6 easy items to include when writing a bid content plan

When you are working on bids on a daily basis, you know that planning is everything. You have a clear vision of what needs to be part of the bid, and what you would like your client to see from your response. However, if you are not used to writing bids or have many contributors that only participate on bids on an ad-hoc basis, a bid content plan could be highly useful. Such a bid content plan can save you many headaches later on. 

Six items that should be part of a bid content plan

• What are your key selling points and differentiators?
• What is the key message you are trying to get across to your client?
• What does your team need to know when they start writing?
• What things are left out? What else might be needed?
• What potential differentiators do you offer that are not asked about?
• What do you know about the customer, the competition, technology – basically insights that can improve your content?

Many other pieces could go into such a plan, and you may want to add more later on. However, these steps may make it easier both for experienced bid writers and ad-hoc contributors to see what direction the bid should take, understand the strategy and write in context. This in turn is likely to increase the quality of the content, and make the job easier for the bid manager. 

These items should help your contributors to understand how and what they are to respond to, and set clear expectations from the get-go. 

A bid content plan allows you to be more compliant and responsive

The more you get used to creating a clear and concise bid content plan, the easier it is for the contributors to respond in a timely fashion that is both compliant and responsive to your clients’ requirements and needs.

Note: This blog was first published 19. Nov 2019