An inside look at unsuccessful tender feedback.
We were recently tasked with working with a client in the technology sector to review a tender that they were unsuccessful for. They had received detailed feedback from a large federal government organisation on why their tender submission didn’t make the cut. This company engaged us to review the feedback and help uplift their internal capability. We went on to support them with a series of tender applications – two of which we’ve just heard they were awarded.
While it’s never fun to review your failures, tender feedback can provide an invaluable insight into where your tendering needs to improve.
In the case of this client’s feedback, the tender was scored overall as below average and detailed feedback was given on the key areas of the bid. This feedback was reflective of what we often see from government when we are asked to review unsuccessful tender applications. Here are the areas you need to watch out for.
01. No evidence
Lots of statements, made to claim superior product, value, solution, performance, service etc. but with no validating proof points.
This is crucial; all of your big claims will be ignored if you can’t prove them. Don’t offer to provide documentation on request – show it up front. Demonstrate how you can make your big claims. If you have 90+ customers in this sector, who are they? If you have a robust modern slavery policy in place, attach it and detail the outcomes. If you have a strong track record of delivering projects on-time and on-budget, cross-reference to the case studies in your tender that detail these. Get those proof points embedded into your entire response.
02. Lightweight case studies
Not enough detail, not tailored to the customer's set of challenges.
This is a lost opportunity to demonstrate through storytelling how you have performed. Case studies are one of the most important components of a tender as the story of them can engage and compel your reader in their emotive processing, rather than the cold hard facts that comprise the rest of your tender. Your case studies are your opportunity to demonstrate how you delivered in a context similar to the RFT requirements, providing a relevant link to the bid. One way to really elevate your case studies is to ensure that they speak in the language of your customer – use the terms and set of challenges defined in the RFT.
03. Proposal inconsistency
Hard to read due to varying language and terminology used.
While your proposal might have 10+ contributors, you have an audience of people who will each likely be reviewing the entire proposal. There is nothing worse than trying to read and understand a document with multiple ‘voices’. That is, when your various authors’ contributions are not harmonised to sing from the same songbook. It can feel disjointed reading through various writer styles, tones, even formatting. We recommend a thorough single voice edit once your tender is complete to ensure your reader is not jumping around through sections, noticing the inconsistencies.
04. Not meeting requirements
It's your job when you're responding to a tender to ensure that your response is compliant and meeting the specified requirements of the tender.
If you can’t, you’ll need to be really clear on why you’re non-compliant and offer a resolution or innovation (in many cases you’ll just be deemed a non-compliant bid and excluded from the process). Part of ensuring compliance is to check that the solution you’re putting forward is suitable for the customer’s environment. Usually, their documentation and briefing sessions will give you a clear view of the environment that they are currently operating in and how the tender must align with this.
05. Incorrect assumptions
'We don't know how you got to the set of assumptions outlined in your pricing but there was a clarification period where tenderers were invited to ask questions'.
You’re never going to get the full picture from tender documentation. It’s expected with any tender that your response will be based on several assumptions that you make to size up the opportunity and understand the customer’s needs. However, there are several avenues for further information that you need to be taking careful notice of. These are:
- Briefing session. It’s imperative that you send a representative to the briefing session if there is one provided for the tender. This gives you insight into the drivers behind the RFT, you get to hear what the customer is putting the most emphasis on, you’ll generally get a good view of their landscape, and you can also scan the room for the competition – even getting to see what questions they are asking in the Q&A. Don’t forget, you can often attend these sessions virtually if an in-person attendance is not possible.
- Ask questions. Don’t be afraid to engage in the clarification process. It’s an opportunity to engage in a dialogue with the customer and demonstrate that you’re considering their requirements carefully.
- Keep an eye on the addenda. Usually, there will be a window of time for tenderers to ask questions. All questions and answers will be published via addenda and this keeps you on top of the detailed requirements while also giving an insight into the kinds of questions other tenderers are asking – great intel.
06. Risk to customer
Qualifying yourself out by proving too difficult to work with from the outset.
Remember, a tender is a sales pitch. You’re in the wooing era of the relationship and while it can be tempting to nitpick and pull out all possible risks and issues that may arise, this approach can be counterproductive. You want to be showcasing how easy it is to work with you, how willing you are to be flexible and adaptable, how straightforward your offer is. It’s never about hiding terms or not being truthful, but it worth considering what you highlight at this point in the negotiation.
These are just some of the feedback themes that we consistently see. The first and most crucial step is having a strong bid qualification process to assess your likelihood of success. We offer comprehensive loss reviews, analysing your unsuccessful tenders from an evaluator’s perspective to provide actionable insights and help strengthen your future bids.
