Being prepared: are you tender ready?
The best time to prepare for a tender is before you know which one you’ll bid for.
Get your documents ready before the tender lands
The businesses that win aren’t always the most capable. They’re the ones who started with the basics already in hand. Before you decide to bid, gather what evaluators typically ask for:
Your legal company name and NZBN
Evidence of capability: project case studies, methodology statements and staff CVs
Compliance evidence, including health and safety systems and any ISO certifications
Key policies and procedures
Referees who are expecting a call
Keep everything organised and easy to find. Every hour saved on admin is an hour you can spend making the case for your business. There’s more guidance for suppliers on the NZ Government Procurement website. Check you also have the people and time to commit to the tender before you decide to bid.
Plan the tender before any writing begins
Once you’ve decided to bid, the tendering team should read the tender documents carefully before the kick-off meeting. At the kick-off meeting, discuss the following:
What are the key drivers for your client – have they had a bad experience recently, or are they under scrutiny? These are your client’s ‘hot buttons’.
Does your business have key differentiators that the competition can’t lay claim to? These are your ‘win themes’.
How does your solution connect your client’s hot buttons to your win themes?
With this information, your team can build a plan for how you will communicate your winning solution. Always stay client-focused when answering the questions and reference your win themes consistently throughout the sections.
Time management is crucial, so the tendering team needs to stick to the tender plan. Build your timeline backwards from the closing date. Aim to finish a full draft at least two days before it, so there’s time to review and strengthen your answers. Tender portals close on the dot, and late responses are generally not accepted.
Know how you’ll be scored
Government tenders usually use weighted scoring, where each section carries a percentage that reflects its importance. The criteria are set before the tender is advertised. A typical breakdown might look like this:
Capability: 30%
Methodology: 30%
Price: 20%
Health, safety and quality: 10%
New Zealand economic benefit: 10%
A panel scores each answer against a set scale, then agrees a shortlist or preferred supplier. (See the next article, “The evaluation process”, for how this works in detail.)
How you answer matters as much as what you offer. “We have made substantial improvements” gives an evaluator nothing to score. “We reduced response times from 48 to 24 hours across eight sites in 2025” does. Read every question from the evaluator’s side: why was it asked? Then show you understand the need, set out your solution and prove you’ve done it before.
If you’d like help reading between the lines and developing win themes, get in touch. I can help you write responses that speak to what your client really wants.