43%. That’s the average bid win rate in 2024. Businesses typically win just less than half of all bids and tenders they respond to.

 

Imagine if you could improve your odds…

 

While there’s no magic bullet to help you win bids, the right approach when creating your proposal definitely helps. Evidence from our experience is clear: businesses that use a structured process and relevant resources achieve an above average win rate over time.

 

What would a 60% win rate mean to you? An extra £200,000-worth of business a year? An extra £2 million?

 

After two decades supporting bids for both small and large companies, we’ve collated 14 steps that winning businesses consistently take when creating their response. These steps hold true whether it’s a £50,000 tender or a multi-million-dollar global contract. By incorporating them into your own bidding process, you’ll be in a far better place to win the contract.

So, without further ado, let’s unpack them.

 

Step 1: Start early

This may sound obvious, but you’d be amazed how many businesses leave creating their response to the last minute. They may have it in their sights for months before they start doing something about it.

When you leave yourself (and your team) insufficient time, you don’t submit the best possible proposal. Your thoughts around your offer may be rushed, you can compromise the writing and editing phase, and you often have insufficient time to evaluate whether you’ve actually answered the questions.

Creating a bid proposal always takes longer than people think. So, break bad habits and start your process as early as possible.

 

Step 2: Allocate (and communicate) responsibilities

Resourcing your bidding is crucial, whether you’re a tightknit team or a multinational company. From the outset, establish your team and check you have the skills required. For example:

Who will manage and coordinate the bid?

Who will shape your offer and establish your pricing?

Which subject matter experts (SMEs) need to get involved?

Who will write your bid (this may be more than one person)?

Who will edit, proofread, and evaluate your bid?

Who will develop graphics and design the final document?

In addition to determining who WILL be part of your bidding team, understand who will NOT be. And make sure everyone knows what’s expected of them and the timescales involved.

If you have gaps in your in-house skills, now is the time to talk to a specialist bidding company who can support you where necessary.

 

Step 3: Understand the questions (fully)

Never assume you know what your prospective customer wants. They put a great deal of time into creating the Request for Proposal (RFP) and other tender documents so you’re clear on their requirements.

These instructions will essentially be a series of questions for you to answer. Your first task is therefore to understand the questions so you know how to respond.

Again, seems obvious, right? But time and again, we see tender proposals that dance around the questions, providing what the business assumes their prospective client wants (and what they want to present).

For risk of making it sound too simple, you just have to answer the questions.

So, read the RFP and other accompanying documents carefully. Establish your list of questions (some RFPs can be clearer than others). Also, see if they offer any guidance on score allocations per question, and page or wordcounts. This all helps you deliver exactly what they want to read.

 

Step 4: Create a response outline

Whatever you do, don’t start writing yet. Pens down. Instead, focus on creating a response outline. To do this, break each question down into its component parts and establish the points you need to make to answer each part.

Rough notes and bullets are fine here. You’re creating a concise plan that everyone involved can work from. This is especially important when you have multiple SMEs contributing to the bid and several writers. You’re also ensuring you cover exactly what you need to in the right section without omitting something important.

To create your response outline, you may choose to bring the team together in a workshop. Collating everyone’s ideas at once can be an efficient way forward and gain early buy-in for your offer.

 

Step 5: Create a book plan

Your bid proposal may be just one of many documents your prospective customer has asked for as part of the tender. For example, they may want to see financial forecasts, health and safety documents, or compliance certificates. Your book plan is a list of everything you need to submit.

Again, referring to the RFP helps to collate this list. Work through it carefully and note down everything they ask for. If you’re not sure, ask your prospective customer for clarification.

Once created, hold the book plan in a central place where everyone in the team can access it.

 

Step 6: Clarify your solution to the questions

Again, team workshops can be incredibly helpful here. Pooling everyone’s knowledge can help you create the best offer you can.

Don’t skimp on this step. It’s important to scope out your offer in detail and sense-check that what you’re offering is what they’re asking for in the RFP.

This can also be a good time to establish the USPs and ‘win themes’ you want to communicate in your proposal. Once clear, make sure everyone involved in the bid understands them.

 

Step 7: Assemble your evidence

It’s one thing to say what you intend to do for your prospective client, it’s another to prove you’ve done it before and have the capabilities they need.

This is where evidence comes in. As part of your response, you must demonstrate your capability so they can be confident about your offer.

Evidence comes in many shapes and forms. Customer case studies can be effective, and ideally, you’ll already have a bank of these to pull from. If not, no problem – you started early to give yourself time to overcome hurdles like this.

If you’ve delivered similar projects and have metrics that demonstrate your success, build out some examples to include in your proposal. Try to be as specific as possible and provide meaningful insight. Saying something was “a success” is not enough here.

Have you won any relevant awards? These could provide evidence of your capability. Gather the details so you have everything to hand.

Finally, while not strictly evidence, you may want to consider whether to mention any relevant or high-profile customers. Again, this may give them more confidence in you as a supplier.

 

Step 8: Draft your proposal

At last! Now your bid writers can get to work. Using everything you’ve clarified and collated to this point they can start to get the facts down and create a first draft. Don’t worry about language too much at this stage, you’ll refine it later.

It’s a good idea to structure your proposal in line with the questions. That way, your prospective customer can find the information they need quickly. As they’re likely to be reviewing several proposals at once, yours will stand out if it’s easy to grasp.

Larger bids may require a lengthy proposal. Depending on page and wordcount requirements, you may decide to create a summary for each question response and an executive summary at the start. The objective is to create a proposal that communicates the answers to their questions as clearly as possible.

 

Step 9: Edit your proposal

If you choose to edit the proposal yourself, allow some time between drafting it and doing so. A refreshed pair of eyes will always do a better job. Alternatively, you may pass your first draft onto a colleague, or a specialist bid writer.

The aim is to now turn your factual response into a compelling and persuasive read that’s well-written and easy to understand. This isn’t the same skill as ‘writing’. Those experienced at editing bids know how to achieve what you need and will generally get there faster than someone who doesn’t.

 

Step 10: Review your proposal

Now comes the litmus test: does your edited proposal answer the questions?

Whether you do this yourself or seek help, evaluate your document against the original questions you established in step 3. Put yourself in the shoes of the person reviewing this, and many other proposals. They’ve asked questions and are looking for answers.

If the RFP provided information about the score weighting, use this to consider whether you’ve included sufficient (and relevant) information to maximise your score. List what you could you do to improve your score and communicate this to the team.

Specialist bidding companies often provide bid evaluation services. They can be the difference between submitting a mediocre bid and one that scores as highly as possible.

 

Step 11: Add relevant graphics

While your bid must answer the questions, it must also look good and communicate the information easily. Graphics often support this need, so consider where you might add an image or a graph.

Do this thoughtfully though. Over-complex or irrelevant graphics may undermine your written work. And make sure they’re consistently branded to deliver a professional image.

 

Step 12: Proofread everything

Imagine submitting a fantastic proposal that’s riddled with grammatic errors and spelling mistakes. Don’t go there.

This is an under-valued, but incredibly important step. You want someone to check your proposal for consistent language, capitalisation, and naming conventions. They must also correct spelling errors, poor grammar or punctuation, and typos.

You want someone with a keen eye for detail here, so choose your partner carefully. And while automated tools may help, always leave the last word to a human brain.

 

Step 13: Complete final formatting

Still focusing on attention to detail, ensure someone finalises the formatting of your document.

This may include checking page and section numbering. They also need to ensure the correct fonts and heading sizes have been used across the proposal. And they must be sure any references are accurate.

Now, and only now, should you submit your bid proposal.

 

Step 14: Prepare for post-submission requirements

Don’t sit back just yet. Should your proposal get shortlisted, it’s likely you may need to present your ideas and meet other team members.

Do you know what the next steps could be? (hint: look in your RFP)

Do you know who would present your ideas?

What do you need to do to ensure everyone is ready?

By organising these things now, you’ll be ready to support your bid proposal with confidence and clarity. It’s the final step towards increasing your chances of winning.

 

14 steps. Every single one comes from years of experience. Of course, every bid submission is different, but the step to get there are exactly the same.

 

What steps can you add to your current bidding process? And where might you need support? We’re always happy to discuss your bidding challenges, whether small or large. Please get in touch for a friendly chat.