Courtney Tender Services clients are often finding that, when writing their own bids and tenders, the initial ‘buzz’ of starting the completion of documents can soon disappear and give way to the phenomenon of ‘Tender Fatigue’. This can have a serious impact on the ability of your submission to be successful since it often means that the vital final days prior to submission do not have sufficient concentration being devoted to the task at hand.

Tender fatigue is entirely understandable, and is borne of human nature. Most of us get bored when undertaking repetitive or drawn out tasks, and so the deterioration of effort that befalls the average tender throughout the completion window is entirely understandable.

This is particularly the case for those who have to take time out of their normal tasks to complete tender documentation, meaning a backlog for them once complete. The urge to rush through the writing process when you see a build-up of unread emails in your inbox is a difficult thing to resist!

So what can be done to avoid tender fatigue? The suggestions below may help:

• Plan the response formation process effectively

Pre-planning of both the schedule and the content for completion of your submission is of critical importance. Whether you are an individual completing tenders for the first time, or the leader of an experienced bid team, having a well-constructed timeline to allow document submission within required deadlines will pay huge dividends. It will also help to combat tender fatigue by establishing deadlines for completion of first drafts, completion of initial proof reads, the review/amendment process plus the individuals involved and their responsibilities. A round table meeting is recommended upon receipt of documentation for those who are fortunate enough to have several people working on tender submissions.

• Use the experts

Most people can write better quality answers when they understand the subject matter they are discussing, and tender fatigue is often reduced as people feel more confident in their own abilities when the content is highly familiar to them. For this reason, where a company producing a bid has different departments (for example HR, Legal, Operations, Sales, Account Management, Finance etc.), it is recommended that questions on these individual areas of expertise are completed by those who know the subject best.

• Build in ‘rest time’ during the submission

Where ample time is available for completion of a tender, it is always a good idea to allow some rest time from bid duties, as this has several benefits:

• It allows people to come back to their own work with ‘fresh eyes’ and identify more quickly and clearly where improvements can be made.
• It allows people to feel as though the build-up of day-to-day tasks is more manageable since they will have time to reduce the backlog at various intervals.
• It will enable renewed vigour to be applied following a break, often resulting in higher quality responses.

If you would like to understand more about tender fatigue or think your processes could do with freshening up to help avoid it, give Courtney Tender Services a call on 0151 601 6263 and we’ll be happy to discuss your needs!