How to write a tender response

A tender response (also called a bid, an offer or a submission) is your written offer to supply what a buyer has asked for, on the buyer’s terms. In government work it answers a formal request: a request for tender (RFT), a request for quote (RFQ), a request for proposal (RFP) or, at an earlier stage, an expression of interest (EOI).

The buyer tells you in advance exactly how responses will be judged: which requirements are pass or fail, which criteria are scored, how much each one is worth and how long each answer may be. An evaluation panel then reads every response against those same rules. Under the Commonwealth Procurement Rules, and the state rules that mirror them, the buyer must choose the offer that is the best value for money, which is not always the lowest price.

That is why tender writing is closer to a compliance exercise than to marketing. A response that misses a mandatory item can be excluded unread, and a well-written answer that ignores part of a criterion simply loses those marks.

Government tenders rarely arrive as one document. Read every file in the pack before you write, because the questions are usually in one document and the rules for answering them in another.

If the tender refers to a document you don’t have, such as a schedule mentioned in the conditions but missing from your download, ask the contact officer for it early.

A good bid takes days of work, so decide early whether this one is worth it. Start with the mandatory requirements, sometimes called conditions of participation: insurances at a set level, licences, accreditations, registrations. These are pass or fail. If you can’t meet one by the closing date, stop there.

Then weigh the fit honestly. Have you delivered work of a similar size and type? Can you show it with real projects and referees? Can you resource the contract if you win? A tender you are a strong match for is a better use of a weekend than three you are a weak match for.

Before writing anything, turn the tender into a list of everything you must provide. This list is what you check the finished bid against.

Work back from the closing time, not forward from today. Leave the last day for review and lodgement alone, and set your own deadline for a finished draft before that.

Note the deadline for questions. Most tenders name one contact officer and stop taking questions some days before closing. Answers are usually sent to every bidder as an addendum without saying who asked, so asking costs you nothing. Ask early, and ask about anything that changes how you would answer.

Panels score proof, not adjectives. Collect the facts each criterion will need before you draft, so you write from evidence rather than searching for it mid-sentence.

Keep this evidence in one place and keep it current. Most of it is reused on every tender, and an expired certificate or insurance quoted as current is exactly the kind of claim a panel checks.

If you don’t have evidence for something a criterion asks, say what you do have or how you would meet it. Don’t invent experience, numbers or accreditations. An over-claim found during evaluation or reference checks can cost you the contract.

Answer in the response schedule the buyer provides, in the order they ask, under their headings. If a criterion has several parts, use its own words as subheadings so the panel can find each part. Then use the same structure for every answer:

For experience questions, the STAR method (situation, task, action, result) is a useful way to make sure each example is complete. Our guide to responding to selection criteria covers it with examples.

Write in plain, specific Australian English. Every sentence should carry a fact the panel can score. Aim for around 90% of the word limit and never go over it.

Here is one criterion from a sample request for quote for commercial cleaning, answered two ways. The tender and the supplier, Coastal Commercial Cleaning, are made up. The stronger answer uses only facts from that supplier’s own evidence.

Each panel member scores each criterion against a rating scale, and the scores are combined using the weightings. Every tender sets its own scale, so use the one in your documents. A common shape looks like this:

Weightings decide where your effort pays off. With the sample tender’s weightings, lifting the 40% criterion from 6 to 8 adds 0.8 to the weighted total, while the same two-point lift on the 10% criterion adds only 0.2. Write the heavily weighted answers first and give them your best evidence.

Panels also check what you say. Referees may be called, certificates and insurances checked, and claims compared across sections. An answer that contradicts another part of your bid, or promises more than you can deliver, costs marks or creates risk if you win.

Fill in the pricing schedule exactly as set out: every line, the units asked for, GST shown the way the tender specifies. Don’t add conditions or change the format unless the tender allows it. If the work you described in your answers has a cost, make sure the price covers it, because a methodology the price can’t pay for is a risk the panel will notice.

Complete every returnable form and declaration: conflicts of interest, compliance with the draft contract, insurances, referees. Only declare what is true. Declarations are legal statements.

Once every answer is drafted, read the bid from start to finish as one document. Better still, ask someone who didn’t write it to read it with the criteria beside them.

Lodge through the method the tender specifies: AusTender for federal work, or the state or agency portal, such as buy.nsw, Buying for Victoria or QTenders. Upload well before the closing time. Portals slow down near the deadline and large files take time.

Late responses are generally excluded. Under the Commonwealth Procurement Rules a late submission can only be accepted if the lateness was the agency’s fault, and state rules are similarly strict. Keep the lodgement receipt.

Run through this before you lodge.

Most lost marks come from the same handful of mistakes, and nearly all of them can be caught with a checklist and one careful read.