Discover how to avoid common mistakes and improve your proposal success for any opportunity with this practical bid writing guide.
A winning proposal or tender submission can open doors to growth opportunities, in addition to keeping the lights on. However, a successful response often requires more than a competitive price. You need to demonstrate and evidence your:
- understanding of the buyer’s pain points
- related expertise and experience
- differentiators and overall value.
When responding to anything from an Edinburgh Council or NHS Lothian procurement opportunity from the Public Contracts Scotland portal, to a coveted private sector contract – a well-planned response is key.
Marketing Midlothian bid writing guide
In this bid writing guide, we explain how to avoid common mistakes and improve your chances of securing your next contract.
1. Ensure you fully understand the ask
Before typing anything, take the time to fully understand the buyer’s exact requirements. It’s too easy to jump to thinking about what you want to tell them, rather than just their stated requirements at this stage.
It goes without saying, but read the invitation to tender (ITT) / request for proposal (RfP), specification, contract terms and any supporting documents carefully. Paying particular attention to the evaluation criteria. Then note the essential requirements, submission deadlines, word limits and mandatory documents.
IMPORTANT: If anything’s unclear, submit clarification questions through the official procurement channel as soon as possible within the allocated timeframe – the sooner you have a response the quicker you can progress.
2. Be realistic (but ambitious!) about your bid / no bid decision
Not every opportunity will be right for your business. Before committing time and resources, ask yourself if you:
- meet the key asks?
- can evidence the key asks?
- want the business – i.e. it truly aligns to your strategy and growth plans and is commercially viable?
- have the capacity to deliver should you win?
- have the bandwidth to produce a winning submission?
A structured bid or no-bid assessment helps you prioritise the opportunities where your business has a realistic chance of success.
3. Be organised from the off
As soon as you decide to go ahead, create a checklist to ensure you address every requirement. Missing a mandatory document or failing to meet a critical condition could result in your bid being rejected, and your efforts going to waste.
Brief any wider colleagues on the ask of them and mark key internal milestone and actual deadlines in your calendar, so you have a clear roadmap to follow.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you build in a small buffer; it helps to take the pressure off and is often needed in fast moving bid processes. Technical issues or missing documents at the deadline can undermine an otherwise strong bid.
4. Answer every question directly
IMPORTANT: One of the most common bid writing mistakes local businesses make is providing generic information about what you do, without directly answering the question.
Buyers need clear evidence that you can meet their requirements. Each response should address the specific question, follow the evaluation criteria and demonstrate how your proposed approach delivers the required outcomes.
For example, if the question asks how you will manage contract risks, avoid simply stating that your business has robust risk management procedures.
Instead, explain how you identify risks, assess their likelihood and impact, implement mitigation measures, assign responsibilities and monitor progress throughout the contract.
Use headings, short paragraphs and bullet points where appropriate to make your response easy to evaluate.
5. Evidence, evidence, evidence
Claims such as “we provide excellent customer service” or “we have extensive industry experience” are unlikely to distinguish your business without supporting evidence.
Strengthen your tender response by including relevant case studies, measurable results, client outcomes, qualifications, accreditations and examples of previous contract delivery.
Where appropriate, use the STAR method to structure examples:
- Situation: Describe the client’s challenge or requirement.
- Task: Explain what needed to be achieved.
- Action: Outline the steps your team took.
- Result: Demonstrate the outcome, ideally with measurable evidence.
For example, rather than simply stating that you improve operational efficiency, explain how your team redesigned a process, reduced average response times by 20% and improved service performance against agreed targets.
Only use results and statistics that you can substantiate, and ensure you have permission to disclose any confidential client information.
6. Show how you’ll deliver the contract
A winning tender response should give the buyer confidence that your business can deliver what it promises.
Explain your delivery methodology in practical terms. Depending on the contract, this might include mobilisation, project planning, staffing, quality assurance, communication, performance monitoring, risk management and reporting.
Describe who will be responsible for each activity, how milestones will be achieved and how you will measure success.
Include a clear mobilisation plan where relevant, showing how you will move from contract award to full-service delivery while minimising disruption.
Buyers want to understand not only what you intend to do, but also how you’ll do it and how you’ll maintain consistent performance throughout.
7. Demonstrate value
The lowest price does not always represent the best tender. Many buyers evaluate bids using a combination of quality, price, risk and wider contractual benefits.
Your response should explain the value your business offers and demonstrate that your proposed solution is commercially sound.
Consider covering:
- The quality and reliability of your proposed service.
- The experience and capability of your delivery team.
- Opportunities to improve efficiency or reduce avoidable costs.
- The benefits of your proposed methodology.
- How you will manage risks and minimise service disruption.
- Relevant social value or environmental commitments where these form part of the evaluation.
Make sure your pricing assumptions align with your technical response. If you promise a particular level of service, your price must realistically support the staff, resources and delivery arrangements required.
IMPORTANT: Don’t under-price simply to appear competitive. The only scenario you may want to consider this in would be if you are trying to crack a new market or build up your portfolio of work within one.
8. Think well-fitting tailored suit, not ‘’off-the-rack’’
A generic tender response rarely demonstrates a strong understanding of the buyer’s needs.
Research the organisation, its objectives, operating environment and the challenges identified in the tender documents. Use this information to explain how your proposed solution will address its specific requirements.
For example, if a buyer prioritises service continuity, explain how your contingency arrangements, staff cover and business continuity plans will maintain delivery during unexpected disruption.
If sustainability is important to the contract, demonstrate how your delivery model will reduce environmental impact and how you’ll measure progress against the relevant requirements.
Keep your claims realistic and evidence-based. The aim is to show that your proposal has been designed for this contract, rather than copied from a previous submission.
9. Make the scorer’s job easy
Evaluators often review multiple submissions against a detailed scoring framework. A clear, well-structured response makes it easier for them to identify your evidence.
Follow the buyer’s requested structure, answer questions in the order presented and importantly, respect the word limits and formatting requirements.
Use clear headings, concise language and relevant evidence. Avoid unnecessary jargon, lengthy company histories and repeated statements that don’t directly align with the evaluation criteria.
If the tender specifies a particular response format, use it. Don’t assume that an alternative layout will be accepted.
A useful final check is to ask whether an evaluator can quickly identify your answer, understand your proposed approach and see the evidence supporting your claims.
10. Review, score and proofread
Before submission, ask someone else to carry out a structured quality review. It’s hard to do this yourself as you’re likely too close to the content to notice errors or omissions.
They should double check that:
- every question has been answered fully
- all mandatory requirements have been addressed
- the response reflects the evaluation criteria
- evidence and case studies support your claims
- figures, dates and commitments are consistent throughout
- pricing matches the proposed delivery model
- word limits and formatting instructions have been followed
- all required declarations and supporting documents are included
- the response contains no spelling errors, broken references or contradictory statements
- the correct files have been uploaded and the submission process has been completed.
A fresh perspective can identify gaps, unclear explanations and unsupported claims that the original author may overlook.
In summary…
This bid writing guide illustrates that the most effective submissions are compliant, clearly structured, tailored and evidenced. By developing a consistent bid process, learning from previous submissions and having someone other than the original author review every response before submission, you can improve your win ratio and ensure you don’t waste time on the wrong opportunities.