BidWriting.com co-founders Martyn Curley and Stephen Oldbury have teamed up with David Molian, a former director of Cranfield University’s Business Growth programme and a Visiting Fellow at the university, to publish How To Write Bids That Win Business.
The book brings together over 30 years of know-how in creating and crafting successful bids for tendered contracts. BidWriting.com is based at Cranfield Innovation Centre.
This must-have guide is aimed at bid managers and bid writing teams and enables them to:
- Create a bid writing strategy that plays to an organisation’s strengths;
- Increase success rates by focusing on bids that they are more likely to win;
- Avoid at the outset bidding for contracts they don’t want to win;
- Embed robust bid writing management systems that deliver results;
- Fully understand the three golden rules for bid writing success.
The book was nearing publication date when Carollion went bust, leaving thousands of unpaid subcontractors in its wake. Even though the dust has yet to settle, there are lessons to be learned, say the authors – both specific lessons regarding bidding and contracting and more general lessons about managing business risk.
“There are three key things that pre-eminently stand out,” they say. “First, going for growth does not in itself constitute a business strategy. In fact, the bigger you are, the harder you fall, and a company with half the turnover and greatly-improved cash balances would have been inherently more sustainable.
“Second, far too little attention was paid to managing the business risks that increase with growing size and complexity. Indeed, the financial statements that have emerged suggest that senior management is likely to have progressively lost sight of the basics in the struggle to make sense of the balance sheet and trading position.
“And third, management ‘bandwidth’ was insufficient to handle the operating challenges created by Carillion’s overstretch.”
Based on extensive research, How to Write Bids That Win Business explains what bid evaluators are really looking for, by deconstructing the questions asked and explaining how to answer them to achieve top scores. Parts I to III guide readers through the complete bid creation process, providing the tips, techniques and tactics for maximising effectiveness at the short-lister interview. In Part IV the book examines the forces shaping the future of bid writing and outlines the three key factors for success in the years to come.
Mr Curley said: “Most companies would love to win business without having to go through a formal procurement process. Some will do almost anything to avoid this, seeking to build their organisation based on direct relationships with customers or clients.
“But in many business-to-business markets it is just not possible to secure work without bidding for it… In our new book, we explain the tactics and techniques we’ve developed which can potentially transform the bid writing performance for any organisation.”
Adds co-author Stephen Oldbury: “We believe that bid writing is still hugely undervalued as a key business skill and we hope that sharing what we’ve learned over the years will help change that perception.”
ISBN: 9780857196538 Hardback RRP: £45.00
ISBN: 9780857196545 eBook RRP: £25.00
