By Rob Atkins, Founder & Principal Consultant
Hire a bid writer if you're getting through the buyer's pass or fail checks and losing marks on your written answers. Hire a bid consultant if you're being ruled out before your answers count, or you don't know why you keep losing. A writer improves how your evidence reads. A consultant works out whether you've got the right evidence, and whether the tender is worth chasing. If you know what to say but nobody has time to run the bid, you probably need a bid manager. Get the order wrong and you can pay to polish a bid that was never going to get through. So start with where you lost. Does that make sense?
Turns your evidence into answers that match the question and the published scoring criteria. Worth having when you've got the proof and you're losing marks on how it reads. A good writer won't invent a certificate or a track record you don't have.
Runs the process: the plan, the deadlines, who supplies what, the compliance checks and the submission. Worth having when bids overlap, or when every tender turns into a last-minute scramble.
Looks at the bigger picture: are you ready, is this tender winnable, what's missing and in what order should you fix it? Worth having when you're new to tendering, keep being ruled out, or can't see a pattern in your losses.
Plenty of manufacturers do, because the gaps often run across certificates, insurance, finances and the written answers. That's why I coordinate specialists, including bid writers, so you're not managing them all yourself. It's also my business, so weigh my view with that in mind.
Your answer's wording wasn't the problem. You were missing something the buyer requires, such as a turnover level, an insurance limit or a certificate. Fix that first, because a writer can't write around it. Why manufacturing bids lose
Read your assessment summary. Under the Procurement Act 2023, a public buyer must send one to every supplier whose tender was assessed, showing your score and the reason on each criterion. If you hold the evidence and the feedback says the answers fell short, a writer is the right call.
If the feedback points at missing case studies, data or policies, better writing only goes so far. Build the evidence first with someone who knows what buyers look for, then bring in a writer for the next one.
If documents were scattered and the bid went in thin, your problem is how the bid was run. A bid manager and a proper evidence library will do more for you than another writer. Process automation
On a Royal Navy support contract worth around £385 million, MLS (Overseas) scored highest on quality and offered the lowest price. It was still disqualified for failing a pass or fail question on supply chain safety. The High Court later ruled the disqualification unlawful, because the tender hadn't made clear that failing that question meant being ruled out. So MLS had to go to court to overturn it. No amount of good writing would have fixed that question. MLS isn't a client of ours.
Losing a tender hurts, and the natural reaction is to get someone in to make the next one read better. If the real problem is a missing certificate or a turnover threshold, you've paid for a better-written bid that gets ruled out at the same point.
The same goes the other way. If you're passing every check and your answers are just weak, you don't need a big review. You need a good writer, and I'd tell you so.
Diagnose first. I look at your business and your target tenders the way a buyer would, then bring in the right specialist from the Cure Alliance for each gap. If you go on to our Full Review, a bid manager with 15 years' experience evaluating tenders goes through your response personally. Bid writing support
You pay to fix the problem you've actually got. Nobody can promise you a win, but you'll be ready to compete for it.
Only once you've checked you can meet the requirements. On a first tender, the biggest risk is often a condition you didn't know about, so go through the conditions of participation before you pay anyone to write. Then decide what help you need with the answers.
Have they written tenders for manufacturers? Who exactly will write yours? Is the fee fixed and agreed in writing before they start? Do they use AI, and who checks what it produces? And what will they need from your team, and by when? A good writer will welcome all of those.
Usually as a fixed fee per bid, a day rate or a retainer. The cost tends to follow the number of scored questions, how much evidence already exists and how tight the deadline is. Ask for a quote based on the actual tender documents, so you can compare like with like.
It comes down to how often you bid. If tenders come in a steady stream, having someone in-house can make sense. If you bid a handful of times a year, a full-time role is hard to keep busy, so outside support is usually the better fit.
No, and I'd be wary of anyone who says they can. Nobody controls a buyer's decision. What good support can do is stop you being knocked out on a technicality and make sure your answers do your business justice.
Sources: Procurement Act 2023: assessment summaries (GOV.WALES) · MLS (Overseas) v Secretary of State for Defence: pass/fail questions (Local Government Lawyer)
Written by Rob Atkins, Founder & Principal Consultant, Your Best Solution Limited. Last updated .