Sales and MarketingWinning Tenders: Bid Strategy and Response Writing
Most tender responses are compliant, late in preparation and written by whoever was available, which is why they lose to competitors who decided early and wrote to the scoring. This course covers winning them. Delegates work through the bid or no bid decision and the cost of pursuing work you will not win, capture planning before the tender is issued, and reading the evaluation criteria to see where the marks actually are. Response writing is practised: answering the question asked, evidencing claims and writing for an evaluator scoring against a rubric. Pricing strategy and the commercial submission are covered. Compliance, submission mechanics and the disqualifications that waste an entire bid follow. The course closes on debriefs and on building a reusable content library.
Course objectives
- Make a disciplined bid or no bid decision
- Run capture planning before the tender is issued
- Read evaluation criteria and find where the marks are
- Answer the question asked and evidence every claim
- Write for an evaluator scoring against a rubric
- Develop pricing strategy and the commercial submission
- Meet compliance and submission requirements without disqualification
Who should attend
- Bid and proposal managers and writers
- Sales and business development staff
- Technical staff contributing to tender responses
- Commercial and pricing personnel
- Business owners bidding for public and corporate work
Course outline
- 01Compliant, late and unsuccessful
- 02The bid or no bid decision
- 03Capture planning before issue
- 04Reading evaluation criteria
- 05Answering the question and evidencing claims
- 06Writing for a scoring evaluator
- 07Pricing strategy and commercial submission
- 08Compliance, submission, debriefs and content reuse
Scheduled sessions
| Dates | Venue | Format | Price | Register |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 to 25 September 2026 | Maseru, Lesotho | Classroom | R14,950 per delegate | Register Now |
| 26 to 28 October 2026 | Johannesburg, South Africa | Classroom | R14,950 per delegate | Register Now |
| 4 to 6 November 2026 | Lagos, Nigeria | Classroom | USD 995 per delegate | Register Now |
| 4 to 6 January 2027 | Windhoek, Namibia | Classroom | R14,950 per delegate | Register Now |
| 8 to 10 March 2027 | Online | Online | R6,500 per delegate | Register Now |