The ‘A’ that haunts me to this day
4 minute read
Written by Natalie Conroy, Tender Specialist, Brisbane
When I was in Year 12, English was one of my favourite subjects. I had a wonderful teacher, I enjoyed it immensely and I was a straight ‘A’ student.
One not-so-fond memory though, is the time I failed to submit a draft assignment to my teacher for her review and feedback. Essentially, I elected to skip the draft/review process and head straight to submitting what we would consider in the tendering world as a “gold standard” final document (or so I thought). But therein, a fatal error was made. Unbeknownst to me, I had made a mistake in my reference list. I still received an ‘A’ on the assignment, but my teacher’s written feedback was “could’ve been an A+ if you had submitted a draft for review”.
I’ll be honest. As a self-confessed perfectionist, asking for, and graciously accepting feedback has been an internal battle that has plagued me for as long as I can remember. Over the years, it’s something I have worked hard to improve on. I’ve tried to embrace a growth mindset, and I’ve built up the courage to ask for feedback and the resilience to accept it, recognising that there’s no such thing as perfect. We can always do better, and we can always improve.
Almost 20 years later as I sit here lamenting that fateful referencing downfall in my senior year of schooling, berating myself for skipping the review process, and romanticising the idea of the elusive A+, you’re likely thinking “Natalie, it’s time to move on” - and I 100% agree. Clearly, this experience has scarred me deeply, yet blogging about it is both strangely cathartic and an opportunity to draw a parallel between this experience and something I now come across regularly in the world of tendering.
A structured review process exists for many reasons, such as to ensure bid writing and preparation progresses in a steady and structured fashion, to provide “milestones” for subject matter experts and reviewers to target and maintain accountability, to easily identify opportunities to improve content, formatting and layout, to ensure what is presented represents the organisation’s actual capability, not just “best practice” or an aspirational target, and to ensure the organisation has the capacity to deliver on its commitments.
When it comes to tender management, incorporating a structured review process and respecting it will help to identify areas of concern throughout the bid, determine whether the reassignment of resources is necessary to meet tender deadlines, and result in the production of a succinct, clear, and well-formatted submission. One that clearly aligns with the overall bid win themes and strategy, and presents a consistent message - both linguistically and visually.
Embracing a drafting and review process, including asking for feedback, is critical to ensuring you produce the highest quality tender submission possible and one that is both compliant and compelling. Whether you elect to follow a structured review process (such as the levels of Blueprint, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum that we implement at Tender Plus) or whether you’re in a situation where you simply ask a peer to review your content and provide feedback, it will go a long way to helping you improve the quality of your work for your current tender and for subsequent opportunities.
When re-reading and reviewing our own documents, often after multiple iterations, it can be easy to overlook simple things such as spelling and grammatical errors, let alone the bigger picture items like – is the language I am using easy for a reviewer to understand? Is this too technical? Does this answer the Client’s question? Am I articulating the solution clearly? Or *gasp* … have I referenced correctly?
Robust, constructive feedback might hurt your fragile ego, but it doesn’t have to. At the end of the day, it’s only going to make you a better content contributor and your overall submission stronger. My advice is to keep this higher, altruistic thought in mind when you’re holding your breath and hoping for the best …
If you are truly striving to master the art of tendering, you must wholeheartedly commit to a structured review process – and don’t take it for granted, because so much can be gained. You might be thinking that the fear of failure or being challenged isn’t the reason you haven’t committed to the process, but it could very well be when you stop to consider it, deep down.
Irrespective of your own reasons (“too busy” is commonly encountered), I would urge you to consider what the opportunity is worth to you, to your colleagues and to your company. You owe it to all parties involved to commit to the opportunity being presented. To truly commit, means to give 100% of your energy and effort to producing the absolute best quality of work you can. And that includes committing to and respecting a structured review process, asking for honest review and feedback, thoughtfully considering it, and incorporating it where feasible.
It can be (and quite often is) the difference between winning and losing a bid.
