Sometimes the tender documents published by the buyer are not well written. This might be because of inexperience within the procurement team, or lack of clarity from people initiating the purchase. As a result there isn’t a clear target for us to aim at. Getting clarity is important. Here are a few ways we seek to get clarity when working on a tender:
1. Asking questions via the portal. It is in the buyers best interest to be clear on what they want to buy – so don’t be afraid to seek clarity. At Silverlock, our experienced procurement officers are happy to ask a lot of questions when writing tenders.
2. Ringing up the procurement contact. While buyers never encourage bidders to ring with questions, I have found that sometimes this provides immediate clarity on an issue, instead of waiting several days for an answer via a portal.
3. Asking our opinion – we regularly handle procurement issues and are happy to give our opinion on what a buyer`s unclear question means.
Tags: Clarity, Differentiating your tender, expert tender writing, tender writing, tender writing advice, tender writing tips, Understanding tender questions