Tsaks Consulting NZ

New Zealand Bid and Tender Writer

Jason Cooney

7 tips and strategies to writing a winning proposal or tender

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7 tips and strategies to writing a winning proposal or tender

At Tsaks Consulting, Jason Cooney and our team of writers love winning tenders for clients. Over the past fourteen years, tenders and bids have become increasingly competitive – firstly due to more competition, and secondly, since many businesses across New Zealand are now more focused on winning tenders. They are putting for of their internal resources into winning tenders and they know what takes to win.

Our bid writing consultants help our clients win government and private sector contracts. We use a range of strategies to give our client that edge. Here are 10 tips and strategies we employ to help our clients win that you can use and adopt to increase your win rate.

1.    Understand the client and demonstrate that you understand them

Many clients make the mistake of focusing on themselves in their bid and what benefits they can deliver. This does make some sense – especially the benefits part. The reality is that you are biding to the client and have to focus on their needs – and how your services or expertise align with their needs.

Understanding the client’s needs therefore becomes critical. Researching your client and the motivations behind why they have gone out to tender, any challenges they are facing, and their pain points is important as is understanding the regulatory environment in which they operate and their role and vision. When writing your submission, you need to demonstrate that you understand them and hat you have integrating and addressed this understanding within your proposal.

One key point is ensuring your values and objectives align. You may be bidding to a Council, regional ministry or private sector company that values sustainability and safety. Thee need to be integrated into your tender document and you need to show that your values align.

2.    Answer the question in full. Provide evidence. Concisely cover any other possible issues or concerns.

The first step is critical. When you read the question for an RFP for any service in New Zealand, you need to create a template response that ensures you have answered the question correctly and in full. Interpreting the question is critical and there are differences in language in private sector and public sector bids.

The next step once you have written the response is to provide evidence. Facts and figures back-up your claims. Evidence and examples give your tender credibility and help you win. Finally, in a simple and concise manner, you can leverage on your understanding of the client and add in any additional benefits or issues that may apply to the question but have not been asked. It is critical that you do this in a short and concise manner so that it does not dwarf your response to the question.

3.    Provide value added services where possible

Everybody loves something for free and this includes procurement teams and businesses. One of they advantages is that sometimes in tender proposals, you can offer something for free that doesn’t cost you anything – or at least costs you a minimal amount.

Providing additional value-added services to what have been asked for at no additional cost, that are relevant to the clients’ needs and the opportunity, can him give your tender that winning edge. For example, in legal tenders we recommend clients offer a 15 minute free advice hotline as well as access to their precedents and other thought leadership pieces.

This can also apply to plumbing and building maintenance business providing free advice on building maintenance and material selection, and health practitioners providing training and health tips and advice to vulnerable groups. The key point is that providing relevant, value added services will generally put the reader in a positive frame of mind and increase your chances of tender success.

4.   Keep up with your competitors

It is critical that you keep up with your competitors and analyse what they are doing in the market. When they are introducing new and/or innovative products or services, you should monitor this to see if and how they add value.

Rest assured, your competition will be putting their best foot forward when it comes to tendering and you need to keep up. If you notice they are using a new IT system for example to make reporting and communication with clients more seamless, you should investigate potential IT systems and include these an option in your tender if applicable.

Monitoring what your competitors are doing is crucial to ensuring you maintain a competitive edge. It’s also important to know your competitors weak spots and look at how you can exploit these. When writing your proposal or bid, we don’t recommend you talk badly about or mention any of your competitors. Instead, we recommend you stress and showcase your strong points to shine a light on where you excel and let the reader draw their own conclusions.

5.    Develop and integrate win themes

Win themes need to be developed and storyboarded. You need to tailor your win themes to the issue or situation at hand. It’s not about focusing on your key strengths and key points of difference. You instead need to align your strengths with the clients needs and develop win themes that align well.

Once you have done this, we recommend you integrate and interweave our win themes throughout the response to ensure you deliver a key message. This ensures that there is consistent messaging throughout the document which will help you win by driving home your key messages. It’s also the case that in tenders across New Zealand, different people within a procurement team or government department will read different parts of the tender. I.e. they may review your tender and one person may mark the pricing whilst another marks the experience and so forth. Having consistent win themes and consistent messaging will greatly increase your prospects of success as when they all meet they will have the same consistent key messages in your mind.

Another key point with your win themes, is in order to win more tenders and increase your success rate, is that they need to be supported by personalised quotes and testimonials throughout your tender. When you are introducing your team through quotes and also CVs, ensure that there is a general focus on your win themes where possible.

6.    Develop and present a clean, clear and concise document

You need to structure your document so that it is easy to read and understand. Use lists and sub-headings where possible. It’s also critical that you use simple and easy to understand language.
Finally, since you are being marked against the question and evaluation criteria, you need to structure your response to reflect this. Using similar headings to the questions and working within the structure makes it easier for the reader to read and mark.

Graphics and infographics are great! You should use them effectively to convey simple solutions to complex problems and break up texts. Incorporating testimonials and personalising your bid with quotes also helps.
The reality is when reviewing tenders and bids, procurement teams easily become board. They are not at fault. The reason they become tired is that they must read through a lot of tenders and paragraphs and paragraphs of information. Therefore, long text with general marketing information is not a good idea. Short sentences, bullet points and concise writing is best. From a best practice tender writing perspective it’s important to consider readability as well as the actual content of your responses.

7.    Proof-read and critically review your response prior to submission

Our professional bid writing service includes a bid review and critique service to clients. It’s a good idea to have an independent person to review your bid – even if you don’t use our service and have someone in your organisation who has not been involved in the bid review it.

You also need to proof-read your proposal multiple times and thoroughly throughout the process to ensure you submit a quality submission. Key potential issues you should look for and identify when reviewing a tender or bid include:

• Compliance with requirements
• Responsiveness to the evaluation criteria
• Win themes integrated throughout
• Responsiveness to the question
• Evidence included throughout the bid
• Complicated or complex language

Conclusion

Our tender writing service in New Zealand helps businesses across the North and South Island write wining bids and tenders. We have helped businesses from Auckland to Queenstown and in between win contracts and write wining bids and proposals.
You can contact our team here for assistance – or if you are writing your bid and tender in-house, adopt the strategies outlined above to help you win your next bid or tender and understand why you may be losing tenders.
We help businesses from all industries such as construction, medical, education, logistics and equipment supply write winning bids and tenders and win government and private sector contracts.

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Speak with our consultants

  • +64 9-801 1079
  • enquiries@tsaksconsulting.co.nz

How to write winning tenders and bids to the NZ Government

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How to write winning bids to the New Zealand Government

Here at Tsaks Consulting New Zealand, we have a track record of helping New Zealand businesses write winning bids and tenders to the government – and securing government contracts. We have helped clients write bids and tender to the Central Government including the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

We have also helped clients win contracts with the local government sector including Auckland Council, Clatham Islands Council, Gisborne District Council and Tasman District Council as well as many other regional ministries and Councils.

This experience has enabled us to build up significant know-how in in writing government bids and tenders and how to win them. In this guide, we detail six tips and strategies you can employ to help you win more New Zealand government tenders.

These tips and strategies apply to all industries such as health, construction and maintenance, community services, transport, infrastructure and more. Contact our Director, Jason Cooney, and the rest of our team here at Tsaks Consulting for expert assistance writing your next government bid.

1.    Comply with the tender requirements and provide tailored supporting documentation

All New Zealand government departments have strict compliance requirements when it comes to bids and tenders. Whether it is word lengths, mandatory requirements for an RFT or insurance and certifications, there will be requirements you need to comply with.

In tour submission, you need to comply with these requirements directly. There is generally no flexibility and you need to tick every box. Most government departments use decision gates when procuring services and reviewing different bids. This means that even if you write an outstanding proposal or RFT response, there is a strong chance your tender will be discarded at the start of the review process due to the non-compliance.

Another key point is supporting documentation. It’s easy to fall into the habit of simply attaching health and safety and other docs without tailoring or amending them. However, you need to tailor these documents to the opportunity as the government procurement teams generally read them in full and will want to ensure they are compliant and tailored.

2.    Respond directly to and answer each question

This may sound simple however it is an error many businesses make when bidding for government contracts. You are running your business and are therefore well aware of your key differentiators and points of difference. You know the unique benefits your business can bring to the market and the outcomes you deliver your clients.

When you read the tender questions, the first thing you want to do is to write about your company and the key points of difference. You need to resist this temptation. Instead, you should focus on the question. Respond directly to the question and write a response that addresses what is being asked. Integrate the unique value offering your service or bid provides into your response, but don’t have these as your entire response. Weave it in instead. When you are writing, avoid technical jargon and write like you would talk, in simple English and in a clear and easy to understand manner.

3.    Avoid using generic content and tailor your response to the local area

Cutting and pasting existing content or using generic content can harm your bid if you do not tailor it. It’s easy to cut and paste and the government knows that. Procurement teams want to feel special and they want to know that you have put in the work to win the tender. Using existing content for a basic first draft is a great idea when writing a government tender. You can even use AI generated content for an early draft. However, once you start the actual writing, you need to tailor, tailor and tailor your response.

Firstly, when talking about your capabilities and expertise government departments in the North and South Island will want to know your experience servicing government. Therefore, your bid needs to focus on any similar government experience, and where you have relevant private sector experience, you need to detail how the demands and requirements are similar to the public sector.

The next key point is to tailor your proposal or RFP to the local area. The reason for this is simple. Government departments, and regional and local councils across New Zealand have different priorities and missions.

For example, the vision and priorities of City of Christchurch is different to the City of Auckland and the Central Government Department of Health faces different issues and priorities in different parts of New Zealand.

Therefore, when you put forward a proposal for a service or product, you need to tailor it to the geographic area where that service will take place. Talk about how you know the area, your suppliers in the local region and any previous experience you have in the area. The local Council in Wellington will generally prefer to appoint a local contractor than engage a contractor from Auckland. Therefore, the contractor from Auckland will need to talk about how they will support the local Wellington community and operate in Wellington if they wish to increase their chances of success.

4.    Provide evidence, quantify and make it measurable

Government procurement personnel can be cynical and it’s hard to blame them. They read through hundreds of bids with many people and businesses making a whole lot of outlandish claims. If you want to be taken seriously in the eyes of the procurement team, you should provide as much evidence as possible. Testimonials, letters from other stakeholders and concrete facts all help to give credibility to your bid.

You also need to quantify as many of your claims and statements throughout the bid as possible and ensure they are measurable. If you make statements about what outcomes you will deliver as part of the contract or service, they need to be measurable so that you can report on them.

5.    Be the safe pair of hands the government is looking for

The reality is that most government departments at all levels of government across New Zealand are conservative in terms of who they procure from. You need to present your business as a safe bet. That doesn’t mean delivering the products or services. It extends to being an easy business to work with, complying with all the reporting and communication requirements and providing a seamless service.

You also need to demonstrate that you have robust quality assurance procedures in place across all your operations. These need to apply to your operations and specific industry. I.e. if you are a cleaning company then your procedures need to be tailored to cleaning operations. The same applies to construction companies, security, health services and other industries. The government department will appreciate you going above and beyond in this regard. If you have any experience

6.    Ensure you work within their format and schedules

Regardless of if the RFT or RFP documents are issued in excel, word or another format, make sure you work within that specific format and complete the schedules exactly as they have been provided. It’s tempting to make amendments, make the document look for aesthetically pleasing or use a more readable format – however, the reality is that will generally only frustrate the readers who are trying to compare apples with apples as best they can.

Contact our professional tender writers for help with your next government tender

Our team of bid writing professionals love helping businesses across New Zealand win government tenders – it’s an area where we are passionate about. To put it simply – we want you to win. Many of our clients find themselves asking:

–          Why do I keep losing government tenders?

–          How can I win a government tender?

–          How can I find a government tender for my business?

–          What do you have to do to win government tenders?

–          Is it easy to win a government tender?

–          Can someone check my government tender before I submit it?

Our team of bid writers are based in Auckland and also work remotely from across New Zealand. We can assist you to write, review, improve and submit your government tenders. We have helped businesses across New Zealand win government tenders including in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton and Tauranga.

Call our expert proposal writers today to talk about how we can help you win.

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Speak with our consultants

  • +64 9-801 1079
  • enquiries@tsaksconsulting.co.nz

Our 2025 guide to winning tenders and bids in New Zealand

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Our Guide to writing winning tenders and bids in 2025

Here at Tsaks Consulting, we are passionate about helping businesses across New Zealand write bids and tenders that are compelling and persuasive and help our clients win government and private sector contracts. Our tender writing service is designed to empower our clients to write quality bids across all industries.

Here is our 2025 guide to writing winning tenders in New Zealand. For more specific information on our capabilities, or articles on case studies and other critical tender activities, feel free to browse our website or contact our team.

The tender and bidding landscape in New Zealand

Many businesses across the North and South Islands dream of winning government (and private sector contracts). Whether it’s a small bakery in Auckland looking to secure a catering contract, or a large construction company in Christchurch bidding for major infrastructure works, contracts help secure short, medium long-term revenue and certainty.

As a result, nearly all tenders that are released by the government and private sector are highly competitive. That doesn’t mean you cannot win. If you adopt a robust bid/no bid process (which essentially means not bidding for tenders you have no experience in and limited prospects of success) and deliver a tailored, compelling and persuasive proposal, you have generally a reasonable chance of success. Other factors that impact your chances of success include:

  • Your position in the market and credibility in the market
  • How your experience and expertise align with the opportunity and project
  • If you have developed win themes in your submission
  • Your ability to provide a structured response to each question in the tender
  • Your pricing and price positioning
  • How you are positioned in the market and any existing relationships you have with clients
  • The detail and relevance of your responses and alignment to the evaluation criteria
  • The strength of your references
  • The presentation of your bid or tender
  • The level of evidence you included in your bid to give your bid credibility.

You need to put forward a tailored, persuasive and compelling bid or tender response to win a contract in New Zealand in any industry.

The different types of tender processes in New Zealand

Procurement departments often adopt different tender processes depending on what they are looking to procure. For example, the use open tenders, closed tenders, RFPs, RFTs and panel appointments depending on the nature and length of the projects.

  • Open Tenders: These are the most transparent and often highly competitive tenders. They are also the most popular and most government sector tenders are open tenders. Whether it’s Auckland City Council or a government department, open tenders are a simple way for organisations to get a gauge of the market and find a suitable supplier. They are also a great way to win new business for our clients although nearly always highly competitive. It’s not unusual for a tender to have 10 – 20 applications. However, many businesses do not undergo a thorough bid-no bid process before bidding and don’t meet the mandatory criteria. Therefore, you are most likely going to be up against your main competitors in the market when bidding for an open tender.
  • Closed Tenders: As the name suggests, these are closed tenders available only to businesses that have been invited. It’s an encouraging sign if you have been invited to a closed tender. It means that your business development and marketing functionalities are working well. It also means that you will more than likely be joined by your main competitors in the tendering process. A small amount of credible competitors is generally a good thing and a good opportunity for you to put forward a compelling proposal. It also means that there will generally be limited price shocks with most competitors pricing around the market rate.
  • Panel appointments: Our tender writing services has helped hundreds of businesses across the North and South Island write secure appointments to government and private sector panels. From lawyers and accountants, to valuers and plumbing and building maintenance businesses, we have helped many businesses benefit from the consistent revenue streams that panel appointments provide. When bidding for a panel, it’s generally not for a specific task – but rather – a broad range of projects that will arise under the panel for an extended period of time.
2025 guide bid writing new zealand
2025 guide bid writing new zealand

Public and private sector tenders – tailoring your bid writing to the client

Although largely the same, tendering to the public and private sectors requires a slightly different approach, writing style and strategy. Knowing your audience is critical and understanding the motivations behind public and private sector tenders is also important. For example, with public sector bids, government departments are often happy with their current supplier, however, for regulatory purposes they have to go out to tender.

When this is the case, you need to put forward an innovative proposal with a unique value proposition to win the work. Public sector government departments often take a much more methodical approach to procurement. They are well organised, completely transparent and adhere to the rules. They will expect you to do to the same and love to hear their terminology referenced in the bid.

Writing bids to the private sector offers a lot more flexibility. You can introduce graphics and infographics into your bids and tenders and are able to put forward an alternative bid with ease. You will need to take a more salesy and marketing approach to your bid and be sure to have polished graphics and infographics.

There are limited restrictions on stakeholder engagement which offers an opportunity for you to engage with your client throughout the bid process.

Preparing for your bids and tenders in 2025

With tenders being so fast paced, whether you are a community organisation, builder or health company, and regardless of if you are located in Auckland, Wellington or regional NZ, you will generally be in a frenzy when a bid is released with limited time to respond and your day to day business to run as well.

If you have been through a thorough bid / no bid process, then you will certainly be tendering for a contract you have a decent chance of winning. Therefore, preparation is key to submitting a quality response which is highly tailored to the opportunity.

What can you do to prepare for a must-win tender?

Monitor and understand the market and competition

This is important and something that you more than likely do on a weekly basis anyway. Competitive intelligence is critical in business and absolutely critical in tenders. Keep an eye on any innovative products or services your competitors or releasing or offering the market. Look out for any updates to their websites and speak with industry stakeholders where possible about what your competitors are going.

It’s also a good idea to monitor the results of tenders and bids and even industry articles about what contracts your competitors are delivering on and where. You can be sure that when it comes time to write their pitch, they will more than likely include reference to thought leadership and any new initiatives and innovations. You will need to match this in order to score well and win contracts.

For example, we assisted a horticultural and grounds maintenance business in writing a bid for a large grounds maintenance contract. One of their competitors had released a new product to the market which was an eco-friendly pesticide that didn’t use glysophate. Our client didn’t have such a product and was marked down in their tender.

Create a tender or bid library

If you have written a tender or bid in the past, chances are that you will have existing content which can be used again and again. We don’t support cut and pasting content as if you don’t tailor the content you will generally score poorly. Previous content is however very useful for creating a first draft of your tender response.

In order to put a first draft together quickly it’s recommended to create a bid or tender library or central repository of information. This should be well organised and cover the key components of most tenders such as CVS of key personnel and case studies.

Once you have a comprehensive bid library which is well maintained and updated, you will be able to quickly and effectively put together the first draft of your tender and have enough time to tailor your response.

Project managing the bid and tender writing process

Our bid writing service extends beyond simply writing the bid or tender. One of the biggest challenges facing businesses across the North and South island who are tendering is project-managing the tender process. It is time consuming and things can quickly go wrong – particularly for large tenders and bids – if it’s not done right.

Here at Tsaks Consulting New Zealand, the process we generally adopt includes:

  • Receive the tender documents. Review the documents in detail and undertake a capabilities assessment. Conduct a bid/no bid meeting and decide on whether or not to bid.
  • Develop a checklist of the tender requirements. Identify what supporting documentation will be needed to submit a proposal that will comply and win.
  • Have an internal meeting and assemble a team of stakeholders as well as appoint a bid lead. Allocate responsibilities and tasks to stakeholders.
  • Set a schedule for completion of initial content and for input from key stakeholders.
  • Create a central document which everyone can access and work on as a draft.
  • Write the response and actively manage the process up until completion (including draft reviews, proof-reading and other tender preparation tasks)

How you can win more tenders in New Zealand

Adopt best practice tender writing strategies and techniques

To give your business or organisation the best chance of success, you need to write a credible and persuasive tender. Adopting best practice writing strategies in critical to this. When we help clients write winning proposals and tenders we adopt best practice techniques such as:

  • Avoiding technical jargon and writing in clear, concise and easy to understand simple English. Always adopt the positive tone and active voice in your writing.
  • Structure content so it’s well formatted, spaced out and easy to read. Ensure you use images, headings and sub-headings to break up the text as well as lists and bullet points where possible. This makes it easier for the reader to find the information they are looking for and award you marks against the weighting criteria.
  • Ensure you structure your response to each question effectively and address each aspect of the question. Sometimes in tenders, one question can have two or three different parts. It is important to provide a comprehensive and tailored response to all questions that addresses the instructions in the question. For example, when you are asked to ‘demonstrate’ something it generally means you need be provide a thorough response with examples.

Integrate your win themes and key selling points throughout your bid

You need to storyboard your response and develop win themes for your bid for it to be successful. The key point here is that the win themes need to be client focused – as opposed to focused on yourself. I.e. look at your capabilities and then consider what the client is looking for in a supplier or service provider. Identify the key selling points of your business that match what they are looking for and put these forward as win themes.

This means integrating these win themes throughout your bid to ensure the key messages flow through to the reader and the procurement teams understand what sets your business apart. Sometimes your bid may sound a bit repetitive, but this is generally fine as long as you don’t ‘cut and paste’ your win themes through your bid.

Write a compelling executive summary

We have helped many businesses across New Zealand write a compelling and engaging executive summary. It’s often the first (and sometimes the only in the case of private sector bids) part of the tender the client will definitely read.

Your executive summary needs to:

  • Outline your key points of difference and clearly articulate the benefits of your bid
  • Outline any innovative services or thought leadership you will provide
  • Introduce your team and demonstrate that it’s you’re A-team
  • Talk about your relevant experience and how you will leverage on it to deliver value
  • Focus on the client and not yourself

Write compelling case studies

Another key component to any bid is your experience and a case study. In order to secure a contract you need to show you are a credible supplier. Detailing your previous experience certainly help with this (regardless of your industry or business size).

In order to put forward a compelling case studies, our bid writers here at Tsaks Consulting New Zealand recommend you detail:

  • The client and size and scope of the contract
  • Which personnel on your team were involved
  • What services you provided
  • If there were any safety or other issues
  • What software or methodology you used to deliver the project or service
  • What challenges were encountered and how you overcame them
  • The key outcomes and deliverables

Why you need to meet the evaluation criteria to win

The reality of any tender or bid is that in order to be successful and score well you need to be awarded marks. The procurement team can generally only award marks against the evaluation criteria. That means that even if you put forward outstanding content, if it isn’t responsive to the question then you will generally score low.

Therefore, it is critical to respond to the tender questions directly and ensure you cover off all the evaluation criteria and clearly reference where you have covered it in your bid.

A pricing strategy that will help you win without losing money

It’s easy to win tenders by pricing low – particularly when the weighting criteria is for pricing is high. The hard part is when you price at market rate and need to rely on a compelling tender to win. Our tender writers back themselves. We believe a good tender and market pricing is enough to win government contracts and makes good business sense.

Some pricing strategies that are popular include cost-plus pricing, value-based pricing and market pricing. Whilst cost-plus and market pricing are self-explanatory, value-based pricing is a bit different.

When adopting value-based pricing, you need to integrate an explanation throughout your bid about the value you will be delivering and how this can be quantified. It’s a good idea to assume the client doesn’t understand at all and you will need to spell it out to them in order to justify your pricing and ensure they understand the value you will deliver.

Health and safety – always an important factor in New Zealand

Over the years – we have seen tenders won and lost on health and safety. It may not seem like a large factor, however, in certain industries such as infrastructure, building and construction, as well as large government projects it can be a dealbreaker.

On smaller projects, it will be a mandatory requirement and you will need to comply with it in order to win a contract. However, safety provides an opportunity to simply comply with the requirements. Tailoring your safety documentation to the opportunity and actually thinking through the possible safety issues of a project demonstrates that you are a credible supplier and take the project seriously. It also demonstrates that you are committed to safety and have put forward a plan to ensure a successful incident free project. This is a possible win theme for certain projects and an opportunity to differentiate yourselves from the competition.

Ensuring you deliver a quality bid or tender

For most tenders, you will be asked to submit a Quality Management System and talk about ad-hoc audits and other quality management processes you have. It’s a good idea to demonstrate that these processes are working by submitting a quality tender. Some of the quality assurance processes which we integrate into your own tender writing processes when writing bids for our clients include:

  • Ensuring all claims and statements in your bid are backed up by evidence where possible.
  • Ensure that your win themes and key messages are client focused and that your bid is client focused and not focused on yourself.
  • Checking for consistent formatting and font throughout your bid.
  • Reviewing and ensuring you comply with all the tender requirements. This includes upload instructions and acting on any addenda that are issued.
  • Completing a thorough spelling and grammar check on your tender prior to submission.
  • Keeping the same (preferable active) tone throughout your bid.

Our bid review service

Our team of writers based in Auckland and Christchurch offer a bid review service. This is where, as opposed to writing your entire bid (which is a service we also offer), we will review your bid or tender in detail and provide our thoughts and recommendations on how to improve it. When we review your bid we will check for:

  • Win themes throughout your bid
  • Correct response structure to key questions
  • Evidence throughout your bid
  • Compliance with the tender requirements
  • Best practice tender writing techniques

Our bid and tender review service helps businesses tap into our knowledge and tender writing experience whilst improving their own internal capabilities. It’s a great way for you to prepare for future tenders and bids as they arise and develop the in-house capability to respond effectively.

FAQ – Our 2025 tender and bid writing guide

Is there are tender writing service that can tell me why I’m losing tenders?

Yes – as part of our review tenders we will tell you where there are weaknesses in your tender or bid and how to improve on them. We will conduct a review of your tender from the perspective of the evaluator.

What can I do to win more tenders and who can help me?

Our team of tender writers here at Tsaks Consulting can help you win more tenders. We will do this by ensuring you:

  • Introduce win themes
  • Only bid for tenders which you have a good chance of actually winning
  • Use evidence and facts and figures to ensure your bid is credible
  • Tailor your bid to the opportunity
  • Put forward a compelling local community and social benefits response.

Call our team today and speak with our Director, Jason Cooney, about how we can help you win more tenders and bids.

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Speak with our consultants

  • +64 9-801 1079
  • enquiries@tsaksconsulting.co.nz

Help on how to write winning tenders in New Zealand

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New Zealand Bid and Tender Writing Help – How to write a winning tender in New Zealand

Tsaks Consulting NZ helps businesses and organisations across New Zealand apply for and win government and private sector tenders. Our New Zealand bid writing and New Zealand proposal writing service is a comprehensive service where we help you write your bid from start to finish.

We have a comprehensive understanding of New Zealand (NZ) procurement processes and are also skilled in Grant writing. In this article, we will run through some of the strategies that we employ to help our clients win more tenders.

How to write a winning tender in NZ

The first step to writing a winning tender in New Zealand is to conduct a thorough bid no-bid process. Make sure that you are bidding for contracts you have a chance of winning. You also need to ensure your organisation can meet the mandatory requirements and criteria which are part of the tender.

After that you need to develop a tender plan and checklist to keep everything on track. Remember it is critical that you create a list of input and information you require, and request that information from key stakeholders. If you need to create supporting documentation you should get started on it early as it generally takes time.

Explore your position in the market and come up with key win themes in order to tell a story that will be successful. You can / should integrate these win themes throughout your bid so that you have clear and consistent messaging.

Finally, write the tender in a concise and easy to understand manner. Government procurement teams have lots of tenders to read with limited time. Provide evidence for your bid and quantify as many of your claims as possible.

Why we offer some of the best bid writing services in NZ

One of the reasons we believe Tsaks Consulting offers one of the best bid writing services in New Zealand is that we have experience in different sectors and our consultants focus on certain sectors. For example, Jason Cooney, our Director and Lead Writer, is highly experience in construction, infrastructure and medical industry tenders. We have other writers who are experienced in other industries.

If you are writing your tender, be sure to engage subject matter experts to assist and we generally recommend senior executives or the business owner is hands on in the tender preparation process.

What to do differently to write a winning Government Tender in New Zealand

If you are writing a government tender, as opposed to a private sector tender, you need to slightly change your strategy and ensure, in addition to focusing on your experience and expertise, focus on:

  • Back end systems and process to ensure compliance.
  • Your reporting processes.
  • A robust complain handling process. This shows you can quickly and effectively resolve any complains.
  • Your account management capability.

Although these are generally not related to if you can do the actual job or not, they are important to government and will ensure you can complete the tender for the entirety of the contract.

For help with your next bid or tender contact our team of expert bid writers at Tsaks Consulting. We are based in Auckland and help businesses across New Zealand including the North and South Island.

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  • +64 9-801 1079
  • enquiries@tsaksconsulting.co.nz

How to win government contracts for your business

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How to write and win New Zealand Government tenders and contracts

Winning NZ Government Contracts

The New Zealand government is one of the New Zealand economy’s largest procurers. Winning a government contract can be beneficial for all businesses across New Zealand by:
– Introducing a reliable income stream. Some government contracts we work on are panel contracts for three to five years. This enables for forward planning for businesses as well as more certain income forecasting for budgets. In addition, government contracts can add a lot of credibility to your business – which is particularly useful when bidding for other government contracts or for contracts in the private sector.
– Limiting any bad-debt risk. One of the constant risks facing any of our clients is the risk of not being paid. When you are working for the government on a government contract, you can rest assured that the risk of non-payment is substantially lower then working for private sector clients. Generally speaking, as long as your reporting and administration is correct, there is minimal chance of any payment issues which is reassuring for businesses.
– The projects are large. Whether you are an IT company or a building company, or irrespective of which industry you are from, government projects are often substantial. This means contracts with higher value and more interesting work. This is a major benefit both to your bottom line and your team structure.

Strategies and tips to help you win more NZ government tenders

Understand and research your target government agency: Different government agencies have different evaluation criteria and requirements in their contracts. When you are bidding for a contract, you need to understand the motivations behind the specific government agency going out to tender. You also need to understand the challenges the particularly agency or department is facing – and how the contract may help solve them. For example, the Earthquake Commission may have a different motivation to adopting a new IT system than Health New Zealand. Understanding their motivations will help you develop compelling win themes and will help you interweave them throughout your bid.

Bid for what you can win and comply with all of the requirements: This may seem obvious, however, here at Tsaks Consulting we often find ourselves having conversations with clients who are thinking of bidding for a government contract they don’t have a realistic chance of winning. We generally advise against this and are of the view that if you are going to bid for it, bid to win it. This means allocating resources and prioritising the bid. Either way, you will need to comply with all of the requirements of the bid in order to submit a compliant submission. A non-compliant response generally leads to disqualification at some point in the procurement process.

Develop win themes tailored to government: Once you have developed a compliant submission that answers all the questions, you have to ensure that you have interwoven win themes throughout your bid which will win you the tender. To create these win themes, you need to look from the outside in. I.e. what is the government agency going to see in your service offering that is different from your competitors and how will it address their needs. This is completely different to looking at your own business and identifying your unique selling points. You need to look at the selling points from the Government Agency perspectives and create ‘win themes’ from these. These key messages need to be interwoven throughout your tender response.

Write in plain English. Write clearly and concisely.

Over the years, we have attended many meetings and debriefs with members of government procurement panels. One of the biggest points of feedback we hear from them is the work involved in reading through multiple tenders and bids. It’s our job as bid writers to make this process easier for them. One way in which this can be made easier is to write concisely. Avoid using unnecessary words. Keep it simple. Another way – use simple and plain English. Technical jargon may sound great to you. However, not all members of the procurement panel understand it. It’s important to write in an easy-to-understand language.

Clearly explain how you will deliver value for money: This is important because many of our clients deliver a whole heap of value but don’t know how to articulate it. They are often beaten be a competitor who submits a lower price – with less inclusions, a poorer service offering and therefore less value for money. So how do you justify a mid-range or high-price?

Explain, explain and explain. You need to firstly convey to the reader the full scope of services you are providing. Go into detail so they can understand the level of quality and service. Put facts and figures around what you are proposing. You also need explain the how your proposal will benefit the government from a whole of life cost perspective. I.e. Let’s assume you are a builder. If your proposed materials are of high quality and will result in less cleaning costs for the government over the longer term, this will need to be communicated in the tender response.

How we will help you win government contracts across New Zealand

Our team of bid writers will leverage on our knowledge of New Zealand government procurement processes, as well as our industry leading bid writing capabilities, to help you win your next tender or bid. We have worked on bids and tenders to the following government departments:

  • Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade – our team has also helped New Zealand based companies write bids and tender to and win contracts with foreign companies.
  • Ministry of Health – for a range of medical and health industry tenders including both clinical work as well as product supply.
  • Ministry of Education – for the provision of IT and other services as well as training and education contracts.
  • Ministry of Justice – for a broad range of services.
  • Ministry for Primary Industries – this includes grant and funding applications.

We have also written bids and tenders for professional services, construction and infrastructure, facilities management and other sectors and industries for the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Maori Development (Te Puni Kōkiri), Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Culture and Heritage, Ministry of Pacific Peoples, Ministry of Women, Inland Revenue Department and the New Zealand Customs Service.

Contact our team today to discuss how we can assist with your next bid or tender. We will work with you to:

  • Understand your business and your existing level of content and bid writing capability.
  • Review your proposed bid and assist with your bid / no bid decision.
  • Understand where you need assistance. Scope our proposed services.
  • Put a plan in place and produce your bid.

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  • +64 9-801 1079
  • enquiries@tsaksconsulting.co.nz

How to write facilities management and security bids to win government contracts

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Facilities Management Tenders and Bids

Our team of bid and tender writers based in Auckland have extensive experience writing facilities management, maintenance and security tenders for clients across New Zealand. We help businesses review, writer and submit tenders, proposals and bids to the government and private sector for the full range of facilities management services.

As a boutique bid writing consultancy, we are specialists in what we do and efficient and effective at doing it. Our team will take the hassle out of the bid writing process so you can focus on your business knowing that a professional and polished submission will be submitted. We have helped businesses of all sizes to write proposals that secure contracts, from small facilities management companies focused on servicing one or two buildings to large, national clients tendering to provide services to a government department with multiple facilities.

Our track record of success writing winning facilities management tenders and other property tenders

  • Facilities Management company bidding for a large government contract for a critical government building. This tender was complicated by the fact that the building was sensitive and had strict security measures in place. Our consultancy wrote a comprehensive methodology that put forward a cleaning and maintenance solution that worked within the bounds of the security requirements of the building.
  • A facilities company specialising in security and cleaning bidding for a private sector contract for four commercial office buildings. They had existing content from previous tenders, however, their previous bids and tenders were unsuccessful and the feedback was they needed a more tailored response. We used their generic response as a base, and then tailored the response for each question. We tailored each of the CVs and case studies to the potential project and personalised the document. Our client was ultimately successful.
  • Our client was provided cleaning, security and grounds maintenance services mostly to the strata and residential sector. They were looking to enter into the government sector and were completing their first tender to a government department for security services. We helped them respond to the RFP and write all their required content from scratch.

How our consultants can help you win a government or private sector contract

Our team will help you write and submit a compelling facilities management and facilities maintenance bid by:

  • Carrying out an effective bid / no bid meeting and audit. This is critical to ensure you bid for contracts that you have the experience, expertise and capabilities to win. As opposed to bidding for contracts where your chances of success are minimal. The key difference and/or advantage here is that you do not waste resources and time on contracts that you don’t have a realistic chance of winning. Through our bid/no bid guide, we provide a structured approach to the bid / no bid decision.
  • Writing the response. This is generally the most time consuming part of any tender. For facilities management tenders, questions often cover experience, personnel, processes and methodology, capability and equipment and an overall operational plan. We will firstly develop a response structure for each question, to ensure we write a comprehensive response that will score well. After that, once we have the information we require, we will then write a response for the question. This is generally the first draft response – which will be refined and expanded on to create the final draft.
  • Create or update the necessary supporting documentation. Our team will create the supporting documentation you need for your facilities management proposal. Whether it is safety, quality assurance or environmental documents or modern slavery policies, we can create the full suite of documents you will need to be credible in front of the reader and win the bid.
  • Develop graphics and infographics that ensure your proposal document is professional and polished. Generally speaking, the colour theme needs to align with your brand and website. Importantly, you need to use infographics and any graphics to clearly summarise any key concepts or complex solutions in an easy to understand and interpret manner.

Get in touch with our team today to discuss how we can help with your next facilities management tender.

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Speak with our consultants

  • +64 9-801 1079
  • enquiries@tsaksconsulting.co.nz