3 Major Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Construction Tenders

Writing and winning tenders is a huge part of getting new work and clients in the construction industry. As any seasoned tender writer will tell you, often, it is the tiniest little mistake, such as making spelling errors in your proposal that make individuals or companies miss out on lucrative projects. When writing tenders that could help you win a contract worth hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars, it is important to cover all your bases. Here are five very common mistakes to avoid when writing construction tenders.

1. Forgetting to refer to the specifications
You have your answers all planned and written, have met all the formatting and word limit requirements and have even gone ahead and finished editing and proofreading it. In your opinion, your proposal is now the best it can get and there is no further improvement you can make. However, if you focused more on why you want the contract and less on why the client should choose you for the contract, you have missed the mark with your proposal.

The client wants to know what you can do to solve the issue they’re facing, not how getting the contract will benefit you. It is always a good idea to refer to the contract specifications multiple times throughout the tender writing process to ensure you are correctly addressing the criteria. Most tenders will specify both mandatory and preferred criteria for success, and making sure that you are addressing these specifications with every answer is a great way of standing out from the crowd.

2. Submitting a lackluster tender
A terrific way of making sure your tender proposal gets seen and is remembered is to pay attention to the aesthetics of your proposal. Humans are naturally visual beings, and adding visual appeal like graphics, charts, graphs, images and diagrams is sure to immediately grab your reader’s attention. An evaluator is far more likely to remember a proposal that used easy-to-understand and aesthetically pleasing graphics and layout to put their point across rather than one that droned on and on about their achievements.

Remember, the person evaluating your response is also human, and it is your job to connect with them. Do everything in your power to convince the reader that you’re the right choice without being too pushy. This may include adding mini case studies, evidence and client testimonials from the projects you’ve worked on, facts and demonstrations of how your product or service performed for your previous clients. Avoid using the passive voice as much as possible, as this can prevent your proposal from coming across as personable, direct and authoritative.

3. Not being compliant
What can be worse than not winning the contract after you spent weeks on the proposal? Not winning the contract just because you didn’t pay attention to the mandatory requirements and ended up with a proposal that got chucked straight into the non-compliant pile without even getting read! All those hours spent working on the proposal, the resources you spent to prepare it, all wasted. You may need to get some necessary licenses, or follow a specific format. The tender documents may have specified the minimum amount of experience, turnover and accreditation from a company for a proposal to be considered, or may have provided a template that all respondents are expected to follow. Failure to meet any of these requirements will immediately render your proposal non-compliant, which is why it is suggested to make a checklist as soon as you receive the tender documents and check items off as they get done. This way, you’ll ensure you don’t accidentally miss anything and can refer back to the checklist one last time before hitting the submit button.

Whether you’re working on tenders in VIC, NSW or any other state in Australia, it can be helpful to get a professional bid consultant or writer to look over your proposal before you submit it. From ensuring your construction tender is compliant with the requirements to objectively reviewing it for persuasiveness, spelling and grammatical errors and relativity, an experienced tender writer will ensure your bid has the highest chances of success.