By Ryan May, Tender and Grant Specialist (Perth)
Communication is pivotal when it comes to tendering. I’m serious – it will make or break your submission. Inability to communicate effectively will riddle your submission with holes that you’ll find yourself madly scrambling to fill at the last minute, and you won’t be able to fill them all. There’s a good chance that one of those holes will sink your submission too. There is nothing worse than piecing together months of work and submitting it, only to find that your submission is non-compliant due to a missing or incorrect piece of information and, as a result, has been discounted.
It doesn’t need to be this way. Here are my top five tips to keep in mind when communicating on a tender.
Communicate clearly
No matter how you’re communicating, you need to ensure that you’re communicating clearly. Try not to muddy your message with unnecessary information and avoid being vague – specificity and conciseness are your friends. You don’t want to leave the person you’re communicating with second-guessing, and you don’t want to waste time trying to unravel the message you’re trying to communicate.
Communicate quickly
Where you can, be proactive about sending emails, making phone calls and booking meetings. Where you can’t, instead react quickly to gaps and questions. Don’t drag your feet! The faster you receive and relay information, the faster inputs can be made and the faster the work will be done. This then allows more time for quality checks, rescuing the submission from any gaps and minor (or major) errors.
Communicate selectively
Ensure that everyone who needs to know, gets to know. When sending emails, cc in those people who the information may be relevant to. Book meetings that involve those who would benefit from what is being discussed. In the same beat, avoid adding people to long email chains who have little to nothing to do with what is being written about, and don’t waste the time of others in an hour-long meeting if you think they’ll only find 10 minutes of relevance. Be selective!
Communicate regularly
Keep in touch with those you’re working with. If you’re leading a schedule, ensure you’re checking in on the writers and their progress regularly. If you’re a tender writer waiting on information from others, don’t sit in radio silence for days at a time – follow up your sources, and make them accountable by giving them deadlines to respond by. A tender manager should book weekly stand-ups to keep the tender on track. By collectively keeping their fingers on the pulse your team will deliver a submission that progresses steadily, aligns with review dates and inflicts as little stress as possible.
Communicate kindly
It can be easy to get frustrated with others – perhaps they have left you waiting for information for days on end, or maybe they are terrible at answering your calls. Take a breath and show kindness. Tenders place pressure on us all, and some deal with this pressure better than others. This doesn’t mean you cannot be firm – everyone must adhere to deadlines if the work is to be completed on-time and to a high standard. Just be wary of spitting fire at those responsible for pinning the wheels on the tender – demoralised contributors are nowhere near as competent or efficient as those with a desire to see the tender built to the best it can be (and a car with wonky wheels is not going to win any credible race).
Don’t stop talking!
Communication can at times feel like a time consuming, energy draining activity. I totally get it. Despite this, it’s important to keep doing your best to communicate with others. Trust me – the impact it will have on your submission will be worth the effort.
Looking to practice some of those communication skills? Get in touch – we’d love to hear from you! Here at Tender Plus we provide assistance for everything tender related, such as tender writing, tender coordination, tender management and so much more. We find a lot of satisfaction in seeing the creation of a winning submission and would love to help you create yours!
Enjoyed this post? You might like some of our other blogs, such as Tips to build client engagement and relationships (that directly benefit you!) and Teamwork makes the dream work.