How to Write a Tender Bid

A tender bid is a structured argument that you are the best supplier for a specific contract. Not the best supplier in general - the best supplier for this contract, for this buyer, against this specification, evaluated by these criteria. Every good bid starts from that specific frame. The most common weakness in tender responses is generality: a response that describes the organisation's general capabilities without making a specific case for this particular opportunity. General good is not what buyers are evaluating. Specific best, for their context, is.

Read the documents before you plan your response

Before writing anything, read the complete tender documents - the specification, the evaluation criteria and weightings, the contract terms, and the instructions to bidders. Note every requirement that's marked mandatory or pass/fail - if you don't meet these, stop now. Note the weighting on each evaluation criterion - this tells you where to invest time and where brevity is acceptable. Note any specific formats required: page limits, font requirements, appendix rules. Non-compliance with these requirements can result in rejection regardless of content quality.

Write to the evaluation criteria, not to yourself

Structure your response so that the evaluator can find your answer to each criterion easily. If the evaluation criteria are: Technical Approach (30%), Team Qualifications (25%), Past Performance (25%), Price (20%) - organise your response to address each in turn. Use the criterion name as a heading. Within each section, structure your evidence to address the specific sub-criteria listed. Evaluators work through a scoring sheet - make it effortless for them to award you points on each line.

Use the 'claim-evidence-so what' structure

Every important point in your bid should follow this pattern: make the claim, provide specific evidence, and explain why it matters for this contract. "We have extensive experience in healthcare IT (claim). We implemented an electronic patient record system for three NHS trusts between 2021 and 2024, reducing data entry time by 35% across all sites (evidence). This means your clinical staff will spend less time on administration and more time with patients from day one of go-live (so what)." This structure turns a general capability into a specific benefit for the buyer.

Past performance: be specific and measurable

Past performance sections are consistently where bid quality falls down. Vague references to "similar work" score poorly. Named clients, specific contract values, measurable outcomes, and verifiable references score well. "We delivered a comparable contract for [Client Name] - a £2.3m facilities management contract covering 47 sites - and achieved a 98.5% SLA compliance rate over three years. The client has agreed to act as a reference." That specificity is what differentiates a strong past performance section from a generic one.