UK Bid Writer Podcast

Social Value: everyone's talking about it and every public sector contract wants you to deliver it. But what is ‘Social Value' and why is it becoming increasingly important? In today's episode of The UK Bid Writer Podcast, Lyndsey Wray explains what Social Value is, why it matters and how the social value that many SMEs create naturally can be your biggest selling point. ----------------------------------------------- Links and timestamps: [01:16] Intro and recap of Series 1 [02:00] Why is Social Value a hot topic at the moment? https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2016/09/what-is-social-value-and-how-can-it-give-smaller-companies-the-edge-when-tendering/ [03:50] What is Social Value? https://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/ [04:45] Social value versus economic value [04:87] How can Social Value give smaller companies the edge? [06:31] How Social Value is ‘built in' to lots of SMEs by default [07:56] The wider impact of Social Value [08:39] Why bigger suppliers might not be able to live up to their claims [09:30] Tell the world about the Social Value your company creates [10:50] Use evidence of your Social Value impact in your bids ------------------------------------------------ You can now find me on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxwjmW3Y3jSoZDu2NOdOrQ ------------------------------------------------ Visit https://ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs. As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She's also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more: About Lyndsey Wray Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. Contact Lyndsey ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

SMEs need to approach tendering for public or private sector contracts in a different way to larger organisations. I’m Lyndsey Wray, otherwise known as UK Bid Writer. As a specialist in SME tendering, I can show you how to take on the competition and win more contracts for your business. I’m recording my back catalogue of written resources and adding some new stuff into a series of 15 minute-or-less podcasts, designed to help UK SMEs like you find the right contracts to tender for, understand the processes involved and improve your bid writing and management skills. There’ll also be occasional, longer specials, looking into the hot topics of procurement in 2020 and beyond. Through this podcast, you’ll learn how to: • Improve your bid writing skills • Understand tender questions • Structure your answers effectively • Optimise your internal processes • Save time and relieve pressure, and • Produce high-scoring bids, time after time Subscribe now and let’s get started today. ----------------------------------------------- You can now find me on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxwjmW3Y3jSoZDu2NOdOrQ ------------------------------------------------ Visit https://ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs. As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more: About Lyndsey Wray Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. Contact Lyndsey ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

Mystical mazes of questions within questions, baffling rules and vague instructions. And all within ridiculous word limits. That’s right folks, it’s the ‘quality questions’ section of your tender! But don’t panic, all any tender really needs to know is: what you do, how you do it and why you do it better than anyone else. In today’s episode of The UK Bid Writer Podcast, Lyndsey Wray gives you the nuts and bolts of responding to the long-form questions at the most vital stage of a tender. ----------------------------------------------- Links and timestamps: [01:12] What this episode covers – and what it doesn’t [02:22] What kind of questions will you generally be asked? [02:40] Typical technical quality questions [03:25] Questions beyond the contract specification [03:50] A word about word limits [04:32] How word limits benefit you More about word limits: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2014/08/writing-to-word-limits-part-1-understanding-word-limits/ [05:41] Ad break: UK Bid Writer ‘Live Bid Coaching’. Find out more: https://ukbidwriter.com/coaching [06:38] How to use the question to develop a logical structure for your answer [08:00] Part one of my written series on ‘structure and narrative’: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2016/07/bid-writing-structure-narrative-part-1-the-foundations-of-a-great-tender-response/ [08:18] Adding further value to your answer [08:52] Expanding your answer [09:26] Keeping it simple [10:36] This one neat trick You can now find me on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxwjmW3Y3jSoZDu2NOdOrQ ------------------------------------------------ Visit https://ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs. As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more: About Lyndsey Wray Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. Contact Lyndsey ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

Well, S Q’s me! Sorry. Anyway, today Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, breaks down the different sections of that common, yet daunting-looking procurement document, the ‘SQ’, or ‘Standard Questionnaire’. You’ll also hear a little bit about the history of the PQQ and what it was like to be a bid writer in ye olden times. Find out more in Episode 5 of the UK Bid Writer Podcast. ----------------------------------------------- Links and timestamps: What does an SQ look like? Here’s a PDF of the template itself: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/ukbidwriter_example_standardsq_template/ Here’s a link to the government guidance for how contracting organisations should use the SQ: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-816-standard-selection-questionnaire-sq-template ----- [01:47] The history of the SQ (and PQQ) [04:32] Always check before you copy & paste [05:52] The anatomy of an SQ (intro) [05:55] Part 1 Supplier Details [07:04] Part 2 Exclusion Grounds [07:56] Part 3 Selection Questions [09:08] The technical and professional ability section (references) [10:27] Pushing back through the clarifications process [11:30] Episode 6: Responding to quality questions [link to be updated when published] ------------------------------------------------ Visit ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/services As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more about Lyndsey Wray: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/about/ Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. UK Bid Writer website: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/ Contact Lyndsey today: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/contact/ ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

OMG. What’s an ITT or a PQQ? An RFP or an SQ? Today Lyndsey Wray breaks down all the TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) you need to know. And why is a supplier portal like a box of chocolates? Find out in Episode 4 of The UK Bid Writer Podcast. ----------------------------------------------- Links and timestamps: [02:39] All the acronyms, explained [07:25] E5S1: The Anatomy of an SQ [link to be updated when published] [08:44] E3S1: What do points make? http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/729526192-ukbidwriter-what-do-points-make-e3s1.mp3 [08:50] E6S1: Responding to quality questions [link to be updated when published] [09:05] About supplier portals E1S1: Where and how to find tenders: https://soundcloud.com/ukbidwriter/where-and-how-to-find-tenders-e1-s1 Where to find tenders – the original list! https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2016/12/where-to-find-tenders-a-list/#list-of-links ------------------------------------------------ Visit ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/services As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more about Lyndsey Wray: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/about/ Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. UK Bid Writer website: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/ Contact Lyndsey today: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/contact/ ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

As we head into the festive period, here's a few initial thoughts on how the recent UK election might affect 2020's procurement cycle, PLUS info on what's coming up on the podcast after the new year. ----------------------------------------------- Links and timestamps: [01:00] How might the election impact procurement over the coming months? [03:10] Recap of the series so far Links to previous episodes and related info: ukbidwriter.com/pod [04:14] Coming up in the second half of series 1 [05:15] What’s planned for series 2? [06:10] If you’ve got any comments, ideas or wish lists for future episodes, I’d love to hear from you: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/contact/ ------------------------------------------------ Visit ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/services As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more about Lyndsey Wray: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/about/ Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. UK Bid Writer website: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/ Contact Lyndsey today: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/contact/ ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

One of the most baffling aspects of tendering is the points and weighting system. And what’s MEAT got to do with it? Here’s how to understand tender scoring and maximise points on every section of your bid. ----------------------------------------------- Links and timestamps: [02:25] Lowest cost Vs. MEAT, [03:31] The points scoring mechanism [05:46] A very simplistic four-step process to scoring the highest marks [07:42] What is weighting? [11:08] How do points and weighting work together? [12:16] A little bit of weighting weirdness What do points make? The original post *with easy to understand tables!*: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2014/05/what-do-points-make-confusion-mostly/ ------------------------------------------------ Visit ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/services As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more about Lyndsey Wray: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/about/ Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. UK Bid Writer website: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/ Contact Lyndsey today: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/contact/ ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

Responding to tenders takes time and effort. It’s essential to have a clear idea of the types of contracts that are worth your company’s time and energy to bid on. In episode two of the UK Bid Writer Podcast series ‘The Essentials’, I show you how to create a flexible strategy to help you decide quickly and easily which contracts are right for your business and which ones you can safely ignore. ----------------------------------------------- Links and timestamps: [01:25] Why is a bid/no bid strategy important? [02:49] Common factors you should consider when developing your strategy [10:22] Want to know more about my coaching service? Find out more: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/coaching-lp1/ [11:21] Common dealbreakers that could put you out of the running [13:33] Social value – what is it and how can it give SMEs the edge? https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2016/09/what-is-social-value-and-how-can-it-give-smaller-companies-the-edge-when-tendering/ To bid or not to bid – the original post! https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2016/09/to-bid-or-not-to-bid-how-to-work-out-which-tenders-are-right-for-your-business/ ------------------------------------------------ Visit ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/services As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more about Lyndsey Wray: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/about/ Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. UK Bid Writer website: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/ Contact Lyndsey today: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/contact/ ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

There’s no one single place to find all the contracts up for tender in the UK and across Europe! Frustrating, no? In episode 1 of my first UK Bid Writer Podcast series ‘The Essentials’, I show you how and where to find the best tenders for your business. ----------------------------------------------- Links: [04:21] TED (Tenders Electronic Daily): http://ted.europa.eu/TED/main/HomePage.do [04:40] Procurement thresholds (new thresholds will be in place for 2020; will update as they are published on Gov.uk): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0417-new-threshold-levels-2018 [05:42] Contracts Finder: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder [06:12] Guide to TED: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2014/12/finding-opportunities-how-to-use-ted-tenders-electronic-daily/ TED’s own video guides: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT5rARDev_rkQdFimoHlpv2Och1H0uBLs [07:10] To bid or not to bid – the original post [07:48] E2S1: To bid or not to bid – the podcast episode: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2016/09/to-bid-or-not-to-bid-how-to-work-out-which-tenders-are-right-for-your-business/ And finally……. [11:27] How to find tenders – The List!: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2016/12/where-to-find-tenders-a-list/#list-of-links ------------------------------------------------ Visit ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/services As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more about Lyndsey Wray: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/about/ Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. UK Bid Writer website: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/ Contact Lyndsey today: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/contact/ ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

As the UK Bid Writer podcast rumbles into existence, here's what's coming up for the first handful of episodes and how to contact me if there's a tendering topic you'd like me to tackle

I’m recording my back catalogue of written resources and adding some new stuff into a series of 15 minute-or-less pod-posts, designed to help UK SMEs find the right contracts to tender for, understand the processes involved and improve their bid writing and management skills. Here’s a quick 5-minute taster (with bonus dogs from next door in the background