Winning together: The power of bid teams in the public sector

As a supplier in the public sector, you’ve likely come across the concept of a bid team. But what exactly is a bid team, and is it something your organisation should consider? With over 30 years of experience, we turned to our VP Subject Matter Expert, Daniel Simonsson, to shed light on the power of having a bid team in the public sector.

Daniel shares key insights into how a bid team can enhance your bidding strategy, helping you determine if it’s the right move for your organisation—and how to assemble one that works for you.

 

In this article

• The difference between submitting bids in the public and the private sector

• Why should the public sector be on your radar?

• How to start bidding in the public sector

• 3 key advantages a bid team offers

• Why having clear roles is crucial in your bid team

• Putting together a winning team

• Success is a team effort, and your bid team is the key

• Get all the details right

• Daniel’s expert tip: start on time and be proactive

• Are bid teams necessary for SME’s?

• Mercell for suppliers

 

The difference between submitting bids in the public and the private sector

Placing bids in the public sector is quite different from placing bids in the private sector. In the public sector, more and stricter rules come into play. Daniel: “In the private sector, you could just have a negotiation with a buyer by phone or e-mail. That is not possible in the public sector.” 

In the public sector, there are a lot of regulations at play. Even the smallest mistakes could fail the whole bid. “Forgot an attachment to your bid? In the private sector, you could just send an email saying ‘Sorry, I forgot this’. And sending the bid a few minutes after the final deadline is usually no problem. But in the public sector, these examples could mean that you won’t be able to participate at all,” Daniel mentions. 

Nowadays, delivering bids are all electronic. Bid management solutions, like Mercell, guide you through the whole process and help you easily perform all essential tasks. “If you accidentally haven’t filled in a mandatory requirement, Mercell’s solution will warn you so that you don’t miss out on this opportunity,” explains Daniel.

 

Why should the public sector be on your radar?

Doing business in the public sector could be very rewarding and stable. In the EU, the purchase of goods and services was estimated to be worth some €2 trillion. Daniel: “Public entities don’t go bankrupt. This means it’s a very stable and rewarding business. If you’ve won the contract, you can earn money for a very long time.” 

Since everything is public, all documentation is available to you. “In theory, you could ask for the bids competing suppliers have submitted. In the private sector, it’s more or less impossible to get your hands on your competitors’ bids.”

 

How to start bidding in the public sector

Clearly, the public sector is full of interesting business opportunities. Governments and public institutions are always looking for products and services, offering a constant flow of tenders that can lead to long-term, reliable revenue streams. However, winning these contracts takes some initial effort, and it’s smart not to go at it alone. Instead of writing the bid yourself, bring in a dedicated bid team.

A bid team typically consists of 3–6 members from your organisation, or with help from external experts. They are the key to crafting a winning bid. With their combined efforts, you’ll boost the quality of your bids and your ability to handle multiple opportunities at once. “If you divide the work and have specialised people focusing on their part of the bid process, the quality of the work will be increased, as well as the efficiency,” says Daniel.

 

3 key advantages a bid team offers

With a dedicated bid team, you could potentially increase your win rate to 51% or higher. It also helps you to:

1. Optimise resources

By involving the right people with the necessary expertise, the bid process is streamlined, ensuring efficient use of resources and meeting deadlines without delays.

2. Minimise risks

With expert knowledge and a proactive approach, potential risks are identified early, improving your chances of success because you know exactly what you’re getting into.

3. Enhance bid quality

A well-organised bid team ensures that bids are top-notch, meeting all mandatory requirements and showing your organisation’s strength.

 

Why having clear roles is crucial in your bid team

The structure of a bid team directly affects its efficiency. Bid management solutions, like Mercell, help you to manage your team members, giving them the necessary rights to work together on the bid. With clearly defined roles and structure, you can ensure smooth communication and clearly defined responsibilities, which in turn enhance the team's potential to produce a winning bid. “Mercell’s solution gives you the possibility to structure your team, giving them the proper rights and key abilities in our platform,” says Daniel.

 

Putting together a winning team

So what does a bid team look like? According to Daniel, a bid team should consist of at least a bid manager, a legal advisor, and a bid approval manager.

1. Bid manager

To start a bid team, you should have an owner of the project - the bid manager. He or she is responsible for, among others, the dialogue with the buyer and ensuring a timely delivery of the bid. “The other team members could be helping out with writing the actual content, or with the different parts of filling out the requirements,” mentions Daniel. “The bid manager owns the bid process in a more practical fashion.”

2. Legal advisor

Another key role to have in your bid team is someone who has legal knowledge. “It’s quite cumbersome to renegotiate specific elements in the contract. With (external) legal expertise, you make sure that the contract is manageable and that you have identified the risks early on,” says Daniel.

3. Bid approval manager

 “You’ll want to have someone who identifies and mitigates risks that are in the contract,” says Daniel. “In smaller organisations, this could be the CEO or the financial owner. This person takes responsibility for the pricing submitted and has cleared the risks that are in the contract. After all, you don’t want to sign a contract that exposes you to unlimited risks.”

4. Bid writer

Finally, it can be key to have someone in your team who’s great at concise storytelling and knows your organisation’s strengths. They draft up a bid that not only meets the requirements, but also makes your organisation stand out. A bid writer knows how to highlight your organisation’s value, attracting new opportunities with a compelling and clear message.

 

Success is a team effort, and your bid team is the key

The strength of a bid team lies in their ability to work effectively together. This is enhanced by strong leadership, clear communication, and well-defined roles and responsibilities. Streamlined communication and collaboration tools, such as Mercell’s, help to keep everyone aligned and on track, ensuring a smooth, efficient bidding process that maximises the chances of success. 

“It’s so much easier to collaborate on one platform like Mercell’s, to prevent having to sort different versions back and forth. Not having everything in one place could become really complex for the person who has to put all the knowledge and documents together, when the time comes to submit the bid. It’s better to already have everything directly on the same platform where it’s going to be submitted later.” explains Daniel.

 

Get all the details right

The most important reason for having a bid team? You are not on your own, but have a dedicated team of experts ensuring the bid is top-notch. Then, the most important thing becomes making sure you get all the details right.

Daniel: “It doesn’t matter how glossy your bid looks. If you don’t make sure you get all the key details right, you could be excluded from the process. It’s very frustrating for the buyer too, seeing that they have to disqualify a supplier for a mistake that could have easily been prevented.”  

“We see a reduced risk of failing on simple mistakes if you work with a bid team. And it’s a two-way value, for both suppliers and buyers. For suppliers, working in a bid team will lead to better bids, increasing your odds of ending on the top of the pyramid and winning the contract. Buyers can harvest the value of these higher-quality bids and avoid having to disqualify suppliers’ bids due to simple mistakes.”

 

Daniel’s expert tip: start on time and be proactive

One of the most common pitfalls for suppliers is that they start too late with writing the bid. “We see many suppliers placing their bids during the last few hours, or even minutes, before the final submission deadline,” says Daniel. “It is always better to start early with writing your bids. This way, you have time to review and ask for the necessary expertise.” 

On a deeper level, it is good to be more proactive in searching for opportunities, rather than just waiting for them to appear. “You could use Mercell’s services for this. Our monitoring services help you easily find opportunities, while our planning tool reminds you when a contract is about to end. That’s a good starting point for a dialogue with the buyer, to inspire them with your solutions to their challenges” explains Daniel. This approach could help you strengthen your position in the competitive tendering landscape and give you a head start on your competitors.

 

Are bid teams necessary for SME’s?

Daniel sees that most of the public suppliers aren’t huge companies. Some of them have very few or just a single employee. The question arises: Is assembling a bid team even worth the effort, then? The short answer is: Absolutely!

“There are many ways to qualify your own work,” says Daniel. Having a good bid management solution, like the one offered by Mercell, is key. The importance is that you qualify your work and have multiple eyes looking at your bid. “I would recommend having a checklist of things that you really need to be able to tick off before you submit the bid. Look into the details of the requirements. Understand the fine print of what exactly you need to submit,” says Daniel. 

“In Mercell you don’t necessarily need to invite a colleague of the same company. As a SME, you could invite external help to support you. It could be a consultant in the law, or someone reviewing and just checking all the boxes for your work. You could also cooperate with people that might be able to help you see the bid process from different angles.”

 

Mercell for suppliers

At Mercell, we’ll support you and your bid team every step of the way during the bid placing process. Within our platform, you will experience a streamlined collaboration for your bid team. Assign roles and responsibilities to your team members and divide the work between you. With direct alerts, you’ll never miss a deadline and focus on what matters most. Effortlessly manage the communication with the buyer and have access to all of your (historical) documents. It’s everything you need to submit top-tier bids and maximise your chances of securing the contract.