Bids, Tenders & Proposals: Winning Business Through Best Practice

Front Cover
Kogan Page Publishers, 2003 - Business & Economics - 248 pages
* Huge scope - covers all aspects of tender writing for public sector, private sector and research funding * Expert guidance from a specialist who has written over 200 successful tenders and proposals * Highly practical approach - based on examples drawn from actual bids and tenders With more and more corporations opting for ""preferred supplier"" lists, bids and tenders have become a fact of business life. For the small or medium sized corporation without a specialist bids-and-tenders team, the research unit, or the university team, bid preparation can take great amounts of senior management time. Here's where this book comes in: practical and written in an accessible style, it uses examples and checklists to explain how to create bids that are outstanding in both technical quality and value for money, bids that stand a good chance of being successful. Lewis provides ""best-practice"" advice on every step in the process, including: Bidding for public sector contracts; tendering for the private sector and for research projects; analyzing client requirements; managing, resourcing and researching the bid; developing and writing the bid; defining outputs and deliverables; communicating added value; describing professional experience; producing and submitting tenders; stating the price; understanding tender evaluation; and making presentations.

From inside the book

Contents

List of figures
8
Tendering for the private sector
21
Prequalifying for tender opportunities 39
39
Analysing the bid specification 55
55
Managing the bid
69
Talking to the client
85
Thinking the work through
97
Developing and writing the bid
105
Presenting CVs
161
Describing professional experience
173
Using graphics in the bid
179
Stating your price
187
Producing and submitting the bid
201
Understanding how clients evaluate tenders
207
Presentations to clients
219
Do your own tender auditing
225

Explaining approach and methodology
127
Focusing on contract management
139
Defining outputs and deliverables
149
Communicating added value
155
Ten true stories
237
Index
243
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2003)

Harold Lewis is an independent consultant with more than 30 years' professional experience as a specialist proposal writer, technical editor and trainer. He is a leading authority on the development and writing of competitive tenders for professional services contacts and consultancy assignments.Harold Lewis' extensive experience includes preparing successful bids for projects funded by agencies, government departments, local authorities, research bodies and corporate organisations in the private sector.