Tender Writing – Dismissing

Tender Writing – Dismissing the argument that price is not that important

Tender Writing – Dismissing the argument that price is not that important  It seems everyone is a tender writing expert. It seems if you have a computer and can type people believe that they can suddenly become a tender writer.  I must say I get a laugh when I look at other tender writing businesses and their websites and blog articles which I will admit is rare given I have little interest in what the competition does.  But on the odd occasion someone points me to a website or an article as I said I get a laugh because most of them – in fact the vast majority have absolutely no idea about the concepts and strategies involved in tender writing.

Tender Writing – Dismissing the argument that price is not that important  Just a few days ago I was directed to a site where this “expert” (self proclaimed by the way) tender writer was espousing that price really isn’t that important when it comes to submitting responses to Government and Council offerings.  Well I would like to challenge that ridiculous claim. As someone who was a senior public servant in a past life and worked in the public sector for 18 years I can state categorically that price is not the only consideration but in reality it is the most important consideration when tenders are assessed by Government/Council entities.

Tender Writing – Dismissing the argument that price is not that important  I was responsible in a variety of roles to assess tenders. Yes we focused on quality – yes in those days there was a focus, a massive focus on quality and quality management and the development of quality systems.  Yes we focused on experience in delivering on similar sized contracts.  Yes we focused on capacity and ability to deliver on time. But the requirement we placed the most weighting on was price.

Tender Writing – Dismissing the argument that price is not that important ď ą Now I get that was 17 years ago and times have changed but they have changed in a way where now price is even more important given Government/Council budget deficits and the 24/7 news cycle and the demand for value for money and transparency in the public sectors dealings with the commercial world.

Tender Writing – Dismissing the argument that price is not that important  Now pricing can be given a weighting of up to 40 to 50 percent kin some tenders. That is massive and as such pricing is almost as important as the rest of the tender requirements put together.  That doesn’t mean that in your tender writing that you have to have the cheapest price out there. But if you are the most expensive in your offer – the chances of winning the tender will reduce the higher the Council or Government entity weight price in their assessment process.  So lets say in assessing the tender they assign price a weighting of only 30% and they are scoring each requirement out of 5.

Tender Writing – Dismissing the argument that price is not that important  If you are the cheapest offerer you will probably get a score of 5. If you are the most expensive you might end up with a score of 1 or 2.  In assessing the tenders they will take your assigned score and multiply it to the weighting for that criteria. So in this instance the business with the cheapest price will send up with a score of 150 for price (5x30%) while the business with the most expensive price might end up with a score of say 60 (2x30%).  That means the business with the most expensive price has to make up 90 points over the rest of the criteria in the scoring process. So straight away they are at a massive disadvantage.

Tender Writing – Dismissing the argument that price is not that important  This is generally how tenders are assessed and gives transparency to the process.  A lot of Government and Council entities now even publicise their weightings as part of the tender process.  As such the skilled tender writer will really focus on the requirements with the most weightings.  In essence you should focus equally on every requirement but as I just proved – the higher the weighting – the lower you score – the more difficult it is to win that tender.

Tender Writing – Dismissing the argument that price is not that important  So to those tender writing “experts” out there making ridiculous claims that price is not that important, take it from an ex public servant – price is very very important and will only get more important as budgets tighten.  The skilled tender writer will make sure that if they are going to write a tender that first of all the business will be very competitive on price.  You don’t have to be the cheapest – just be super competitive – then at least you are a very real chance of winning the tender.

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