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Often commissioners will issue invitations to tender for services that involve more than one lot, i.e., a larger contract is split into smaller parts or sections. There are many reasons for using lots, such as enabling participation from smaller organisations, encouraging competition and innovation, reducing risk by having a range of suppliers, and improving supply chain resilience.
Lots are often divided into different service types, geographical areas, or phases of a project. Sometimes providers are limited to the number of lots they can be awarded, but this must be made clear in the tender notices and documents.
Preparing a bid for a multi-lot tender is more complex than single-lot tenders, so it is important to think through your strategy before starting the bid process.
Strategies for Approaching Multi-Lot Bids
If you are considering bidding for a multi-lot tender, it is important to think through your strategy.  It’s not as simple as writing a response once and then copying and pasting it across all Lots! You need to address the unique aspects of each lot and develop a consistent overall approach to the whole tender. Here are some key things to think about:
1. Analyse the whole opportunity: Start by thoroughly evaluating the entire tender document, looking at how the different lots overlap. Identify common themes, requirements, and evaluation criteria that span multiple lots.
2. Appropriate expertise: You will need a wider bid team with a range of expertise that reflects the specific requirements of each lot. If you don’t have relevant subject matter experts in your organisation, you can consider working with other organisations to meet the gaps in your knowledge. This could be through a partnership arrangement where you share responsibility for delivery.
3. Strategically select lots: Look at your organisations’ strengths, strategic objectives, and where you have a competitive advantage before deciding which lots to bid for. It may not always be sensible to bid for every lot.
4. Relationships between lots: Look for opportunities to share ideas and resources across lots. For example, innovations that could work across all lots, or how your approach to one lot could complement delivery in another. Could you offer additional value [or a better price (economies of scale)] by delivering more than one lot?
5. Teaming across lots: Examine if it might be more beneficial to bid across all lots to make your offer stronger and more attractive. For lots that ask for services that aren’t your core business, consider teaming with another company who has expertise in that area of delivery. Sometimes companies working together can offer a stronger proposition and more assurance of effective and cost-efficient delivery. Of course, in you are offering a partnership approach, you need to plan and agree the structure and set-up of your partnership. For example, are you going to set up a joint vehicle for delivery? Or will one organisation be the lead contractor, and sub-contract delivery of certain lots (or aspects of the service) to another organisation (or organisations?)
6. Tailored Solutions: Develop unique and tailored solutions for each lot while ensuring they align with your overall bid strategy. Also include lot-specific examples to evidence capability, rather than using the same evidence across all lots. This demonstrates your understanding of the specific requirements and challenges associated with each lot.
Allocating Resources and Agreeing Priorities
Effective resource management is critical when tackling multi-lot tenders. Here's how to optimise your resource allocation:
1. Bid Team Structure: Wherever possible assign someone to coordinate each lot that you’re bidding for, as well as an overall bid manager overseeing the whole bid. This gives a clear line of accountability, ensures clear communication and can facilitate efficient decision-making, not to mention ensuring that responses are tailored to the specific of each Lot.
2. Time Management: Develop a detailed timeline for each Lot, factoring in dependencies and shared resources. It’s best to take a project management approach, with your bid manager as the overall project manager. Individual lot coordinators should feed information and progress into the overall plan.
3. Flexible Resources: Although there will be subject matter experts relevant to each lot, try to keep your resources flexible, so they can be moved to support different lots as needed. This allows you to respond to changing priorities or unexpected challenges.
4. External Expertise: Consider engaging external consultants for specialised aspects of certain lots, allowing your core team to focus on areas where they add the most value.
Maintaining Consistency Across Multiple Lots
Ensuring consistency across multiple lots is essential for presenting a cohesive and professional bid. Here are some strategies to achieve this:
1. Central Style Guide: Develop a comprehensive style guide that outlines formatting, tone, and messaging guidelines. This ensures a uniform presentation across all lots.
2. Template Development: Create standardised templates for common bid elements, such as CVs and case studies. These can be customised for each lot while maintaining a consistent structure.
3. Consistent win themes. A win theme is a key strategic message that runs through your bid, highlighting the unique value and benefits your company offers to address the client’s specific needs and objectives. Win themes help to make you stand out from competitors and are an important tool to persuade evaluators to choose your solution.
In a multi-lot tender, it’s a good idea to have overall win themes and lot-specific win themes. The overall themes should address the client’s broader objectives and highlight your organisation’s predominant strengths. This creates a consistent message across all lots and could include elements such as your experience and record of strong delivery, commitment to high quality and patient safety, or your approach to innovative solutions.
Lot-specific win themes should be tailored to the specific requirements and challenges of individual lots. They allow you to highlight your strengths related to the requirements of that lot, and to address the unique requirements of each lot.
4. Cross-Lot Review Process: Your review process should include cross-lot checks to ensure consistency in messaging, pricing strategies, and proposed solutions. Make sure the overall bid owner and/or your review team performs a horizontal review across all lot responses for consistency and compliance.
4. Shared Information Resource: Establish a central store for key information, baseline content, and approved messaging. This reduces duplication of effort and minimises the risk of inconsistencies.
5. Team Coordination: Hold regular coordination meetings with team members from each lot team to share insights, align strategies, and address any potential conflicts or inconsistencies.
By implementing these advanced bidding strategies, you will be able to navigate complex multi-lot tenders with greater confidence and success. Remember, the key to mastering multi-lot bids lies in striking the right balance between tailoring your response to each lot, and making sure your overall bid is coherent and consistent between lots.
If you're feeling mystified by multi-lot tenders and need guidance to navigate the process with confidence, don't hesitate to reach out for expert support and tailored solutions. Ocean City Bids is a professional bid agency based in the UK, covering all industries and with extensive experience and expertise in healthcare, social care, recruitment, life sciences and telecoms. We provide a range of services to support your business to bid for contracts, and to win. Contact us on bid@oceancitybids.co.uk for a friendly, informal discussion about your bidding needs. www.oceancitybids.co.uk
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