Bids Must Always Be 100% Compliant

Writing Winning Bids Is Hard Work

We might think it’s OK if we don’t provide a response to one or two small points within a question, or try to pass off out-of-date certification – the evaluators don’t.

Ensuring our response is 100% compliant is something we know we have to do.

But sometimes we find ourselves in a bind. We don’t quite have the capability they are looking for, and we think if we just ignore the issue, and provide a non-compliant answer, somehow the evaluators won’t notice.

The above might sound a bit fanciful when you read it here, but that is exactly the pattern I have witnessed in numerous bids.

It often happens when the competition has been more active in sales than your team has, and they have influenced the ITT in a way which favours their solution.

Caught in that trap, your technical team starts thinking they can get away with it, by not fully addressing your shortfall in that area.

Procurement people are not stupid. They spot it a mile off – just like you would, if you were the technical evaluator on their team.

If you find yourself caught in that situation, I suggest the following:

• Identify exactly where you are lacking, and why
• List the risks of your shortfall to the project and to the prospective customer
• Set an action for: steps to be taken and time required to rectify it
• Assess whether you can realistically achieve compliance within the delivery timescale
• Assess your ability to provide credible evidence to successfully achieve it
• Develop a timeline of the activities and milestones to produce your solution

You have just created an outline answer for your 100% compliant response to this question.