tender writing – case study 1

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By Red Tape Busters

Tender Writing – Case Study 1

Tender writing is not just about filling out a form and a pricing spreadsheet.

Inexperienced tender writers will not put much thought into what is required to

prepare a great tender response whereas the experienced tender writer will

understand that having a strategy and game plan is as important as having a great

price to offer.

So what sorts of strategies can you put in place to maximise your chances with

a tender? In this article I relay a real case study of a tender we prepared for a

client and the tactics we put in place to be successful.


In this situation our client, a non profit organisation on the Sunshine Coast in

Queensland, became aware of a tender opportunity relating to the provision of

housing/accommodation for people with disabilities.

At that stage my client had no thoughts about delivering accommodation

services and was primarily solely a provider of support services for those with a

disability in the local area of Nambour.


This posed a tremendous issue in my mind given the client had no real

experience in building purpose built accommodation for people with a disability

nor in managing such a facility.

I was concerned that given the tender was open to commercial and non profit

entities that developers in the area would have more extensive budgets and

maybe more experience in constructing accommodation facilities while probably

lacking in experience in the disability space.


My client was keen to develop a proposal where they proposed a plan to build

accommodation for those with a physical disability, however they did not have

any land on which to build the facility so essentially were working from scratch.

Through my extensive grant and tender writing experience I immediately

identified the need for the client to have an appropriate parcel of land which they

could at worst show was able to be quickly acquired on which to build the

accommodation facility.


I encouraged the client to make overtures to a few residents in an area close to

their existing service hub and offer each resident a price in excess of market value

and get in principal agreement from the residents to sell their properties should

the client win the tender.

This was achieved surprisingly very quickly with written in principal

agreements being received.


This “proved” that the client had the land to build on. I then strongly suggested

to the client that they should build purpose built accommodation for those with a

mental and physical disability or health issue as opposed to purely physical

disabilities.

I undertook research to prove that mental illness is a significant issue in those

who are homeless and was able to garner some significant and impressive

statistics supporting this contention.


I then undertook research to identify how accommodation could be built to

meet the needs of people with a physical disability and/or those with a mental

illness.

The client then took this research and was able to get an architect to draw up

some plans which depicted the style of building and how different units in the

complex would be constructed differently built to meet the specific needs of the

proposed residents.


I was also able to get the client to have graphic designs included giving the

reader a real insight into how the rooms might actually “look”. To me this would

give us a unique chance at winning the tender by enabling the reader to visualise

how the facility would look and feel while also pitching that the accommodation

would encompass the needs of all people with a disability – physical and mental.

I was convinced that our competitors for the tender would only just develop a

proposal for those with a physical disability.


The last hurdle I believed was that the client had no real experience in proving

they could manage an accommodation facility once built. To overcome this I

encouraged the client to find an experienced manager of such facilities and offer

them the position of manager should the tender be successful and again get in

principal written confirmation that this person would join the team. Again the

client was able to find someone highly experienced in this area.

We then prepared a comprehensive response we believed which would at least

give us a chance at getting through Stage 1 given this was a two stage process.


We were amazed to find that we were offered $4.9 million after the review of all

applications in the first stage and we were told our submission was so

outstanding that they were not going to stage 2 – our proposal was that good.

This success was completely a result of our strategic approach in identifying

our weaknesses and addressing those but also ensuring our proposal was very

very different to our competitors.


The skilled tender writer will have a strategy – they will have a plan and they

will maximise their chances in the tender writing process.

Our skills are not just in our abilities to write great tenders but also to come up

with the strategies and pitch to stand our client apart. Tender writing is far far

more than just filling out a form!


Contact us at Red Tape Busters –

http://www.redtapebusters.com/ should you require more

information about this article or if you require specialist grant,

tender or job application writing experience. We can assist

you to achieve your goals and objectives!

http://www.redtapebusters.com/

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Contact Us

Red Tape Busters Pty Ltd.

ABN: 39 094 823 417PO Box 3126WARNER QLD 4500Telephone: 07 3882 2055Facsimile: 07 3882 2066

Email Address: [email protected]

tender writing – case study 1

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