For a small business, it can feel intimidating or overwhelming trying to find success in the competitive world of government body tenders. It is no secret that lots of businesses similar to yours will want to win the same tenders as you and this is a big concern for many small businesses who feel like the world of tendering is too hard to gain access to. You should not allow yourself to be discouraged, government tenders are incredibly lucrative and are imperative to successful SME growth.
There are a few simple things that you as a business can do to ensure you win a tender with a government organisation. For the most part, the best way to increase your chances is by using common sense and being proactive in your approach to finding and bidding on tenders. We do have more specific guidance on how best to do this with the following 6 simple tips.
- Time
Government agencies are normally very busy organisations and have a great appreciation for potential partners who are timely and display good proactive time management. Ensure you meet each deadline that is involved in the bidding process and do not leave a small margin. Ensure that you have met a deadline early so the business can see that you are efficient, hard-working, and have effective time management.
- Strengths
As a business, you will have some clearly defined strengths that will make you an attractive option for a government body to work with. You must make sure that you understand your strengths and know how to best amplify them in a bid for a tender. This may seem like common sense but many SMEs do not take the initiative to really think about what their strongest assets are and how to show them off when trying to win a tender.
- Ask Questions
Tendering is confusing. There is no doubt about it. Businesses will all use different jargon and word the same questions differently which makes the process incredibly difficult. You may have some misgivings about asking questions to the business you intend to tender with but in doing so you show that you are carefully considering your bid and have a real interest in working with the government body in question. Asking questions shows that you have the initiative to check you are fully aware of what is being asked of you and shows an attention to detail. The business will respect this and appreciate the initiative it takes to clarify your misunderstandings.
- Do Research
The rules changed on 24 February 2025, when the Procurement Act 2023 replaced the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. For an SME the practical shift is that every central government department, executive agency and non-departmental public body has had to set a three-year target for direct spend with SMEs from 1 April 2025 and publish progress each year. Look up the target for the department you want to sell to before you write a word. Then set your alerts in the right place: Find a Tender is the UK’s central digital platform and carries every regulated notice, above and below threshold.
- Be Realistic
It is important that when you are looking for tenders that you really consider whether or not you are realistically going to be able to meet the requirements of a tender. Some tenders may be too large for a business of your size to be able to carry out, others may be located in an unrealistic location or have a specification just that bit too different to what you as a business do. You must ensure that you are going to only pursue a tender if you realistically can meet its requirements. This is because bidding for tenders you can’t really fulfil often wastes your time and the other business’ time. It also can impact your reputation and give your business a bad name with the government body you intended to tender with. This can limit your ability to tender with them again on something you can actually manage. It is also important because if you win a tender you can’t realistically complete you will end up in a situation where you may have to pay out to get the job done and lose out on money, damage your reputation, and potentially face sanctions and negative repercussions.
- Care and Effort
The best way to ensure you are going to win a tender is by taking care and effort in submitting your bid. Bid writing is a delicate and technical job that takes a great deal of effort to get right. It is important that you are going to make sure that when writing a bid for a tender you read through each question thoroughly and do not rush your responses. There is a great deal of information to consider when writing a bid and a specific stylistic approach to complete a bid successfully. This is why you must take great care and effort when writing your bid for a tender.
These tips are a great guide on how, as an SME, you can start winning tenders with large government agencies. Sometimes though it is better to get your start by outsourcing some aspects of the tendering and bidding process to experts. JGP Consultancy offers tender finding and bid writing services built around SMEs, with a named account manager who helps you decide which opportunities are worth pursuing in the first place. You can read more about how Tender Finder works and about our bid writing service.