Tender is what? The meaning of the word and how it is applied in practice

Nowadays almost all products on the market are purchased on a tender basis. The tender is, in fact, a tender, according to which the company-Customer chooses a Supplier or Contractor who is ready to offer the most favorable terms of cooperation: low price, original solutions or unsurpassed professionalism.

So, you have decided to apply for a tender. This means that you will have to carefully compose the proposal, show the customer that you really know your market segment and have sufficient experience.

Tender vs. Auction: what's the difference?

Here you can have quite a logical question: how does this scheme of choosing Executors and Suppliers differ from others?

First, all participants of the auction can get acquainted with the proposals of their competitors, find out at what price they are ready to work. That is, there is always the opportunity to adjust your own offer in such a way as to favorably stand out against the background of other companies. But the tender is, first of all, the lack of such openness. All participants submit proposals, so to speak, "in a closed envelope."

In fact, the content of documents is completely hidden from competitors and is available only to a special commission.

What is the tender documentation?

The Customer Company and the participants prepare a package of documents containing the terms of the competition and the future contract.

The documentation must contain two parts:

• Technical. Includes a description of the main terms of the contract, general information about the object of bidding, information cards with the order of preparation and filing of applications.
• A commercial. It contains the prices and the scheme of their determination, payment schedules and conditions, sources of financing, bank guarantees, as well as requirements for certain types of insurance.

It is important to take into account that in each specific case the tender committee determines the content on an individual basis. Proper preparation of documents is of great importance. Best of all, if you supervise the whole process will be an experienced specialist in tenders. This is important, because on how competently all the necessary documents are compiled and prepared, at least 50% depends on your future success. After all, having no experience working with your organization, the Customer will be able to rely solely on those papers that you provide.

Secrets of success for those who are going to participate in the tender

There is an opinion that, choosing a suitable offer, the customer company is guided exclusively by the price. Certainly, and so it happens, but much less often than one can imagine. When drafting a tender proposal, experts recommend adhering to several principles. These truths are old as the world, but over time they have not lost their relevance.

1. Do not apply for all contests in a row

Before tearing into battle and sending an offer, weigh ten times "for" and "against", understand whether or not it is worth participating in this particular tender. Far from always the desire to make profit should be a decisive factor - sometimes it is much more important to focus on developing your own business, pressing issues or looking for other, more profitable projects, on which you will work with great pleasure and which will bring you much more profit.

2. Let your proposal be of additional value

One of the main rules about which a company desiring to win a tender should be remembered is that it is not enough only to achieve full compliance of the offer with the conditions specified by the Customer. However, even a lower price does not guarantee that the contract will be concluded with you. Try to learn more about the company-customer, understand what problems the management is facing, and then supplement your proposal so that the commission could not fail to pay attention to it.

3. Pay attention to small things

Once again, we return to the topic that we have already touched on above. Even if you manage to make a favorable impression on the customer and offer a favorable price, but you do not pay enough attention to the correct execution of documents, you risk missing out on a lot of opportunities. But too it is not necessary to get involved too, after all, it happens the other way round: after being bogged down in bureaucratic fuss, one can forget about the essence and purpose of the proposal.

4. Remember that decisions are made not by organizations, but by people

It depends on them who will win the tender. How it works? Sometimes, in order to get the opportunity to work on the desired project, it is enough just to establish contact with those who will make a fateful decision for your business.

5. Keep the mark of a true professional

But even if your proposal is 100% worked, it's not a fact that you will win the tender. This can be due to many reasons, and one of them is the inability of your negotiator to give distinct answers to the Customer's questions during the negotiations. Therefore, the degree of involvement in the work process and the competence of all participants without exception is one of the decisive factors of success.

How to prepare a tender? Information for the Customer

For its part, the client company that decided to organize such a contest should also carefully prepare for it and provide all the necessary documents:

• Invitation to participate for other companies.
• The form of the qualification application (in it participants will indicate official information about themselves).
• Brief (the questionnaire, in which the basic data on the subject of the tender is prescribed).
• Additional information on the project.
• The main criteria for evaluating the participants, to which you will be guided, making the final choice.

It is extremely important that all information in the documents be true, reliable and well-structured. Nowadays it is possible to create an electronic tender without any problems - this, in fact, is the same competition, but all the information from the customer company and potential performers comes through the network, on the Internet.

The contest itself consists of three stages: search for potential participants, a detailed analysis of their proposals, discussion of the project and, in fact, the conclusion of a contract with the winner.