With five years of rapidly reducing public sector spending, what do suppliers to the public sector have to look forward to? Thin gruel you may think.

But underneath the headline shock and awe, we can expect to see quite profound changes in the economic makeup of UK over that period:

• rebalancing of the economy from publicly funded consumption towards greater private sector wealth creation
• development of traditional and newer industries and technologies, which have laboured in the shadow of a 'services' and especially financial services-based economy for over twenty years
• encouragement of investment and entrepreneurship with rewards to capital, innovation and risk taking

How might this prolonged period of austerity impact you?

More of the same? Consortiums?

If you are an established public sector supplier, chances are that government will still require the services that you currently perfo...Read more

After writing initial tenders for a client, we were asked to submit a fresh tender for a major new opportunity within a short deadline.

Because we now had access to strong material developed for the earlier bids, we were able to put together a personalised, powerful statement for the new target - with less oversight and review needed from our client.

Great tender material can be used again and again, adjusting and bespoking as necessary for the next bid. This reduces the time taken to assemble responses and supports the fine-tuning needed to polish the response precisely to the target's requirements.

The invoiced cost of the new tender (time-based at the same rate), was 40% lower than for the earlier bids.

And it doesn't end there. Using the productivity tools already within MS Word, RfP Solutions can:

• construct enti...Read more

TENDERS, RFPS AND SELLING: WHAT KIND OF SUPPLIER ARE YOU?

When you are considering responding to a tender, it helps if you can understand how your buyer thinks about what you supply. In this article we look at various types of suppliers from the buyer’s perspective – and consider how this can affect the balance of power between them.

Consider how the balance of power between supplier and buyer is different in these two scenarios:

• A current or potential customer is tendering to spend a lot of money - but there are lots of potential suppliers able to provide similar items or services. What you supply is obviously important to them but you, specifically, may not matter so much.

• Your customer is not pl...Read more

TENDERS, RFPS AND BIDS FOR BUSINESS: BE ON TIME AND COMPLIANT

Tenders, requests for proposals (RfP) and similar documents are the core documents to the Business-to-Business (B2B) route-to-market, with its opportunities for substantial product and service contracts with larger private sector and all public sector organisations.

Here we look at two simple but key ground rules for effective tendering: don’t be late and make sure your bid is compliant.

Creating effective written bids for business – whether pre-qualification questionnaires (PQQ) or the tender response/RfP itself – requires discipline so you don’t miss deadlines. You must also ensure that what you send in conforms closely to what the buyer expects to receive – your bid needs to be ‘compliant’.

Here are some simple tips to help ensure that your written submissions are on tim...Read more

TENDER RESPONSES - WHAT TO SAY AND HOW TO SAY IT IN TENDER RESPONSES

Tender responses take a lot of time to put together, especially when you are writing them for the first time.

RfPSolutions explains why the tone of what you say is important – and how to get the right balance between presenting and promoting your cause. You will spend considerable effort on all your response material: we look at how to plan for future automation of tender responses by getting the ground rules right from the start.

The content, style and tone of voice of your written responses to tender questions say a lot about you and your organisation. Opinions of course vary as to what represents ‘best practice’ but RfPSolutions follows a defined house style which h...Read more