Focused Pre-Tender Workshops and Capture Planning Sessions

When winning a tender is important to your business

Carrying out capture planning sessions and pre-tender workshops is one of the most effective ways to increase the number of tenders your organisation wins. While that might sound like a big statement, the reality is, the better prepared you are, the more planning you have done and the deeper your understanding of the client, the more success you will have.

Some organisations are fortunate enough to have existing contracts, client networks, technical differentiators or informal methods within their teams that create successful tender outcomes with a specific client. If you are tendering against this type of competitor, then creating a capture plan and implementing it effectively, provides real opportunity. If you are one of the fortunate organisations mentioned earlier, start planning on how you will stay ahead!

Contact us for an independent and professional perspective on how your business can plan for success on upcoming tenders.

How to run a tender capture planning session

Start Planning Early

A capture planning session is all about discovering and setting in place the steps and actions that will put your team in a winning position when a tender is released to the market by the client. Done well, the session and subsequent activities will allow you to:

Build a picture of the underlying drivers within the client organisation.
Understand the elements that are most important to key influencers.
Set in motion sales and marketing efforts that create awareness and appreciation.
Create any necessary partnerships, agreements and JV's .
Train, develop or hire in any missing skill sets.
Put in place required systems and processes, or purchase essential equipment and machinery.

Make sure the right people are involved in discussing the tender

Typically, there are a number of people that will have valuable input for upcoming tenders. This could well include a variety of technical specialists, client managers and business development managers, project managers, pricing specialists and senior management.

Bringing out information, ideas and perspectives from each of these people is critical. Make sure it's not only the loudest or most senior voice which is heard. Involvement and buy in from individuals representing each of these areas, builds a more complete picture and creates greater alignment.

Generate Highly Specific and Actionable Outputs

Make sure the outputs from the planning session are SMART, or specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timebound. This way, progress can be well staged towards the tender release date.

Agree Tender Review Timelines

Facilitating a capture planning session doesn't end one the meeting is closed. Agree with participants on a suitable follow up process and when subsequent sessions and reviews are to be undertaken.

Seek Independent Input on Important Tenders and Bids

If you've been less successful in previous tenders, either with a specific client or in a specific sector, then consider including an independent perspective in your planning session. A professional who is experienced in tendering will provide insights built from working across sectors and with many different types of clients. They can also facilitate your capture planning session, so that it stays focused and allows full participation from all attendees.

What is a Pre-tender Workshop?

Pre-Tender Workshops Bring Together the Winning Elements

A pre-tender workshop generally takes place after a client has issued tender documentation, but before the process of pulling together a final tender submission takes place. It may form a part of your capture planning process, or be held as a one-off discussion.

The aim of the workshop is to confirm that the project or contract is still in line with expectations. It provides the opportunity to confirm the final Go - No Go decision, but importantly, it allows the tender team to work methodically through tender to:

Analyse how you are placed on each tender evaluation element.
Finalise competitive strengths.
Work through your bid win themes and hot buttons.
Allocate bid writing, pricing and review tasks and timelines.