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Tender Writing – HELP! I need somebody – HELP! not just anybody

Tender Writing – HELP! I need somebody – HELP! Not just anybody

HELP! I need somebody – HELP! not just anybody

The number one mechanism that puts off business leaders and development executives from getting help with bidding for work- is the sheer prices that many consultants charge for their expertise and support. We all have received that email from some portal, inviting you to attend ‘Bid Writing Masterclasses’ in a swanky conference suite, usually a million miles away for around £100 per ticket per day.

There was nearly £171 Billion spent within the UK’s public procurement sector in the last year alone. Why should companies pay for help in order to access this money? Who wants to pay over the odds for some helpful guidance? – especially when there are various options available … FOR FREE!

Tender VLE

In May 2018, we will be launching Tender VLE, a highly innovative virtual learning environment (VLE), where we will be sharing regular masterclass videos across a diverse range of procurement topics, including support and guidance around tender readiness, bid management and pretty much every procurement practice you can think of. This will be broken into various knowledge strands so that people with the most limited knowledge and those with advanced knowledge can receive the best help and guidance to succeed. The best part of all this – is that it comes at no cost to the learner/viewer. All videos will be made publically available on our VLE and onto the likes of YouTube, allowing unlimited access to ALL.

Tender Consultants

Additional to this online support, another one of our business development platforms, Tender Consultants, works with you on a more personal level to ensure a helping hand is always there when needed. Currently, procurement is far from being easy. Our mission is to de-complicate the sector so it remains simple for all buyers and suppliers across the country. Our firm is different from other consultancies, as we offer free impartial advice on your procurement strategy. Subsequent to our advice, you can then decide what kind of support you need. Whether this be our Tender Readiness Assessment? Tender Writing Service? and/or Guide and Reviews? etc. All services on offer are accustomed to your needs, meaning we do not overcharge or maintain bulk rates. We offer more than affordable consultancy rates that remain specific to your requirements and will only enhance your chances of winning.

Our upcoming Tender Bank system, launching within the next year, will also provide customers with a one-stop-shop for all of their tender needs, including templates, pre-established responses that are tailored to your sector and varying policies.

In the meantime, we are happy to provide whatever support you need. Contact us for free advice and consultations on your tendering efforts. Let’s get you some of that £171 Billion up for grabs! Don’t just use anybody – use the right body! Use Hudson Procurement Group!

Believe you can and you WILL, Believe you can’t and you WON’T

Believe you can and you WILL, Believe you can’t and you WON’T

You know what they say – believers are achievers!

Corny I know, but the principle DOES apply when tender writing. You can never just hit it and hope for the best – this isn’t snooker! Each piece of work you bid for should have been accurately assessed to make sure this is a good opportunity for your business (see our ‘to bid or not to bid’ blog for further information).

The point is, you have to go in fully prepped with the clear mindset of achieving this piece of work. If you are not fully confident that you can win the work, then don’t bid for it. Simple.

If you feel you are in with a good shot – then make sure any doubts or reservations are left at the door, as you don’t want these to be identified by the evaluator.

Remember to be descriptive, be assertive, but most importantly be positive!

You should:

  • use phrases like ‘We will …’ – no one cares you if you are attempting to do something – this is your piece of work – be confident and state you WILL deliver all that’s expected;
  • demonstrate your willingness to adapt, conform and collaborate with the buyer – always demonstrate further added value and what more you can do for the buyer – think of the positive effects this has socially and economically;
  • validate your company – describe not only what makes you different, but what makes you BETTER? Explain clearly why the buyer should choose you and not your competitors – why do YOU stand out?

You’ll find that if you’re below 80% sure to whether or not you should bid for the contract – this tends to show less confidence on paper. The better the opportunity that is right for you, the better your proposal will be projected. Unbeknownst to many, on a subconscious level, if we believe we are NOT destined to win the work, we will in many ways lag behind our competitors in that all-important tender.

Never go for any opportunity! Always go for the ones you believe in!

Get in touch with our bid writers today. We can help you believe what’s best for you!

New Facebook Business Update – How this affects you?

New Facebook Business Update – How this affects you?

Can you hear that?

That’s the sound of creative agencies everywhere gasping at the recent news that Mark Zuckerberg wants to make Facebook’s news feed more ‘meaningful’ and ‘personal’.

One of Facebook’s biggest “focus areas for 2018 is making sure the time we all spend on Facebook is time well spent.”

This is the opening line in Mark’s latest monologue, posted on 11th January, where he states that consumer research has led them to the realisation “that public content — posts from businesses, brands and media — is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other”.

With changes already underway as of last year, Mark has promised all Facebook users that within a few months’ time “you can expect to see more from your friends, family and groups’ and seeing “less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media”.

Apparently, this research has resulted from various studies carried out, including that on mental health and social media, in which Mark states “when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our well-being […] we can feel more connected and less lonely, and that correlates with long-term measures of happiness and health.”

Facebook Business

So, how will you be affected?

The Creative Industry will undoubtedly be hit the hardest, due to many core services being the management of Social Media. Of course, we still have the likes of Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. But Facebook, as many will know, is key into retaining new customers and serves a great platform for consumer interactivity. With less and less engagement toward Facebook by the end of 2018, is this the beginning of the end for Facebook targeted ads? Or are prices going to seriously rise in order to pull your content through to your engaged audience? This will become increasingly limited over the next few months!

Although millions of pounds have been spent by companies since Facebook’s ‘target ads’ launched have begun, it seems there will be a massive drop in the amount being spent to garner consumer and business leads through this platform going forward.

Thinking ahead…

Bad news for some businesses and consumers who don’t mind receiving the odd advertisement now and again. Engagement between businesses and audiences will be reaching an eventual all-time low by the end of the year. Mark warns us that time spent on the platform and “some measures of engagement will go down.”

It’s time to get your experts to think ahead on ways in which B2C and B2B engagement can be driven elsewhere. Make sure your strategies for both yourselves and your clients consider this vital update. Facebook goes “from focusing on helping [consumers] find relevant content, to helping [them] have more meaningful social interactions.

John Hudson – In Conversation With (Creative Tenders)

John Hudson – In Conversation With (Creative Tenders)

Why do you think Creative Tenders was an instant success?

For me the answer is simple.  We created a platform specific to the creative sector that was easy to use, wasn’t complicated like most platforms on the market and we ensured that the product does what it says on the tin.

As a business, we know how to communicate to creatives due to our sector knowledge which helped us to understand the pain points when tendering in the sector and how we should work towards minimising these through the effect build of the product.

What do you see changing in the world of procurement over the next 3 years?

More opportunities for SMEs.  The government have announced they will spend £1 in every £3 with SMEs by 2020. Coming down from £1 in every £5 which is the current standard.  An approximate £15billion will be spent annually with SMEs either directly or through the supply chain.

For this to happen I believe government need to strongly address how they buy and the scoring systems they put in place for purchase to ensure fair procurement processes with a reduction on ‘free pitching’ which is a major bug bear of directors here at Creative Tenders.

What’s your thoughts on the current procurement practices for our government?

Procurement has improved a lot since we started tendering but they still have a very long way to go.  We’re seeing a lot less handshakes and more open procurement processes with sufficient feedback for agencies to improve their tendering next time round. However, we’re still seeing horror stories and wasted pitching which needs to stop.

Feedback is business critical for agencies who tender.  They need to be able to improve to ensure tendering is a viable route to market, so we’re spending some time working with government procurement departments to fly the flag for the sector and to make sure we’re heard as a united voice.

What is your hope for the UKs creative sector?

I hope that we become the world leaders for setting creative design trends, which I believe we’re extremely strong, and that our UK businesses look Internationally for their work.  The perception of the UK design capabilities is fantastic, the US love British design so let’s embrace that and start growing our client base outside of the UK.

You’ve chosen Boston as your first US office, why is this?

Massachusetts is the closest state to the UK, so logistically it is the easiest for our commute.  We’ll need to be in the US a lot over the first 24 months so we need to think about ease of travelling and distance to New York.  We’ve recently attended Inbound in Boston, Hubspot’s event, which has a fantastic community and 20,000 businesses gather to hear what’s new in the world of inbound marketing.

America will be a challenge as there is a lot less structure in America when it comes to procurement, but our product will provide businesses with the much needed process to carefully and correctly select its suppliers.

What’s the future for Creative Tenders?

Creative Tenders has a 15-year business plan.  This business plan evolves every 3 months during our management meeting, but the core goals remain the same, just the delivery behind them evolves as technology and external factors evolve.

First, we’ll crack America and ensure the products we develop for our customers are built with the customer in mind, ensuring our core goal of growing the UKs creative sector remains at the forefront of what we do.

What can agencies expect when working with Creative Tenders?

Great customer service and a product which is easy to use that benefits our buyers.  After attending Inbound and meeting many of the world leading SaaS businesses we believe America leads the way with regards to customer service.  I know it’s a real cliché but I genuinely feel this is how we gain loyalty from our customers.

If you could explain Creative Tenders in 3 words what would you say?

Effective, simple, approachable.

 

Creative Tenders ‘In Conversation with Jill Hudson’ – Creative Tenders Website

‘In Conversation with Jill Hudson’ –  The founder of the Creative Tenders website

What is your role at Creative Tenders?

My role is quite vast, on a weekly basis I work with agencies who are struggling to see results from their tendering efforts, delivering tender training and tender writing services, as well as driving forward product innovation to ensure our group of businesses are constantly developing.

Why you think the Creative Tenders website was an instant success.

Creative Tenders was our flagship product and I thought about this business whist working in agencies and often thinking ‘there has got to be an easier way to get this information’.  I knew that if I had this trouble thousands of others would too, so I wrote a technical specification for a product which would make my job easier.

Because I knew the industry so well, having worked in it for over 15 years that the product instantly screamed success.  On the day we launched the ‘coming soon’ campaigns the phone literally rang off the hook.  We had 5 staff at the time and they were all on the phone taking calls.  As all phone lines were busy other agencies were messaging us on Facebook and email saying they couldn’t get through and wanted to speak about the product as soon as possible.  I knew then that this product would be a success.

Then when we launched, within minutes’ agencies were signing up.

What do you see changing in the world of procurement over the next 3 years?

Procurement is changing but slowly. With the growing use of technology and technical capabilities procurement portals will hopefully become more user friendly.  Most portals, in my opinion need simplifying to make it easier for agencies to navigate.  I think this is starting to get better for digital agencies with the use of Digital Market Place.

Brexit will play a huge role in procurement changes, even those who don’t realise it, a lot of money spent on creative tendering opportunities has come from Europe, either directly or indirectly so we won’t see any more opportunities which are funded by ERDF or ESF for example.  I believe it will take a while to steady the ship once we leave the EU, so I am hoping and praying that the transition won’t affect SMEs too much.

Lastly, the government plan on spending £1 in every £3 with an SME by 2020, they currently spend £1 in over £5 either directly or through a supply chain. It will be interesting to see the impact Brexit has on this goal.

What’s your thoughts on the current procurement practices of our government?

It’s quite clear that it isn’t 100% right, nor do I believe that the government think it is.  I know it’s very frustrating for our customers that they need to register on many different portals to access tender documents, each system with a completely different interface and user requirements. I won’t be the first to say that this needs to be addressed to move forward procurement in general.

Having tendered for over 15 years, I see the frustrations of our customers and have personally seen some horror stories in regards to client selection processes but all we can do is unite and work with procurement departments to educate them on how much effort we put into our tender documents to ensure fair procurement practices are addressed.

What is your hope for the UKs creative sector?

The sector is flying, there is no doubt about that.  We want our agencies to feel confident stepping outside of their comfort zone and looking at International business.  We’re opening our US office in 2018 to support and encourage buyers to use our UK based creative agencies.  This will be a core focus for us during 2018 and any interested agencies should contact me direct so we can chat about how we will support agencies with this development.

You’ve chosen Boston as your first US office, why is this?

There is a number of reasons really, firstly it’s the shortest flight from the UK now that they’ve opened direct flights from the North, it is also only a short 50-minute flight from New York.  Secondly, we’ve visited Boston attending conferences, events, hosted meetings with businesses and government bodies and we feel the support on offer and the welcoming nature of the business community, that Boston is ideal for us to dip our toe in the water and start making some waves in the US.

What’s the future for the Creative Tenders Website?

The sky’s limit. No really. We’ve made significant progress in the year and a half we’ve been in business. I dare say 90% of all UK agencies know who we are, we have over 500 customers which grows daily and we have an exceptional retention rate for agencies choosing to stay with us year on year.  Now that we’ve launched another 9-sector specific tender portals, we’re working on Hudson Discover which is an online inter-trading portal, allowing businesses to buy and supply directly to one another from our system.

The next 12 months sees us focusing on opening the US office, launching Tender Bank to support agencies through simplifying tendering, ensure Hudson Discover is up and running and operating successfully and generally working hard to double the number of tenders we upload daily.  We’re currently uploading about 10-30 every day, we want to make that a minimum of 50 new opportunities every single day by the end of 2018.

What can agencies expect when working with Creative Tenders?

Consistency.  We will ensure you get your daily bulletins so you don’t miss any opportunities.  We will guarantee that if you log a support query someone will call within 1 working hour maximum, and we ensure our customers that we are constantly flying the flag for the creative sector and encouraging fair procurement practices.

We won’t become stale either, we are constantly in development and constantly generating new products that benefit UK agencies during their tendering journey.

If you could explain Creative Tenders in one sentence what would you say?

An innovative product that ensures timesaving for busy agencies, making it a business-critical tool for agency growth.

 

 

Creative Tenders Opens New Office in Manchester

Creative Tenders Opens New Office in Manchester

Youthful, diverse, energetic and bursting with character; Manchester is one of the most exciting places to visit in the UK right now. With a progressive vision to be a city that delivers surprise and delight in equal measures, where better to execute our expansion plans?

As we continue to grow at an exceptional rate, our prospects and opportunities are endless. With plans to expand overseas into Australia and America, the team are bursting with pride as their efforts and hard work are ensuring our vision appears fully into focus.

“The expansion into Manchester was pretty inevitable for us. We have established such a big client base there and we need to ensure they are serviced efficiently and to full potential” said Growth Director, Jill Hudson. “Manchester is a prime central hub for business, innovation and technology so where better to decide to make our second of many future office developments”

The opening comes on the cusp of the launch of seven brand new platforms for our firm and, as we enjoy our successes, we know there is a sizeable amount of continued hard work to follow.

Our business model is not showing any signs of slowing down in terms of development as we adapt and advance in terms of client wants and needs from our services and offerings.

CEO John Hudson added, “With the success of our current platforms, we couldn’t be more confident that our offerings are fundamental for growth and business prospects for the sectors we are currently working within. Our movement into Manchester reflects this as we move into further markets and continue to naturally progress forward with our exceptional team and consistent pioneering hard work”.

Here at Creative Tenders, we source creative contracts in the UK for:

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow. 

 

 

Why choose Creative Tenders?

Why choose Creative Tenders?

Mr Tenders vs Mrs Finder

Our system is used by two types of customers, creative agencies and freelancers looking for new business opportunities. Business owners and marketing managers looking to source creative partners will also benefit from Creative Tenders.

How can we help your business grow you might ask? By using Creative Tenders (for agencies and freelancers) or by using Creative Finder (to source creative partners).

Here’s how….

Mr Tenders vs Mrs Finder

Mr Tenders will…

 

  • Source creative only tenders, minimising the time needed to search for tenders
  • Work with his team who has decades of creative sector experience
  • Provide a time saving solution for business development teams
  • Provide a dedicated account manager to make sure you don’t miss out
  • Set up cold calling campaigns to generate unique opportunities for our subscribers
  • Grow his team who are currently operating UK wide with a clear international strategy
  • Create an ideal solution that works for both growing UK agencies and freelancers

 

Mrs Finder will…

 

  • Give you access to our ‘free to use’ system for unlimited invitation to quotes
  • Help you write your creative and digital specifications
  • Ensure your opportunities are seen by hundreds of relevant freelancers and agencies
  • Take the legwork out of securing competitive quotes
  • Ensure our system is an easy to use online solution
  • Allow agencies to respond via our system, reducing the amount of emails you receive
  • Provide you with a dedicated account manager with over 10 years’ industry experience

Don’t waste your valuable time searching for tender opportunities and suppliers….we’ve got them all in one place.  Sign up today at www.creativetenders.co.uk

Tel: 0203 051 2217

 

 

 

Top Ten Tips for submitting a tender

Top Ten Tips for submitting a tender

Here are our top ten tips for completing a tender document:

  1. Read the whole tender, even if it is 100 pages long. Page 82 may have a vital bit of information about how to respond to the tender.
  2. Adhere to the specific tendering rules and regulations. If they want the tender in Ariel point 12, complete the tender in Ariel point 12.
  3. Ask a question if something’s not clear. Don’t just assume it’s a silly question.
  4. Answer with the information they have requested, not with the information you think they should know.
  5. Follow the format they’ve requested – they are requesting it that way for a reason and make it as easy as possible to find the information they’ve requested, creative design is great, but ensure it’s in a readable format that flows.
  6. Understand how they will be marking your tender, the percentages are hugely relevant to where you should be concentrating your efforts.
  7. Show consistency in your tendering processes and procedures – don’t contradict yourself from one section to the next.
  8. Don’t use standard, over complicated content. Those marking the tender will know if you’ve cut and pasted your company biography from your website.
  9. Choose either 1st person or 3rd person and don’t mix it up. Don’t make it difficult for the reader to follow.
  10. Proof read your response more than once, and get another member of your team to double check for spelling and grammatical mistakes.

 

Top five reasons for tendering

Top five reasons for tendering

 

We’re often told by companies that we work with, that they don’t tender as it takes too long, they’re never successful, they don’t have the time…etc. etc.

Tendering is a powerful way to generate new business, so powerful in fact that many businesses use this as their sole route to winning new business. We think every business should at least try tendering.

We understand why businesses are put off from the long, in-depth process you have to follow. But, spending the time upfront to learn how to tender could be vital to the success and growth of your service based business.

Our Growth Director, Jill has been winning work via bid writing for well over a decade, and she is sharing with you below, her top five reasons for tendering in creative and digital agencies.

1. You don’t need to sell the need for your service

Responding to tenders means businesses have already established the need for your services and have allocated a budget to carry out the work.  This reduces the need for selling the benefits of the services, and establishing the benefit of investing in XYZ.

Responding to a tender means you’ve just got to prove that you’re the best fit for their business.  Surely it’s worth a try? Just make sure you follow a strict process of what you will and won’t apply for.

2. The project has clear start and end dates

When tendering the client usually outlines when they would like the work to start and end, meaning you can work your studio time around this.  When selling directly B2B we often have projects on hold waiting for content / imagery etc. We’re not saying this won’t happen with tendering, but your client is likely to be more prepared.

3. Budget signed off in advance

As the budget has already been allocated, you know what constraints you’re working within, allowing you to best advise your client where to allocate spend.

4. Clarifies your offering to clients

You won’t always be successful when tendering, but completing a tender document often gives you additional clarity on other areas of your business. It also teaches you how you can productise service offerings.  It also allows you to benchmark your fees against what people expect to pay.

5. Research

Tendering allows you to see how businesses are spending their marketing budgets.  This helps you to better understand where you should be spending your own marketing budgets and what services are the most popular.  If you see an influx of social media tenders and this is an offering your business provides, read the Invitation to Tender documents. You should then align your service descriptions to ensure it is suitable for the market you’re selling into.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creative Tenders Team Profiles – John Hudson

Creative Tenders Team Profiles – John Hudson

When did you start working in the creative sector?

12 years whilst I was still at University.

What is the biggest change you’ve seen in the sector in the last ten years?

Everything moving digital and online, social media becoming more and more important for businesses, and online communities becoming more popular than offline events.

What made you stay in the creative sector?

The diversity and fast paced environment, I’m the type of person that needs to be kept on my toes, and the creative sector does that every day.

What is your biggest achievement in the sector?

Building a leading B2C videography business with 50% year on year growth.  For future achievements I am hoping Creative Tenders will become THE leading tender portal used worldwide by creative businesses and purchasing managers.

If you could describe the sector in 3 words what would you say?

Fast, dynamic and fulfilling (unlike my current diet).

If you could see anything happen in the creative sector, what would it be?

For smaller agencies to realise the potential in exporting.  Geography shouldn’t be an issue now when we do business with one another.

If you didn’t work at in the creative industries what would you do?

Probably a PE teacher, I like working with people and helping people realise what they are capable of.

What 3 skills do you think you need to be successful in this sector?

Approachable, open-minded, a good work ethic. If you have those 3 three things, drop me a line or send me your CV.

WE SOURCE CREATIVE CONTRACT OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow. 

Focused growth continues at Creative Tenders

Focused growth continues at Creative Tenders

Creative Tenders are growing once again with their latest recruit, an MBA graduate from Durham University.

Adhitya Vohra has joined Creative Tenders for a 3-month project looking at how the business will successfully launch the Creative Tenders product into international markets. The project is a critical step to forecasting how the management team will dominate the tendering market. This is not only in the UK but also internationally.

“We believe that geography should no longer be a factor into where we seek new business or our suppliers. With the ever changing landscape of technology and how we communicate with our clients and suppliers, we can see huge scope in bringing additional work to the UK from other markets” said John Hudson, Managing Director.

“Our marketing director Jill Hudson drives forward this strategy every day. We currently communicate with 850,000 businesses in the UK selling the services of Creative Tenders and Creative Finder. We want to double this within the next 12 months and we will continue to work hard to grow the creative industries” he added.

Jill Hudson added “Adhitya joins us with not only an impressive MBA from Durham University but 4 years professional experience working for organisations like Deutsche Bank and Citicoro Services India. He officially starts in our company on the 11th July 2016 and we are looking forward to seeing the end result and being able to drive forward our international strategy”.

WE SOURCE CREATIVE CONTRACT OPPORTUNITIES FOR;

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow. 

How much time do you spend weekly searching tender websites?

How much time do you spend weekly searching tender websites?  

Although no one has actually said £12 per week is too expensive, we thought we would look at the time saving cost of our system, allowing us to put into context how useful Creative Tenders will be to your agency.

£12 per week works out at an annual cost of only £624 per year. This gives you full system access and access to all UK and European tenders.

If the average sales professional UK wide earns £25,000 in salary we are saying that, that person would only spend 2.5% of their time on searching for marketing tenders and website tenders generating proactive leads per year to cover the cost of signing up.

New tendering opportunities

Obviously this is not the case. A sales’ professional should be constantly looking for new tendering opportunities and new business opportunities in order to achieve their financial target.

Add on the cost of the telephone bill generating cold leads, payments to other tendering systems which don’t gibe you 100% of the creative sector leads and the wasted time looking through hundreds of tenders that are not relevant to your sector or your agency then the cost saving is huge.

People have asked us why it’s so cheap when so much work goes into making it useful to agencies, and the answer is simple! We have an honest approach to making money, we can make good money from £12 per week, we can invest in product development and we can encourage the best possible lead generators to join us with good basic salaries and good bonuses. Our system is popular in the industry so as long as you keep loving us we can keep the costs of joining down.

Be a part of something fantastic and join Creative Tenders today!

 

 

Do you think you miss tendering opportunities because you didn’t see them in time?

Do you think you miss tendering opportunities because you didn’t see them in time?  Or the deadline had just passed?

My biggest bugbear over the last 16 years in the industry is finding the perfect tender at 9am only to find out the deadline is 12noon – THE SAME DAY. Very annoying, but it used to happen all the time.

Do you ever find this in your agency?

This was one of the main reasons for launching this system, and developing it specifically for creative businesses. In the early days of the business we were asked by an investor why we are minimising our potential client base by only populating it with creative opportunities? That’s simple, creating something as fantastic as Creative Tenders, takes sector commitment, sector knowledge and more importantly a desire to grow the sector.

We know we are fantastic at generating creative sector opportunities so we created a system that allows us to take that online. That doesn’t mean to say we won’t create a Professional Tenders, or an Engineering Tenders, we might, but it will still be sector specific to those industries so they get the same value you do from Creative Tenders.

Our core goal is to make sure you don’t experience the same bugbears we have over the years and ensure you are made aware of opportunities the same day they are published. If we see you haven’t logged into the system, your dedicated account manager will give you a personal call to ensure you’ve not missed it. We are not a technical product with zero face. We build relationships, the better we know your agency the better we can support you and help you to grow.

Don’t be that Company who see’s their life changing tender 2 hours before submission, give yourself the best possible chances of success by giving yourself time to produce a winning bid submission.