Written by Tania Field, Principal Tender Specialist (Sydney)

What do you do when a bid team contributor thinks that “just like ‘used by’ dates, page limits are a guide only.”?

Problem: How do you settle conflicting opinions regarding page or character limits? For example, the opinion that the ‘exam question’ cannot possibly or practically be answered within the constraints!

• Do you take a gamble and supply the information that the team believes is worthy of the question being asked, regardless of the page constraints?

• Do you assume the response will be read in full – and that the additional information is appreciated?  Furthermore, do you assume that your team has the capacity to go above and beyond?

If it sounds risky, it is. Tenders are competitive processes.  A procurer will set specific requirements to support busy evaluation teams to make a buying decision in an efficient, fair and effective manner. 

Ignoring the procurer requirements puts the business, the process, and the relationship at risk. I can confirm that I have read in some tender documents that the procurer will stop reading. It’s as simple as that.

Quick fix: If you run into this type of situation then the advice is simple – observe the procurement rules to settle the debate.

If that brings you no joy and the team won’t back down because they believe the written response will suffer, then I would guide bidders to request for additional page count through the sanctioned communication channel. But get on to this early, and help the procurer understand why you think additional pages are required. Be reasonable as to how much you are asking for too.

Long-term fix: Practice writing succinctly and getting to the point earlier. This also works as a ‘quick fix’ but as Mark Twain said, “I don't have time to write you a short letter, so I'm writing you a long one instead.”  It’s easier said than done. However, this can be supported in two ways:

• Use milestone gates such as ‘bronze, silver, gold’ to progressively refine the written response over the life of the bid, and

• Get the response proofread and edited by someone that isn’t as close to the detail as you are. 

Don’t forget to put yourself in the procurer’s shoes to understand if the information will help them decide.  If it doesn’t and it just sounds good to you then ‘let it go’, ‘let it go’.