[Closed] Has anyone responded to a tender?

Err. Read the requirements. Address them in your tender.

Simples.

Read the requirements

One of us has failed to do this and I don't think it was me 🙂

Aye, I know what I have to do. It is simple but that doesn't answer my question. I would like, if possible, some tender responses that people have done.

I would like, if possible, some tender responses that people have done.

Why? Why do you think they will be relevant to your business? My sales teams respond to hundreds every year, with a nice level of success. They put a massive amount of effort in to each one, and tailor it to each response. They don't just ask the interwebz for something to copy and paste.

As above, read the request, address this in your response.

The last one I was involved in made War & Peace look like a short story

I'm doing two already right now, don't wants third thanks.

What CFH says, and copying pasting is s big mistake as you run the risk of not addressing the question and context right. Man up and get on with it, even when you become a Tender veteran, they are mostly a difficult, you may as well get used to it.

It's not a case of copying and pasting.
I'm a student and have been offered a role in a company where I would be doing a lot of tender responses. As I've never seen one it would be lovely to be able to have a look at one.
That's all.
Harmless!

I do them daily. Give the customer what they want or as close to it as possible at the cheapest price you can as that is what your competitors are doing. Don't factor in any room for negotiation as you get one chance usually. Remember that everything you promise, you will be held to. Tenders are usually under non disclosure agreements so people won't just send them you.

What I find is I just send a quote, and fill out a document normally provided by the customer so they can interpret said quote.

Edit, I'm in the IT storage distribution industry (B2B)

CFH - just out of interest does someone audit your Sales teams responses? IME sales are naturally over zealous and tenders need to be carefully reviewed to make sure they haven't over promised....

What input have you had into the creation of the tender?
What input have your competitors had?
Do you know what the client really wants?

Address the latter as welll as the points required.

Exec summary.
Pricing (poss an overview)
Response to each point
Stuff about your capability
Additional capability - paint a picture of partnership
Conclusion

just out of interest does someone audit your Sales teams responses?

They do. The product people review every response before submission, and in certain cases it's escalated to a director for further approval. (Oh crap! That's me!). So, Sales do the selling, Product do the product. If sales over promise, it will be the product team that cannot deliver, so there's a really good balance and audit in place for every response. Rather lucky that my sales and product teams work really well together globally. Hey, those post it notes won't sell themselves, you know! 😉

What input have your competitors had?

Sales teams over-promising?
Surely not

[img] [/img]

Thanks for the info! Sounds interesting.
I'm still looking for examples with figures though. Any idea where I could find one?

I spend all too much of my life reading and evaluating tender documents, trust me from someone that has read lots of them you DO NOT want to find a generic one and think "that'll do".

The points above about addressing the questions with individually tailored responses is an absolute key, as is a good exec summary. All of this is best achieved with a sound understanding of the proposed customers business and strategy.

E.g. Don't tell us that exploiting a multichannel solution is the cure for all our problems when we already spend millions on multichannel delivery. This was the USP from a recent unsuccessful tender.....

Has your company never done one? These aren't standard documents, available to all. Can you imagine if a supplier gave out full details of a deal they had done? Cost prices, install costs etc for a massive company or the government?

Dream on!

I'm still looking for examples with figures though. Any idea where I could find one

Figures? OK, here you go;

One very lovely figure
[img] [/img]

And one less so
[img] [/img]

Are those figures relevant to your business? Thought not. So how on earth do you think that any tender response from anyone here will be relevant to your business?

I would be doing a lot of tender responses

Not something that you get very often round here.

Okay, I get the 'picture'!
Thanks for all the help.

Just do your coursework yourself and stop trying to nick it of the Internet!!!

This is a very, very good point. Wherever possible, I like to control the RFI/RFP process with/for a client so that the questions/responses are tailored towards my business and away from a competitor. Always analyse the tender documentation very closely to see if it's been written to allow one supplier to win the business. If it's really obvious, don't even bother responding. They've already decided.

Hmm. You like Rum, and Barbados. Parallel universe.....

You can always go for the spoiler. In my industry, Tenders are public and have to be scored according to the rules. One against the head is possible, if you are prepared to risk the time taken vs a loss. However, the post tender implementation is nearly always traumatic 'cause you weren't wanted and are therefore unpopular from day one....

You like Rum, and Barbados. Parallel universe.....

🙂

Tenders for me aren't public, unless we're after some government work. Then, if we are, it depends on which government it is we're dealing with.

"The spoiler" is a delight! Setting someone else up for a fall!

CaptainFlashheart - Member
You like Rum, and Barbados. Parallel universe.....

Tenders for me aren't public, unless we're after some government work. Then, if we are, it depends on which government it is we're dealing with.
"The spoiler" is a delight! Setting someone else up for a fall!
POSTED 39 SECONDS AGO # REPORT-POST

Can't be the bit of govt I work with - they've banned post-its

😉

😆 Superb, Geoff, superb! 🙂

😀

I love the idea that some chaps might share with another chap the commercially sensitive information another bunch of chaps sent in on a paperclip and non-standard stapler procurement exercise.

I have to help our procurement team issue RFIs and RFPs. TBH, it would be less time consuming if I did it all myself - truly a bigger bunch of muppets I've never met. Biggest I worked on was in my old life when the data room was the biggest I have attended (c100 folders from each bidder). Full bag searching, security sweeps and bug checking. Mind you, the deal was a PFI worth nearly £5bn....

Oh and +1 for checking what the sales guys are doing - inept and unethical. Dangerous.

Without knowing your business, it's worrying that you're asking for examples of RFPs blind. Why were you selected to tender? Who by?

The sakes guys will help you with your first few, and often write a 1st response themselves. Their job is to get people to ask you to tender, and to ensure that the criteria used to select a vendor are the ones you are strongest in when compared with the competition.
[One of my better sales was when I persuaded a utility to pay us £5k to write their RFP for them. They had a deadline to meet. Funnily enough, we eventually won their business]

It's not a case of copying and pasting.
I'm a student and have been offered a role in a company where I would be doing a lot of tender responses. As I've never seen one it would be lovely to be able to have a look at one.
That's all.
Harmless!

Without knowing your business, it's worrying that you're asking for examples of RFPs blind. Why were you selected to tender? Who by?

I think the problem is that the request is naive. The op would be best off googling/ binging tender return examples than asking people to send commercially sensitive information which would end up being so redacted as to be pointless.

If you can learn how to work the ariba portal without swearing repeatedly you'd be putting yourself in a decent position.

Last thing we put out to tender, we had quote over the phone, one on the back of an envelope and a 20 word e-mail. Envelope got it, phone was way over the top and not interested in job, e-mail just not as good.

Admittedly, this was just for a couple km of fencing. Impressed with the outcome, tractor driver must've had pretty big balls to counterbalance the tractor for some of the slopes he went down/up.