Why do tenders fail

But — bizarrely — they keep on doing the same things anyway, and so keep on losing with their tenders, time after time. When I became responsible for the success of the tenders at a healthcare provider we won just one out of the first 10 we submitted. That win rate was totally unacceptable, but we were prepared to learn … and learn we did. After those first 10 our win rate went to a rock solid one in every three. Since around 15 vendors tendered for every opportunity that we were involved in, our Board was satisfied with We would, of course, have liked to have won everything we went for.

But, realistically, you are never going to be that successful. In any case, your business would likely blow up under the strain of service delivery. So why do so many companies tolerate win rates of or worse? Perhaps there are two elements here:. The first reason for not evolving and continuing to lose tenders, which is highly pervasive in the market, is a profound ignorance of the total cost of tendering. We strongly recommend that every business seeking to grow and win substantial new revenues by tendering is all over this number because it will act as a bucket of ice cold water in the face.

At first you will be shocked and then you will want to take speedy action to ease the pain. Well, yes.

In a sense, it can be easier to do same old, same old — but think of all the time and human effort that is being wasted.

In the medium term, it will be easier to make the necessary changes and get your approach to tendering properly sorted. Plus, your business is going to be much more successful with the requisite changes in place. Not having a review procedure means that your bid could be filled with incorrect information, spelling and grammatical errors or may even omit important evidence.

Finally, plan your bid thoroughly to ensure the deadline is met. If your submission is late you will automatically fail. Request a callback with a member of our Bid Team or contact us by telephone on , direct to mobile or via email info executivecompass. Please leave this field empty. Moulton College Security Services 9 December View all Contract Notices. Dan: Six months at Executive Compass.

View full blog. To discover your company lost a tender due to an oversight, or as a result of a rushed submission, can be particularly upsetting.

Tender writing can be a stressful activity and it is easy to miss something. It can be difficult to discover exactly why your tender did not meet the mark, especially if it is a private sector tender and the client does not have a set protocol for informing the tenderer why they failed.

That is why it is so important to have a pre-submission system. Reviewing and last minute checking should be done in a systematic and consistent way to ensure that no omissions or errors are submitted with your tender. He gets it. The customer discovers that a change is vital. The supplier is extremely obliging but discovers that these changes will double the cost of the supply.

The supplier runs the risk of making a loss on the contract. If the cheaper labour and materials are inferior quality, the customer will often end up with inferior, inferior quality goods or services.

Safety shortcuts Another area where suppliers may be tempted to lower costs is safety standards. Safety costs can run away with a contract. Cutting down on safety costs is a sure way to keep the bidding price low. Competitive bidding can be extremely slow When Organs of State, and indeed, private companies use competitive bidding it can take sometimes years to award the bid. The result is the customer can wait incredibly extended periods for goods or services that may be required quickly.

Insufficient profit margin to allow for investment in research and development, modern technology, or equipment Competitive bidding can force a supplier to accept a very slim profit margin. These low margins can result in a supplier having little or no money to spend on research and development, modern technology, and equipment. Title Closing Date Tender No. Who is the bidder or his or her representative?