Headline news

Approach each question in an RFT by writing a headline that encapsulates the key benefit you are presenting in your answer. This will help you to focus your argument.
For example, in a question about customer service many people start by talking in generalisations about how seriously they treat it, their Customer Service Policy, or how they focus on TQM. The problem with this approach is that the benefits for the purchaser are not immediately obvious and busy evaluators will not bother searching for them.
Instead, think about Customer Service in your organisation - what do you do differently and it what ways do you add-value for your clients? This will give you your "headline" and the evaluators something they can score.

How to win tenders

I recently chaired the How to Win Tenders Summit in Sydney (organised by Association and Communication Events). The range of speakers was excellent and while most provided welcome reinforcement of key concepts in tendering, there were a few gems that I resolved to pay more attention to in future:

• Toby Travanner (www.tobytravanner.com) reinforced the need to "get clients to sell themselves". If you use your submission to show how different (in ways that add value in the clients' mind) you are, the client will become more engaged and actively look for reasons to work with you rather than looking for reasons not to!
• Virginia Loyola (Business Events Sydney) reminded me of the importance of knowing who will make the decision and how they will do it. This is particularly important when there is a panel involved. Does your submission appeal to the technical expert as well as the financial expert?
• Judy Hurditch (Intermedium) spoke about the importance of "writing in the language of government" when responding to requests from public bodies. She also talked about the 3 Pillars of Procurement that government organisations look at in evaluation: whole of life cost; degree of risk; fit to requirements. Make sure in your next submission you make an honest self assessment of how you stack up against each of them!