Ensuring a winning experience section for your tender responses
One of the biggest mistakes we see when it comes to tender submissions is the submission of incomplete or lacklustre case studies, usually pasted into a tender response at the last minute. The Experience section of a tender is a huge opportunity for you to demonstrate your track record. Buyer behaviour research tells us that business/government buyers are making decisions with their emotions as well as their rational cognition1. And it’s important to remember that 95% of decision making takes place in our subconscious mind2.
So if your readers’ subconscious evaluation and persuasion via emotion is so crucial, storytelling is the way to the heart. And let’s face it, a story is usually far more interesting than a product description, a pricing table or a solution overview.
What constitutes a winning case study?
- Outline the project challenges in a way that resonates – your reader is looking for commonality and a recognition of what matters to them and how they want to succeed. When you can clearly articulate the problems that they are anticipating, or perhaps haven’t considered, you demonstrate a detailed understanding of their environment and prove that you have the ability to help solve their problems or meet their business needs. There’s no need to obscure the small details – sometimes these are the most interesting. Did you have a wild weather event that threw your plans off? How was that dealt with? Did you have a major risk hanging over the project? How did you manage it? Was there a last-minute change of plans? How did you pivot?
- Don’t be afraid to mention where something went wrong – no one likes a sanitised fairy tale. Buyers want to know how you deal with change, risk and unexpected circumstances. If you’re writing a case study, chances are, you have a big success story to tell. Don’t be shy about talking about the bumps in the road and why you’re the right partner to navigate them with.
- Quantify your achievements – get specific on your outcomes. Many case studies give a detailed description of what the project achieved but don’t offer a sense of scale. How many people did your project deliver to? In the case of a tech project, can you detail the scale of what was provisioned in your project? Don’t stop at mentioning how many boxes of product were delivered – describe how many end-users benefited from this. Are there any facts and figures that demonstrate the impact of your great work?
- Detail your results using data and feedback – in addition to quantifying your results, a case study is the perfect place to provide some qualitative data on your results. You can showcase the success of the project by describing how it impacted your customer but also by including direct quotes of your rave reviews from your client. Ideally this is in the form of a testimonial you’ve received, either as a graphical call-out or within your text. Here’s one we received recently: “Thank you to the Tendup team for all your assistance with pulling our bid together. You did an amazing job, and I can’t thank you enough for the support and care you put into this bid ~ Steve, Director”.If you can’t quote the customer, describe their feedback second-hand e.g. “the client was thrilled with the project’s success pointing to our responsive service, on-time delivery and budget management. We have been engaged for the next phase of the project.”
These are just some of the ways that your case studies can be elevated for greater impact in your next tender.
Tendup supports businesses in their bid journeys. We can help you get tender-ready or support you with submitting an open tender.
We offer a full range of tender and bid services including:
- bid qualification to bid strategy,
- development of win themes and your Unique Value Proposition (UVP),
- bid writing and management,
- design and submission support.
We’ve got you covered on all angles to develop a compliant, high quality, professional submission.
We’re also happy to help you assess whether you’re a good fit for an opportunity – please get in touch for an obligation-free session to help dissect an opportunity or just bounce some ideas off us. We’d love to hear from you.
