ESTIMATORS AND ENGINEERS
You are not a bid writer. You still have to write the bid.
Somebody handed you a question and a deadline on top of the job you were already doing. This is what changes, in the parts that affect you.
01
The actual situation
You have a day job. Tenders arrive on top of it, usually with less notice than anyone would like, and the questions land with the person who knows the answer rather than the person with time to write it.
“We don’t have full time people, we don’t have a procurement team. So everyone has a full time job and then we do tenders.” — Head of business unit, civils contractor
“In the weeks that we are tendering, it can consume 80, 90 of your week… when we commit to a tender, we’re going to go all in.” — Head of business unit, civils contractor
And the reason it takes that long is rarely the writing.
“There does be a lot of documents to reference… there’ll be maybe things even within architectural spec that mentions fuel systems that might lead you somewhere else.” — Estimator, civils contractor
02
What actually helps
Not a tool that writes prose for you. You can write. The problem is everything that has to happen before you can start: finding what the client actually asked across four documents that contradict each other, finding what the business has already said on the subject, and working out which parts of the answer are yours and which belong to somebody else.
Then there is a choice about how you contribute. Take the answer plan and write it yourself. Draft alongside the bid writer. Or answer the questions and let the plan carry the structure. All three end in the same place, and the third is the one that gets an answer out of a week you did not have.
03
Somebody in the same position
A health and safety lead at a tier-one contractor, who is not a bid writer either:
“I am a health and safety lead, not a bid writer. The app has really helped me develop my bid response drafts, and make sure our tender win themes have been considered.”
“The time saving is enormous. There is no way I could have achieved what I have before using the app.” — Head of HSES, tier-one contractor
04
What it does not do
It does not price the work. It does not produce quantities. It does not replace your judgement about what is deliverable — you are still the person who has to stand behind the answer when the job is won.
What it removes is the part of the tender that was never your job in the first place.
Start with one conversation
Bring a live bid, or a tender you have already submitted. Thirty minutes, no preparation needed.