Tender Writing War Stories

People often assume that tender writing is a fairly boring profession. Lots of paperwork. Lots of compliance. Lots of late nights reading Conditions of Contract and staring at spreadsheets.

And to be fair, there's a little bit of truth in that. But after years of helping businesses prepare tender submissions, I've collected enough stories to fill a book.

Some are funny. Some are frustrating. Some are genuinely unbelievable. And almost all of them contain a lesson.

One of my favourites involved a business owner who proudly told me he had "everything ready to go" for an upcoming tender.

As every tender writer knows, those words should immediately trigger alarm bells. And guess what - when the documents arrived, there were more than fifty files attached to the email. I'm talking policies, procedures, capability statements, resumes, certificates and photographs.

The problem was that nobody had looked at most of them for years (in fact, one policy referenced legislation that had been superseded). Several staff members listed in the organisational chart had long since left the company. One capability statement proudly showcased a project that had been completed more than a decade earlier.

And the client genuinely believed they were organised. But the reality was that they had simply accumulated documents. Having documents and having current, relevant evidence are two very different things.

Then there are the businesses that underestimate how much information they carry around in their heads (and this happens all the time). I'll ask a client to explain how they manage quality inspections. The response is often something like "we just do it."

Well of course they do - but that's not enough for a tender response.

What follows is usually a fascinating conversation where they spend twenty minutes explaining a process they never realised was actually one of their biggest strengths.

So the challenge isn't that they lack systems. It's that they're so familiar with them they forget those systems are worth talking about.

Another memorable example involved a company that lost a contract despite being the incumbent provider. They had held the contract for years and assumed their performance would speak for itself.

As a result, they submitted what can only be described as a very average response.

The challenger, meanwhile, submitted an exceptional methodology, detailed mobilisation plans and a clear explanation of how they would deliver improvements.

The incumbent lost - and that was a harsh reminder to them that every tender starts with a clean slate. Past performance helps, but it doesn't replace a strong submission.

But perhaps the most common mistake I see is businesses assuming the cheapest price wins.

It doesn't.

In fact, I've seen plenty of tenders awarded to higher-priced bidders.

Why?

Because the client believed they represented better value and lower risk.

Tendering is ultimately a confidence game. Not in the sense of bluffing or exaggerating. In the sense that clients are looking for confidence that you can deliver what you've promised. Every section of your response either builds that confidence or erodes it.

What continues to amaze me is how many incredible businesses struggle to talk about themselves. Some of the best operators I've worked with are humble people who simply get on with the job.

They're focused on delivering outcomes, not marketing themselves. Yet those same businesses often have extraordinary stories to tell. They've solved difficult problems. They've delivered challenging projects. And they've retained loyal clients for years.

Sometimes my role as a tender writer feels less like writing and more like uncovering evidence that already exists. Because usually, the stories are there. The achievements are there. The value is there. My job is simply to help clients recognise it and communicate it.

After all these years, that's probably the biggest lesson I've learned. The businesses that win tenders aren't always the biggest. They're not always the cheapest. And they're not always the most experienced.

They're often the businesses that do the best job of explaining why they deserve to win. And trust me, after some of the things I've seen over the years since I started TenderWise way back in 2015, that's a lesson worth remembering.