Whether you have a new or an established business, winning new contracts is critical for growing and sustaining your business. Just offering high-quality products and services is not enough to put you ahead of the competition. In fact, certain big players in the industry can easily overshadow your attempts to secure the deal.
If your past attempts to win contracts haven’t amounted to anything, here are few ways you can improve your odds of winning. Take a look.
Table of Contents
Look for the Right Opportunities
Are you sending proposals for every contract out there? You may think that more contracts you compete for, greater is the chance of winning more contracts. But unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Preparing and submitting tender proposals takes up a lot of resources. Sending generalized proposals to every prospective client isn’t going to impress them.
Rather than taking that approach, focus your effort and resources on a limited number of contracts. Look for contracts that best match your capabilities and submit personalized proposals to persuade prospective clients. By reserving your time and energy for a certain number of contracts, you can improve your chances of winning such contracts.
Submit Persuasive Tender Proposals
Despite having impressive products or services, all your efforts can go down the drain because of a poorly written tender proposal. Including unnecessary details, lack of clarity, ignoring the template and grammatical errors are just a few mistakes that can set you back.
Whether you don’t have a good understanding of tender requirements or you lack writing skills, it’s best to get a professional writer on board for tender writing. A professional tender writer is knowledgeable about conveying your capabilities in a compelling way. To further enhance your organisation’s capabilities, it’s a smart idea to seek a tender writing course and training.
Quote Reliable Estimates
Quoting an inaccurate estimate in your proposal can completely jeopardise your chance of winning. Make sure you have the right processes in place to quote reliable estimates for budget, rates, delivery period and so on.
Invest in Public Relations
Your efforts may be overlooked simply because of the reason that the competitors are better known in the industry. Instead of accepting this fate, make your business noticed by investing in Public Relations. Well-targeted articles in trade magazines, interesting media releases, interviews and other content-driven PR strategies will help your organisation garner media attention. This subsequently will get you noticed by suppliers and create lucrative opportunities for your business.
Adhere to the Deadline
Your bid probably won’t be considered if you miss the deadline. Get to work as soon as you make the decision to compete for a contract. Have all the required resources and personnel in place to put together a convincing tender proposal in a short amount of time. You should also consider preparing a standard tender so that you don’t have to start from scratch every time.
Gauge the Competition
Are you putting your best foot forward but somehow the competition always succeeds? You should make an effort to find out what the competition is doing differently. Using the information, alter your current approach to improve your odds of winning. Other than this, it’s also helpful to take a look at previously successful proposals. That being said, only use these proposals for inspiration and refrain from blatantly copy-pasting. Plagiarism is a big no-no and won’t take you far.
Final Words
Most industries are highly competitive and the best way to overcome this competition is by setting yourself apart. As an up and coming business, open tendering is an opportunity you should explore. Open tenders level the playing field and give all kinds of suppliers a fair chance to win major contracts. Find out more today.
