Michael O'Toole says effective charities can lose out on public contracts because of a flawed bidding approach. He explains how organisations can avoid this. 

One of the greatest frustrations I find in my current role as Crown Representative for the sector comes from charities which have incredibly innovative and effective services, but which lose out in the tendering process.

Often this is due to some fundamental flaws in their bidding approach.

I spent a decade in business development and marketing in the commercial sector and I experienced the complexity of public services commissioning first hand. There are things which charities can do to increase their chance of winning bids.

First of all, it is vital to understand the policy and commissioning intentions in your sector.

This was brought home to me when I worked at bss, a communications charity, where after some initial failures; we were able to win a significant tender.

I knew about the opportunity 18 months out so we had time to meet with the policy team scoping out the service at the design stage and we were also able to engage with groups who became partners in the bid.

There was a consultation process which we fed into and we made sure we attended potential supplier engagement events. All of that work culminated in a £6m contract win - a major breakthrough at the time.

A key lesson I took from this was that resourcing such a project is an enormously time-consuming commitment.

As a starting point, I would encourage charities to use the resources available to help with this such as Contracts Finder.

Going further into the process, there are three key stages to prepare for.

The first is in ‘opportunity assessment’.

When you are looking at the Invitation to Tender (or sometimes the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire) then a vigorous initial assessment should be undertaken. It is crucial to try and avoid committing your scarce resources to preparing a tender which you are never going to win!

When I was assessing whether to go for bids I would score them by ‘win probability’ where, as a general rule, I would decline to bid on anything which I felt we had less than a 40 per cent chance to win.   

The second key stage is all about how to prepare the winning bid.

Firstly analyse all the documentation carefully. Do not start drafting your response as you go through the tender section by section. Make sure you have read and understand the whole requirement first.

If there is one aspect I have learnt from my time preparing and leading bids, it is to allow plenty of time and resources for content preparation, writing, review, proofing, and re-proofing again. It almost always takes longer than expected!

Make your strengths clear in your submission. I have worked with charities before who were universally known as the most effective and efficient, but frustratingly were unsuccessful in tenders. Sometimes charities are uncomfortable with what is a competitive, commercial environment. This is a competition – sell your offer!

Charities’ innovative, outcomes-focused strengths can really shine when they can demonstrate upsides too. A charity can often say that if it is able to outperform the specification, it will share the saving or extend the service to other users.

Cite evidence in your bid, use case studies and showcase success. If you say your system will do something, prove it. And demonstrate how you offer value for money.

One basic point is surprisingly often ignored: always comply with the procurement process. A couple of years ago I was aware of a procurement exercise in which almost 20 per cent of submissions were late and therefore disqualified! Uploading bids into online portals takes longer than you might think and being 10 minutes late can lead to disqualification.

Finally there is the post tender stage.

After the contract award, if you are not successful find out who has won via Contracts Finder.  This can inform your competitor intelligence and may open up possible sub-contractor opportunities.

This is a highly competitive process but one in which I believe charities are well placed to thrive.