In the competitive world of business, bidding for new contract opportunities is a common practice to continue growing as a business. To increase their chances of consistently winning contracts, bidders must develop an efficient and methodical process for developing their bid responses. One way a business can achieve this is by developing and maintaining a bid library where they can
If you’re an SME bidding on contracts against large companies, it can feel like a David & Goliath situation, especially when it comes to social value responses. While larger organisations can have a dedicated social value team and the capacity to easily calculate Social Return on Investment (SROI) or impact, this can be more difficult for SMEs to prove. So
If you work in the construction sector, and especially if you are bidding in the construction sector, you will have been confronted with varying definitions of what ‘net zero’ means in the context of UK buildings, and confusion about associated terms including ‘carbon neutral’ and ‘zero carbon’. Market analysis has shown that the industry agrees on one thing: the need
Win themes are a key part of a successful bid, and without them you are at risk of submitting a bid that sounds just like your competitors. They provide an overarching narrative that runs through the bid and ensures you communicate the story that you want to tell. They help to drive consistent writing throughout your response, making it a
The net zero journey has been a topic of conversation since 2008 when the UK Climate Change Act first set a target of achieving 80% of 1990 emissions levels by 2050. This target has changed several times, usually in response to the annual Carbon Budget, with the current target being to achieve 68% of 1990 levels by 2030 and achieve
From April 2023, the NHS will require its suppliers of new contracts over £5 million to publish a carbon reduction plan (CRP). If you are planning to bid for any NHS contracts, you need to be prepared. Why do suppliers have to publish a carbon reduction plan? The government published a Procurement Policy Note, PPN 06/21, which details how government
If you’ve filled out a standard Selection Questionnaire (SQ) in April, you may have noticed a few changes. These are the result of the government’s latest Public Procurement Note, PPN 03/23, which replaces PPN 08/16 as the latest guidance on the SQ. What’s changed? There are some changes which give greater clarity to contracting authorities, for example: They can now
With the UK public sector’s annual spend of £350bn on things ranging from app development to zoo facilities management, all organisations should be bidding for these opportunities. It can seem intimidating if you have no experience, but there are ways you can position yourself early for success. As the points below demonstrate, if you wait until a tender is released
In part 1 of this series, we offered some solutions to the most common challenges you are likely to face from buyers as a bid professional. Sometimes the challenges are within your own organisation. We have outlined some ways you can approach these challenges and start to change the culture of your organisation. It is important to remember that you
If you are frequently dealing with the same bidding challenges, such as unhelpful clients, difficult-to-reach internal subject matter experts, a ‘last-minute’ culture and/or long working hours, it can be useful to have some strategies on hand to deal with them. In Part 1 of this series, below, we have offered some solutions to the most common challenges you are likely
