Tender
Strategy and planning
Strategy and planning
A tender is a procurement process: a buying organisation publishes an assignment with fixed requirements and criteria, and suppliers submit a bid before a deadline.
Public bodies are often legally required to tender above certain amounts; large companies do the same voluntarily to compare suppliers. Either way the format is fixed: requirements, award criteria, timeline and how you must answer.
Winning on price is rarely the route. In most tenders quality, approach, demonstrable experience and risk control weigh heavily — and that is exactly where bids fail: not because the company cannot do the work, but because the answer does not literally address the question.
In marketing terms a tender is a long sales process with a lot of influence up front. Knowing the buying process and being visible with the buyer in time gives you a head start.
In practice
Starting too late. The Q&A round and the deadline are fixed; a bid written in the final week reads that way.
Related terms
- ConsultancyConsultancy is paid advice from outside your organisation: a consultant analyses a question, advises on the approach and often helps with the execution too.
- BriefA brief is the assignment on paper: goal, audience, message, constraints and exactly what you expect as output.
- KPIA KPI is a number you steer on because it links directly to a goal, such as qualified enquiries per month or cost per customer.