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Bid Write’s Top 10 Tips for Brilliant Tender Presentation
17/04/2012
Over the years, the team at Bid Write have picked up and adopted many tips on presentation for tenders. We would like to share these basic tips with you.
The aims in document presentation are to assist readability, and to make key messages stand out.
1 |
Give the appearance of clean documents with lots of white space on pages. |
2 |
Standard font that is easy to read without being too large by jumping out of the page is Arial 10 point or Times New Roman 11 point. (We used Arial 11 for Lake Lindsay which was probably 1 point too large). |
3 |
Make paragraphs clearly differentiated. I have found that 0 points before, 15 points after and single spacing is a good balance. For bullet lists, paragraphs can be a little closer, say 0 points before and 6 points after, although this means that you have to manually change the paragraph before the bullet (to 6 points after) and the last bullet in the list (to 15 points after). |
4 |
Different coloured and sized font for major headings make them stand out from the normal text. |
5 |
Bold text is good to use sometimes to highlight a few key words / themes in otherwise long paragraphs. |
6 |
Headers and footers should not be the focus on the page – it is supporting text so can be dropped down a point or two in size. |
7 |
Table text can be dropped down a point in size (to Arial 9 point or Times New Roman 10 point). For tables with lots of text, Arial Narrow is a good font to use. |
8 |
Make sure detail on images is legible and can be easily read – don’t just squash it in because it fits on part of the page you happen to have left over. Consider dropping page headers and footers to give you more space on a page if an image takes up the whole page (eg. Org Charts, Flowcharts, Bar Chart Schedules), or alternatively print the chart in A3 rather than A4. Take a careful look at the quality of images and logos as you embed them in a document. Different ways of pasting into a document (as I showed you before) produces different results – often you trade file size for quality. If a document is being e-mailed, then size is more important than quality. In all other cases, use the biggest and clearest image that you can. Lastly, images, such as logos, downloaded from the internet are usually of a poor quality. Get logos from the client tender document or e-mailed directly from the client. |
9 |
If you know how, set up heading and text styles within the document to make global changes and formatting easier. |
10 |
Always use page numbering to assist with document navigation, but it does not have to be consecutive numbering from start to finish in a document. Starting from 1 at the beginning of a new schedule or section is quite OK, and is actually better if you have a few inserts within the document. |
Do you need assistance with making your bids look more professional?
First impressions matter and a bid often provides your client with the first insight to the professionalism and commitment of your company. Bid Write has access to graphic designers for covers, artwork and graphic inserts. We can also advise with tips on bid structure and how to improve the look of your bid such as presenting information in charts, graphs and tables that are easier to read than text.
Links for further help
Bid Write Coaching and Mentoring
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Twelve Tendering Days of Christmas
07/12/2011
On the first day of Christmas my boss emailed me… about a tender due on January 3
On the second day of Christmas I read the RFT… and saw two site briefings
For a tender due on January 3
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The World’s Weirdest Tenders
27/10/2011
Requests for Tenders cover a whole range of goods and services across just about every industry imaginable. But is there a limit to what can be bought via a tender process? We are looking to compile a list of the world’s weirdest tenders. So if you know of something odd, weird, strange or unusual that is the subject of a tender we would love to hear from you. Please e-mail perth@bidwrite.com.au.
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Blog Topics Wanted
27/10/2011
Bid Write is starting a regular blog. If you have any ideas or topics you would specifically like covered in this blog please e-mail perth@bidwrite.com.au.
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