Which deadline?

By Deborah Mazoudier, Founder & Principal Tender Specialist

If there is one thing that all of us in tendering know, it’s that deadlines are going to be involved no matter the type of tender, length of the bidding period, value of the project or number of people involved. Deadlines are the life blood of bid management.

However, I’ve seen bids falter under the weight of deadlines, particularly when they coincide or clash. A quick brain dump of deadlines include:

• Design deadlines

• Commercial deadlines

• Estimating / pricing deadlines

• Solution / technical development deadlines

• Submission deadlines for drafting & review, and

• Governance deadlines.

And then think about these deadlines in the context of a multi-party bid. They occur at the consortium or group level and also at the individual organisational level for each party involved.

It’s no wonder, we find team members pulling out their hair asking “which deadline?”.

So what can a bid leader do about it?

• Develop the programme collaboratively. Don’t just ask for the inputs of each lead, get the leads to engage with each other to agree them before putting them forward.

• Issue the programme as quickly as physically possible once the bid has dropped. Better yet, make some calculated assumptions and issue a draft programme prior to the bid dropping for people to consider and provide feedback.

• Actively look for the clashes and rectify them before they become an issue. You would do this in any other project, so why on earth not a tender?

• Clearly:

  • articulate to whom the deadlines apply

  • define the process and expectations around each of the deadlines, and

  • determine the priority of the deadlines.

• Communicate the entire programme to the entire team. Don’t leave anyone out and don’t just issue it and expect everyone to understand how each deadline applies to them and their role. Leaving things open to interpretation is the catalyst to issues.

And finally, remind the leaders of the various aspects of the tender that their deadlines are not the only ones that matter. To win a bid they all need to work in concert.