Making a positive tender response helps to maximise the impact of a bid. Positive writing and content helps to connect the buyer to you, and helps you to rise above your competition. Appearing confident and positive helps the buyer to mark you with positiveness too. A colleague who regularly marks tender responses in a local authority often finds responses boring, full of mistakes and negativity. Positiveness may also lead to the achievement of a higher score for your submission. Ultimately you want to win that Contract!
The art of providing positive language when writing won’t be lost on any of us. The article here is an example of how it can really work well if adopted.
We are going to give you 5 tips to help you submit a more positive response.
- Concentrate on writing with positive outcomes. Nothing destroys the story more than a negative set of words. ‘We can’ works better than ‘we may’ for example. Always be positive but also be truthful, never make a statement of fact on something you cant deliver.
- Using statements such as ‘We believe we can deliver the contract to a satisfactory standard’ instantly alerts the buyer to a lack of confidence. A ‘belief’ is a general feeling, as opposed to a fact. This can undermine the bid message significantly. It is far better to use words such as ‘We have proof’ or ‘We will ensure that’ to demonstrate absolute confidence in the proposition and your organisation’s ability to deliver to an outstanding level.
- Directly mentioning the competition is bad practice. This is because each company should have the ability to provide a persuasive proposition without resorting to sniping at the competition. If your proposal doesn’t stand up by itself, it’s worth looking at the entire bid writing process again. Look to see how it can be strengthened, rather than discussing the potential weaknesses of other companies submitting proposals to your client.
- We will try to.. In effect your making a promise to ‘try’ and achieve an outcome. Instead of using difficult hazy language to try and impart a sense of purpose, it’s better to state what you will do, within what timescale, and how. in this way you are offering concrete evidence that you have a strategic approach in place that will deliver the customer’s requirements.
- Words such as ‘improve’ immediately highlight a perceived problem in the contract. Bid writing needs to be compelling, and language which directly references negative elements of service will only draw attention to issues in the provision of the contract. Instead of using a word such as ‘improve’, aim to state ‘we will enhance’, ‘develop’ or ‘transform’ delivery. These are proactive and positive statements which add value, rather than detracting from the bid writing message.
Looking for more help and support? do get in touch for a chat about the problems and issues you face in your tendering.
