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PROJECT MANAGEMENT & BIM
Is your bid on track? Neil Capstick of Executive Compass discusses the key factors behind winning bids in the rail industry. An
established company in the Midlands recently had three tenders to submit
to Network Rail. Although similar in terms of scope and scale, the responses required were very different.
The company recognised that writing a winning bid is not the same as simply submitting a bid, and so they needed to provide sufficient resource in terms of both staff and time and so retained our services to support them.
The first thing we did was to organise the projects into three distinct workstreams and produce writing plans which included initial reviews, red team reviews, gateway reviews, and proof-reading. We used Microsoft Project, but you can use something as simple as Microsoft Excel if you prefer.
Next, narrative templates were created in Microsoft Word for issue to all those writing parts of the bid. The importance of creating templates cannot be over-emphasised. By issuing contributors with a template where font, margin size, formatted headers and footers and heading styles are built-in, we saved a lot of time when it came to editing and combining the various sections of the three bids at the end. It also helped the contributors as files were named consistently and they did not have to remember three different formats.
Once the templates were created, a glossary of terms and a bid writing guide were issued. This was a robust framework which ensured consistency in terms of language, acronyms and writing style. For example, do you write in the first or the third
96 | rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 14
person? It’s always the first! At the same time, we ran three workshops for each bid, some only lasting for 30 minutes and others for half a day.
Workshop 1: roles and responsibilities within the bid teams
In reality, most members of staff were working on all three bids, but their input and responsibilities differed slightly on each one. This was due to the slightly different requirements for each bid and staff members’ functional role within the business. The most important role identified was the bid coordinator, and as all three bids were evidenced-based, we selected the same person for all three. However, recognising that this was a key position, an assistant was nominated to ensure continuity in case of illness.
Workshop 2: identification of win themes and key differentiators
Two of the bids used operational experience as their core theme (all three bids also had at least two supporting themes) and one used a combination of geographical coverage and innovation. The win theme for each bid was temporarily inserted into each template footer to keep it in contributors’ minds.
Workshop 3: consistency of message and writing ‘voice’
This workshop focused on how to write a bid in terms of language; persuasive and compelling and not soft or passive. Other topics included use of white space and images, headings, deconstructing questions, how to summarise and include the main
themes and most importantly, how to persuade when writing and how to avoid simply describing what you do. Anyone can describe, but to gain full marks you must persuade the evaluator your tender offer is the best solution.
As the deadline to a bid grows ever closer, a little like a four track section due to be handed back in 10 minutes, things can become a little manic. However, the work that this team undertook at the beginning served them well and all three bids were submitted on time and two out of three were successful.
There are two key lessons:
1. Plan and organise: with clear roles and responsibilities agreed at the very beginning of your bid, you will save time, make your bid more professional, more effective and significantly improve your chances of winning.
2. Use sound project management techniques for your bid. You would for a normal job, so why not for something that can take your business to the next level and secure the company’s future?
If you follow these guidelines, apply good project management (make sure you have a writing plan and include firm milestones and gateways) and include sound red review processes – you can be as successful as this company was.
FOR MORE INFORMATION T: 020 8720 7351
E:
info@executivecompass.co.uk W:
www.executivecompass.co.uk
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