can go about it.
Why include your marketing messaging when tendering to win business
Aligning your tender submission with your marketing is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, it ensures you put across a consistent voice and brand identity, which builds trust and recognition. Secondly, it reinforces your company’s brand values, enhancing your credibility once again and thirdly it helps you to create a better connection with your audience. By focusing what you say on your customers’ needs, they get to hear exactly what they’re looking for and your submission will stand head and shoulders above the rest!
So, what should you include in your tender?
- Your unique selling points. Make sure you know exactly what these are for your business and use them repeatedly within the content of your submission.
- Stories conveying your success. Stories are a great way to show the reader the way you work, that you can be trusted to do the job and are very engaging to read. In the form of case studies and testimonials, you can explain how your company overcame challenges and delivered outstanding results.
- Highlight your client’s specific needs and challenges. Tailor your submission to address these points directly and demonstrate that you fully understand and can support them.
Make sure you hit the brief and deliver a quality submission
There are a lot of things to consider when preparing your tender submission. This can include how it reads, how it looks & ultimately whether it satisfies the overall brief. Your aim is to make it flow and easy for your assessor to read and digest. It should visually represent your business and sell it in the best way possible. Here are some things you should consider:
Hitting the brief
The key to success is making sure your submission actually answers the points set out in the client brief. Submission via client portals often guides you through the questions that need to be answered, but it can also be useful to carry out some of your own research into the buying organisation, to make sure you are fully aware of what they need you to provide. Evaluate the following:
- The core values, objectives and type of solution they are looking for
- Analyse the website, press coverage, existing suppliers, to give you more insight
- Analyse the incumbent supplier if there is one, to identify any strengths and weaknesses that you could use to your advantage.
Deliver a quality submission
If your tender needs to be submitted via an online portal, we would recommend preparing your submission in a Word document before hand, rather than directly on the portal, just to avoid the chance of accidentally submitting something you’re not happy with. These are some tips you can implement to make sure your submission is good quality, more can be found here.
- Use proper paragraphs and a consistent heading structure to your text to make it easy to read
- Use visuals to support complex messages, include graphs, charts or other illustrations to support your points
- Read the text out loud so that you can check it reads well
- Avoid industry jargon that your audience may not understand and be concise, don’t waffle, make sure you answer the question being asked
- Use bullets and bold to make important points stand out
- Use colour schemes that align with your company’s branding where appropriate
- Ensure your supporting documentation also looks the part.
Tendering to win business – how can we help?
We hope that this blog has gone some way towards helping you take advantage of the opportunities that will come with tendering to win business.
Many of our clients have improved their service offering by using Rugged Data and we hope that you can too.
Take the first step and speak to us about your business processes. Together we can look at the ways we can improve them, help you deliver a better service and increase your chances of winning your next tender.
We hope you’ll enjoy exploring the benefits of Rugged Data on our website, and please reach out if you would like a demonstration or to talk to us about any of the ideas you have read in our blog. We are happy to help.
