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Guide
Tender writer or in house: which one is right for your business
There are three ways to get tenders out the door. Your estimator and directors do it after hours, you hire a permanent bid manager, or you engage a consultant per pursuit. Each works in a different situation, and the wrong choice is expensive in a way that never shows up on an invoice.
Option one: do it in house, after hours
Where it works
- Low volume, one or two tenders a quarter
- Repeat clients and familiar scopes where the content barely changes
- Small value work where the fee for support would not be proportionate
Where it breaks
- The non price criteria get written last, at night, after the pricing
- Your best delivery people spend their week on documents instead of jobs
- Nothing is reusable, so the next tender starts from zero again
- Returnables get missed under time pressure, which is how compliant bids get set aside
Option two: hire a permanent bid manager
Where it works
- Steady, high volume pipeline all year round
- Enough tender flow to keep one person genuinely busy every week
- You want the capability owned internally for the long term
What to weigh up
- It is a fixed cost in the quarters when the pipeline is quiet
- One person cannot cover writing, estimating, compliance and design at the same standard
- Recruitment takes months, and a single hire is a single point of failure at deadline
- Surge weeks, where three tenders close in a fortnight, still overwhelm one person
Option three: engage a consultant per pursuit
Where it works
- Variable pipeline, where cost should flex with opportunity
- High value or unfamiliar tenders where the scoring matters more than usual
- Sectors with heavy compliance load such as defence or federal work
- You want a second opinion on go or no-go before hours are spent
What to weigh up
- Quality varies widely, so vet properly using these nine questions
- A consultant who does not build you a bid library leaves you dependent
- You still need to supply the evidence, because nobody can invent your track record
The honest summary
If you tender constantly and predictably, build the function internally. If your pipeline moves up and down, or if the tenders that matter most are the ones you are least practised at, external support is the cheaper answer, because you pay for capacity only when there is something worth pursuing.
The hybrid most of our retainer clients land on is simple. We run precontracts as an embedded function, build and maintain the bid library so their team can reuse it, and carry the surge weeks. Their people keep delivering the contracts. See how that is priced and what the service covers.
Keep reading
Related guides
what a tender writer actually does
The work behind a submission, from returnables to the evidence that scores.
how to choose a tender writer
Nine questions that separate a real bid partner from a proofreader.
how to evaluate tender consultants before you sign
The checks to run on claimed win rates, referees and scope.
Not sure which one you need?
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General information only. See our disclaimer.