Tender Management 101: From Opportunity to Award

Tendering for new business can be both an opportunity and a risk for companies. Winning business through this channel requires a proactive and considered approach. It is not usually the case that organisations will successfully tender for business without good preparation and planning. Rarely do they simply ‘get lucky’.

There is a need for consistency of approach in managing this process – from the initial stages of determining whether or not to bid through to planning and co-ordination of the bid, submission and post-award review. A sensible structure to these tasks and how they are managed will help an organisation to optimise the chances of success, as well as to reduce wasted time and resources.

Step 1: The Bid/No-Bid Decision

The initial step to tender management is deciding whether or not the opportunity is worth pursuing. The trap many businesses fall into is chasing every tender. If you do this, you will likely run yourself very thin and make sub-standard tenders that will further waste your time. Always look at opportunities based on some set criteria:

• Do you meet your strategic fit?
• Do you have the capability, capacity and track record to do it?
• Are you happy with the financial and contractual requirements?
• How competitive is it, and how likely are you to be successful?

For instance, if you are looking at Australian government tenders, panels are usually looking for strong proof of compliance and past performance. If you are not sure you meet this and do not have people available to work on it, it’s best to save your resources for another opportunity.

Step 2: Planning and Team Allocation

When you commit to bidding, plan accordingly. Tendering is a race against the clock. There are fixed deadlines and a large volume of documents to work through. At this point, agree on who is doing what in your project team. Typical roles include:

• A bid manager to track time and compliance
• Subject matter experts to provide technical input
• A writer or editor to ensure clarity and persuasive writing
• A reviewer to evaluate the draft against the criteria

Keep in touch. Frequent check-ins and shared tracking of progress can avert last-minute shocks and ensure all sections of the response are moving forward.

Step 3: Understanding the Requirements

Each tender is different, and one of the top causes of failure is missing or misunderstanding of requirements. Analyse the RFT/RFP (request for tender/request for proposal) thoroughly before writing, including deconstructing the evaluation criteria, mandatory compliance items, and attachments.

A useful best practice is to create a compliance matrix, a checklist of all the requirements and where they are covered in your response. This can prevent omissions and help the team stay on the same page during the whole process.

Step 4: Drafting and Refining the Response

Effective tender writing is not just about completing the forms. Submissions that stand out have to win the evaluators over. They need to believe you’re the most competent, credible and cost-effective option. With this in mind, here are some key factors to keep in mind:

• Clarity. Always be concise, professional and free of industry jargon
• Evidence. Use case studies, statistics and references to back up assertions
• Structure. Follow the order of the evaluation criteria to enhance readability
• Differentiation. Make a note of the benefits your business has over its competitors

For example, if you’re bidding on tenders in Melbourne, showing you have a strong local understanding and history of working in the area can really boost your bid. However, if you’re bidding against others nationally, you can set yourself apart by showing how you use innovation or value-add activities.

Step 5: Internal Review and Compliance Check

Before submission, run an internal quality control process. Look at the bid not just for spelling and grammatical errors, but for compliance, persuasiveness and consistency. It can be a good idea to have someone other than the drafter act as a second set of eyes.

It is also a good idea to run the tender against the compliance matrix you compiled above. Remember that even one missed requirement can kill a bid, no matter how good the rest of it is.

Step 6: Submission

Online portals for tender submissions usually have specific formatting and file size requirements. Submitting at the last minute leaves more room for technical difficulties or errors. Try to complete and upload your submission at least 24 hours before the deadline.

Version control is important at this stage as well. Be sure to label final submission files clearly, and double-check that all attachments are included.

Step 7: Post-Submission Review and Debrief

Win or lose, the work doesn’t end after tender submission. A post-award review is the best time to fix any mistakes for the next round of bidding. Always ask for a formal debrief from the procuring organisation. Most government buyers are willing to provide feedback on strengths and weaknesses, giving you the opportunity to directly improve your approach.

Hold a lessons-learned session with your team internally as well. What went well and what didn’t in terms of process and communication? Identify bottlenecks and risks to build on for your next bid

Creating a Repeatable Framework

The real power of tender management, however, is unlocking a repeatable, scalable approach to the entire process. Businesses that tend to operate in an ad-hoc way – picking up tenders as they come along – are likely to be inefficient and to experience inconsistent results. The best-performing organisations have a documented tendering framework that they refer to, which means they can turn around tenders faster and more effectively.

• Components of a tender framework include:
• A standard bid/no-bid assessment tool
• Templates for use with compliance matrices and executive summaries
• Documented processes for drafting, review and approval workflows
• A knowledge library with case studies, CVs, and previous submissions

Such a framework removes the duplication of effort, standardises best practice and allows tender teams to focus on what they need to customise for each new opportunity.

Tendering is a resource-heavy process, so a dedicated approach to tender management turns this time sink into a strategic growth initiative. By carefully assessing opportunities, planning effectively, ensuring compliance, and learning from each submission, businesses can consistently improve performance and increase their win rates.

Whether pursuing Australian government tenders or local opportunities such as tenders in Melbourne, success comes from more than just effort—it comes from discipline, organisation, and a well-executed management framework. With the right approach, every tender becomes not just a bid, but a valuable step towards sustainable business growth.