Responding to a tender can be a very stressful time for a business owner. It places many demands on an already busy individual. Getting some tender help can be a good idea for a number of reasons.
Demand on Time
It takes time to put together a good tender response. You will need to allocate a fair amount of your working day to it, and probably quite a lot of time out of normal working hours.
Demands Attention
A tender demands your attention. Even when you are not working on it you will be thinking about, maybe subconsciously. At worst you will lose sleep over it. It can be emotionally draining.
Ticking Clock
As soon as the tender arrives there will be a deadline to work to. This won’t change. Putting off responding to the tender only makes things worse – much worse. As soon as things start slipping the pressure mounts.
Valuable Existing Business
The tender may include business that you already have. Not only may you find your price under threat but you also may lose this business altogether.
Business Growth Opportunity
On the other hand the tender may be for business that could get your business on track for business growth.
It could be both, and for SMEs this is quite common. Work that has been picked up on an ad hoc basis has grown, and become quite significant for both parties. It has been bundled together with other similar work and put out to tender. All that effort you have spent on developing a close working relationship now counts for naught. The tender is there to be won or lost – it’s a case of all or nothing. The pressure can be huge!
Attractive New Client
There may be be a highly attractive element to the contract that is up for grabs. Perhaps there is the chance to win what may become a flagship customer, that could be a golden opportunity to showcase your business.
All of this amounts to a considerable amount of pressure – leading to much stress. Not only might you not win the tender, but your day to day business may also suffer in the process. Now is the time to think about getting some tender help.