Business Writing. Communicate with clarity and impact.

Finding new markets is essential to growing your business, and a tender bid is a valuable complement to your existing business development systems. It is also the most transparent way your business can pitch for the billions of dollars of business projects awarded each year in Australia, throughout the public and private sectors.

This tender writing short course offers a practical guide for individuals or businesses seeking to improve their tender response skillset. The course explains the content you will need to submit a high-quality tender proposal in the public and private sectors, and provides clear tools and frameworks to use across the three main stages of tender response. We also discuss the different factors that can demonstrate good value for money in tendering.

You will gain insights into finding tender and procurement opportunities for your business, putting together a tendering team, evaluating and responding to a request for tender, and preparing a compelling proposal package for submission using best-practice documentation. Several of these document formats are provided as templates, including cover letters, executive summaries and quality control documents.

You should finish the course feeling confident that successful tendering is more about demonstrating that their business can meet specific criteria, and less about slick wordsmithing or unrealistic pricing. The course aims to put you and your business in the best position to engage in the tendering process and successfully persuade buyers to choose your product or service.

The content in this course aligns to the following framework:

Proactive preparation + Robust project management + Excellence in execution = Compelling tender proposal

Aims

This course aims to:

• help you understand that meticulous preparation is key to successful tendering
• equip your business with the definitions and insights to become tender-ready
• help you determine whether a tender opportunity is viable for your business
• provide the tools and frameworks to help you respond correctly to evaluation criteria, prepare a budget, meet industry standards and consider other key requirements
• help you design a tender response that demonstrates good value and not just low pricing.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• discuss the many facets and requirements of quality tender preparation, writing and submission
• identify the content required to prepare, write and submit a quality tender proposal
• understand the different phases of a tendering process, and the aims, objectives and priorities of buyers
• meet and address all criteria and present a value for money proposal
• identify different types of business opportunities including tenders, procurement, preferred supplier
• apply the tender preparation, writing and submission methodology to your next submission, using the best-practice document structures introduced
• engage in meaningful discussions with professional colleagues on issues relating to tenders.

Content

The course will empower you to manage your own tender submissions following the three broad phases outlined below. Each section is delivered in an interactive style involving case studies, discussion and hands-on exercises to be completed in class.

Throughout the day, you may work either on their own tender documentation or the generic example from the textbook. To avoid issues with file security on the day, please make sure to download or print any such materials in advance.

Section 1 – Proactive preparation

Become tender-ready by understanding the tendering landscape, commonly required documents to include in your digital library, and different procurement models to consider. This section includes:

• Key definitions and commonly confused terms
• Overview of the procurement process
• Where to find tender opportunities
• Components of a typical tender package

Section 2 – Robust project-management

This section steps you through the eight core phases involved in a tender response, and the tools, team members and milestones to factor in. We also discuss:

• How tenders are evaluated
• 10 ways to demonstrate genuine value for money
• Commonwealth government procurement principles
• Difference between compliance, conformance and non-conformance

Section 3 – Excellence in execution

In the final part of the course, we put pen to paper and start writing your responses across different areas of the tender documentation. You will gain insights into writing the following:

• Best-practice cover letter (template included)
• Best-practice executive summary (template included)
• Essentials of a capabilities statement
• Answer-mapping your response to tender questions
• Using appropriate evidence
• Editing your writing for a clear, concise and error-free result

Intended audience

This is a practical course that will suit individuals or businesses preparing to submit their first tender, and more established businesses looking for ways to improve their existing tendering process. The content is applicable to participants from a range of sectors including construction, arts, education, health, science, technology, sports, community, non-profit and social services. 

Prerequisites

None

Delivery style

This tender writing course is an interactive workshop which includes presenter training, in-class exercises, class discussion and Q&A sessions. You will be able to work on your own tender documentation, or the generic example provided in the textbook. Please make sure to download or print any of your own materials in advance. 

Delivery mode

• Face-to-face, presenter-taught training
• Online training via the platform Zoom

Materials

All course materials are provided electronically (via Dropbox). The workbook is provided as an editable pdf and the template appendices as Microsoft Word or Excel documents.

If you prefer to work on printouts, please note that printing services are not provided and you will need to print your notes in advance. Please bring laptop or iPad, and pen and paper.