Aria
If you’re a tender writer, losing a tender can be devastating. You’ve spent hours or even days of your time and energy working on the proposal, only to find out that you lost the bid.
But don’t despair! You can still do things to ensure it doesn’t happen again and improve your chances next time. It’s important to remember that there are actions to take to ensure you move on from this experience and confidently continue your business.
This blog is full of tips and suggestions for recovering from lost tenders in Brisbane and returning stronger than ever before.
Let’s take a look at each of them separately.
Don’t Panic
First things first: don’t panic. It’s natural to feel stressed or upset when something goes wrong, but if you let your emotions get the better of you, it will make solving the problem much harder. Take deep breaths, take a walk around the block if that helps—do whatever it takes to keep yourself calm enough to think clearly about what happened so that you can figure out what needs to happen next.
Check the tender documents for errors
When a tender is lost, it’s easy to blame yourself. After all, you know exactly what went wrong. But sometimes, it’s not your fault—and that’s when you need to start looking outside of yourself for answers.
You must check the tender documents for any errors or omissions that may have led to your bid losing the contract. You can also ask your team if they noticed anything suspicious during the bidding process. If there are any issues with the document, you can work with the client to rectify them and re-bid on their project.
Analyse the reason for the rejection
The next thing you should do after losing a business tender is to analyse why it was rejected. The reason for rejection could be anything from an error in your proposal to poor communication skills with the client. Regardless of the reason, analysing it will help you figure out what went wrong so that things go more smoothly next time.
Always ask for feedback
You can never be sure why you lost out on a tender, but asking for feedback from the procurement company could help you refine your approach and improve your chance of winning the next one. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and get a better understanding of what the client was looking for in your bid.
This will help you learn from your mistakes and improve your chances the next time.
Review your price
Did you bid too high? Or did you underbid? If so, it may have been a factor in losing the tender. However, if you were confident about your price, this should not have been an issue for you – check whether other factors are involved here, like quality or service levels (which might be important when dealing with larger companies).
Do more research on your competitors
It’s always good practice to familiarise yourself with who else is bidding for tenders in your area before submitting your bid. Find out what their pricing is like and see if there are any ways they have improved your offerings in past bids.
Review your approach
If you lost because of technical issues with your proposal, you should evaluate whether there were any gaps in your approach or whether some information was missing from your bid documents. If any aspects of your proposal were unclear or confusing, take steps to ensure that this does not happen again. If you lost due to pricing issues, then perhaps it’s time to review your costing methodology and ensure that you are using an accurate system that can be trusted in all circumstances.
Get an Objective Perspective
You may be tempted to defend your actions, but this will only make it harder for you to learn from the experience. Instead, ask someone who is not involved with the situation (and preferably someone who has more experience) to help you understand what happened and why it happened. It can also be useful to ask an external tender writer or consultant who can help you navigate issues quickly and efficiently.
If you can see things from an outsider’s perspective, it will be easier to identify where mistakes were made and how they could have been avoided.
Don’t be afraid to learn from your mistakes!
You’ve already done the hard part: you’ve lost the bid. Now it’s time to ensure this loss doesn’t happen again. Take time to analyse what went wrong and why, and make any necessary changes or improvements before moving on.
Make sure your team is ready for the next tender opportunity
If you’ve lost a business tender, then you should make sure your staff is ready for the next tender opportunity.
This could be as simple as having a discussion with them about what happened and how they can improve their performance next time. You could also use it as an opportunity to review what went well so that you can build on those successes in future tenders.
If you have a great team, they should be able to bounce back from losing a tender and win another one. Make sure they know that they’ll get another chance and ensure they’re not getting discouraged by the loss.
Takeaway
As a business owner, you know that your job is to provide the best possible service or product to your customers. And if you’re in the business of tendering, that means you need to make sure that you’re putting out a tender that will be hard to beat—not just because of its quality but also because of how it’s presented.
The above actions are the best response if you’ve lost a tender. It’s important to know what the next steps are after receiving a rejection letter from the client because it can help you bounce back and move forward with confidence.
