“Come in and try the worst coffee one woman on Trip Advisor had in her life”.

Have you seen the above review doing the rounds as a meme or a joke advertisement on the chalkboard outside your local café?

Providing and receiving feedback is the norm in most service industries. Following submission of your tender, imagine if you could log into the proposal equivalent of Yelp or Trip Advisor and view an honest evaluation of what your tender team thought of your submission. Would it be a glowing recommendation?

“It was a beautifully drafted submission, produced by a friendly and cohesive team, that compellingly and compliantly responded to the information requested by the client. Excellent proposition and value”.

Or a scathing condemnation?

Conducting a post submission review or a Lessons Learnt process is an important continuous improvement initiative that all tenderers should commit to. Don’t let the adrenaline of being hands off the final product narrow your focus to reflecting only on the glossy, sparkly finished product. A post submission review should be the last step in the process before you officially bid that submission adieu.

So, how do you approach a post submission review exactly? Here are my five top tips:

• Keep it civil. People are more likely to offer feedback on negative experiences than positive ones, so it is likely that your review will feature items to be improved. Ensure that you deliver your feedback in a way you would be happy to receive it. Similarly, try to receive feedback graciously in the spirit in which it is intended.

• Provide constructive feedback. Ensure your feedback includes items that worked well that the team can continue doing, as well as elements to be improved that require updating before your next tender. Constructive feedback includes useful comments and suggestions that contribute to a positive outcome. It provides reasons for the comments and suggestions for actions, solutions or improvements.

• Review a range of elements. Examine a variety of components that culminated in the final submission, such as planning, content development, the review process, adherence to tender timelines, engagement at client interactives, the Q&A process, tender management and leadership. Don’t be distracted by the final destination and forget the journey.

• Keep it factual. Don’t make feedback personal. Making feedback personal is destructive and undermines the self-esteem of the person receiving it, leaving the issue unresolved, with the receiver unsure of the action to take to resolve it. Destructive feedback is unhelpful, accusatory, personal, judgemental or subjective.

• Be specific and honest. To ensure your advice is actionable and constructive, be precise. If you can pinpoint the details of what worked well and what was a pain point, you can recreate and build on the good, and develop a strategy for areas that need to improve. Feedback that provides direction and encouragement is invaluable.

If you commit to continuous improvement, critically assessing and updating your tendering processes, you can create a winning tendering environment and final product that will have your team raving, “10 out of 10 would recommend to a friend”.

Until next time, toodle pip tenacious tenderers.