Putting a successful tender document together is part science, part art. We tracked down a successful tender writer who shared her tips for writing winning tenders.

Creating winning tender submissions takes some serious work. After all, you’ve got to demonstrate your business can deliver the work, while ticking all of the boxes and selling yourself, too.

The key to a successful tender response, however, starts way before you put pen to paper – or more accurately, keyboard to webpage – because it’s essential to understand exactly what the organisation that has put out the tender is looking for, and their key pain points.

Shweta Gupta is Head of Pursuits at water engineering and advisory group, Sequana, and has previously worked in similar roles for Deloitte and Arup.

An engineer by trade, Shweta is vastly experienced in the field of tender responses, and says that it’s important to get a few steps ahead before the tender is received.

“Most teams start writing the moment the tender lands, but the real groundwork is done months earlier. The strongest bidders already understand the client’s pressure points, aspirations and the risks they are trying to avoid.

“By the time the request for tender (RFT) is released, they’re not scrambling for a draft, they have their win proposition mapped out.”

Here are Shweta’s 8 top tips to drafting a winning tender response.

1.  Identify your winning proposition

Before drafting, winning tender teams choose 3 to 5 strategic messages that anchor everything: why they are the safest option and how they’re different from the competition. These themes aren’t fluffy, they’re backed by proof, i.e case studies, testimonials, data points that the client can easily use during scoring.

2. Make the evaluator’s job easy

When you start drafting, strong tenderers make the evaluator’s job easy. Evaluators are often tired, pressed for time and frequently juggle multiple proposals. Clear signposting, actionable headings, short paragraphs and succinct proof points help them form a positive judgment quickly, often within the first 10% of the document.

3. Tell your story well

While tenders usually look technical on the surface, the client is made up of multiple reviewers both technical and non-technical, and your narrative needs to make sense of your value to all evaluators. The strongest submissions follow a simple arc:

• Here’s the problem the client is facing
• Here’s what happens if it stays unsolved
• Here’s the solution we deliver
• Here’s how it helps you achieve your objectives
• Here’s the evidence we can actually do it/we’ve done this before

Golden rule: If all evaluators can retell your story/value in 30 seconds, you’re in a winning position.

4. Show, as well as tell

Evaluators trust what they can picture. Organisational charts, process maps, delivery models, risk matrices, and timelines aren’t just design fluff, they are mental shortcuts that help the evaluators see your solution working. When they can visualise your delivery, they perceive less risk.

5.  Provide evidence

Most tenderers say the same things (we’re innovative, we’re customer-centric, our solution is best in class, we have a strong team). What wins is proof: real numbers, real examples and real outcomes. Evaluators need to feel confident in choosing you and confidence comes from evidence, not adjectives.

6. Look back at the lessons you’ve learned

An often overlooked tool for improving your win rates –losses (or near-wins) show exactly where your win proposition fractures under competitive pressure. Analysing these gaps is how good tenderers become unbeatable.

7.  Win over the evaluator

Strongest submissions strike a balance between two things bidders often separate: being fully compliant and being quietly compelling. Compliance is the bare minimum, it reassures the evaluators you’ve met every requirement. But compelling is what moves you forward. It’s the clean structure that helps a tired evaluator find answers quickly. It’s the visuals that make your delivery model easy to picture. It’s the evidence woven consistently through the document that turns your win themes into something they can confidently repeat in the scoring room.

8. Use a presentation opportunity wisely 

If there’s an in-person or virtual presentation, it’s not a second chance to read the proposal aloud. It’s your moment to simplify the story and humanise your team. Evaluators aren’t looking for brilliance, they’re looking for the bidder who understands their challenges and they can easily work with.

Shweta says that, when it comes down to it, tenders are written by people, evaluated by people and delivered by people – and the teams that win consistently never lose sight of that.

“They make every step of the process feel clearer, calmer and more confident for the client,” she says. “Ultimately, a tender doesn’t win because it’s technically perfect, it wins because the evaluators can genuinely defend choosing it.”

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