Enquire about an open course. Virtual Classroom on 30 Oct 2024. Cost £495Enquire about a private course

Write Winning Bids – Bid Writing Training Course Outline

Writing effective bids to tight deadlines takes a lot of skill. If you have to produce bids, tenders or sales proposals under pressure, this course is for you. It's packed with insider tips from authors experienced in writing successful bids for major companies. And we show you step-by-step how to create bids that win.

Bid writing training will help you to avoid common mistakes and ensure your proposals stand out from the competition by meeting your clients' needs. Every organisation will benefit by having its proposals written by staff trained in tender writing.

What you will learn on this bid writing training course

By the end of the course, you will know how to:

• Create a framework for success
• Use the eight principles of good writing to improve your writing style
• Use techniques to make your writing persuasive
• Use techniques to plan and design the structure of your bid
• Collect, evaluate and manage the information gathering process
• Create an Executive Summary that contains your key messages and captures the reader’s interest
• Handle prescriptive bids
• Make the best use of illustrations
• Use a checklist to review the quality or your response and edit and proof read your own and others’ work
• Get the best out of writing tools and templates

What our customers say

“I am writing following the "Write Winning Bids" training course delivered on 22nd & 23rd March 2012 by Jakki Bendell. All modules have been extremely valuable, interactive and informative and I would like to thank you again and Jakki for it. I was able to put into practice right after the course when writing a proposal and this was actually a successful bid for my company! The feedback received from the client was that the document was easy to read and navigate and gave clear and concise information about our deliverables! ”

DS

“The pay back on the two day course will be immense, a very practical course which was made very relevant by the preparation work of the tutor.”

DA – Southern Electric Contracting

“Very useful to re-learn some basics and learn new techniques for bid writing. Am encouraged to push for adopting better practice during the bid process.”

GH – Siemens Traffic Controls

“Very useful to quantify what makes a bid more successful. Good examples from instructors. I will attempt to put lessons into practice.”

MK – AB Precision

How we deliver the bid writing training course

It is available as a one or two-day tutor-led Virtual Classroom.

Some exercises will be based on a sample bid submitted by you.

You can choose from:

• A two-day course. You will cover all the course contents in the two-day version. In addition you will have the opportunity to do more exercises and have more time working on documents you bring to the session, with the trainer's help.
• A one-day course. We cover the modules you choose as most relevant to your organisation's requirements, and are happy to discuss with you the specific content so you can make an informed choice.

Bid Writing Training Course Contents

1. A framework for success

• The BASDELL business writing model – an easy to remember formula that covers the main elements to consider when writing bids.

2. Easy ways to improve your writing style

• Common pitfalls in bid writing
• The eight principles of clear writing
• Making your writing persuasive without being too sales-oriented

3. Understanding your bid and your readers

• Understanding the ITT (Invitation to Tender)
• What type of bid is it? Are there a lot of prescriptive questions? Can you choose the structure and layout?
• Analysing your audience and why it is important to your writing style
• What will persuade the audience to buy from you rather than your competitors?

4. Designing your structure

• The benefits of structuring before you start writing
• Three techniques to sequence and structure your material
• How you should construct a compliance matrix and why it can help you
• Presenting adequate information to support your ideas
• Handling pre-defined questions (prescriptive bids) and non-compliance
• Why you don’t always have to follow the structure of the RFP or ITT

5. Developing your solution and strategy

• What are we trying to achieve?
• The four categories of content for a winning bid and how to use them to your best advantage
• How to set your objectives to make sure that you stay on track and keep to the brief
• The importance of using a visual theme to develop your strategy
• Quick and clear messages – what are the critical messages you want to give the customer?
• Planning the writing task

6. Gathering your information

• Finding sources for your data
• Managing the process
• Collecting and evaluating information
• Customising standard or boilerplate text – making it meaningful to the customer
• Customising graphics or turning text into graphics

7. Creating an Executive Summary

• When do you write an Executive Summary and what should it include?
• What structure should you use for an Executive Summary?
• What to include and what to leave out
• Capturing the reader’s interest in the first paragraph

8. Writing your first draft

• How to bring together objective, audience, structure and information
• The importance of the right mindset – how to avoid getting sidetracked
• The four big steps – prepare, draft, relax, polish
• How to write powerful, attention grabbing headings
• How to make your text more readable
• Ensuring you achieve maximum impact
• English – the universal language? Some pointers on British vs American text and making it appropriate for your audience
• Answering pre-defined questions (prescriptive bids)

9. Using illustrations

• Why do we use illustrations?
• When to use illustrations and how to ensure they are relevant
• The importance of getting it right
• Things to check when including illustrations

10. Editing and proof reading your bid

• The importance of editing your own work before passing it on for review. A top-down approach to improving your text
• Things to check when editing your draft
• Removing commonly confused words, ‘poppycock’, poor punctuation and bad grammar
• Some common punctuation errors and how to avoid them
• Why proof reading is critical. Top tips on how to do it and what to look out for

11. Exploiting the tools

• Using Word™ tools such as spelling and grammar checkers
• Metadata – what it is and how to hide it
• Handling version control
• Using templates to create a consistent layout
• Style guides that are available on the Internet

Enquire about a course Now!

For the timetable of all courses see the schedule.

For more details you can enquire about a public course, enquire about a private course, call us on +44 (0)1235 60 30 22 or email .