Winning bids require more than just technical accuracy—they demand clarity, structure and strategic communication. Yet even seasoned professionals can fall into habits which undermine the strength of their submissions. At EiB, we advocate for concise, strategic and targeted writing to ensure every submission is compelling, persuasive and evaluator friendly. This article explores some of the most common bid writing mistakes and practical methods to avoid them.
Writing Without Echoing the Question
The Mistake:
Many responses fail to mirror the language and structure of the question, making it harder for evaluators to verify compliance. This can lead to lost marks—even when the content is strong.
Why It Matters:
Echoing the question demonstrates understanding, improves navigability, and aligns your response with the customer’s expectations. It also helps evaluators easily tick off requirements.
How to Avoid It:
- Dissect the question: Identify key phrases and requirements. Use colour-coding or annotation to separate specific asks
- Match headings exactly: Use the question wording verbatim in your heading structure. This creates a clear map for the evaluator
- Integrate hot buttons: Reuse key terms from the question throughout your response to show alignment with the customer’s priorities
- Use action captions: When including graphics, ensure captions link directly to the question’s themes and benefits.
Tip: Remember the evaluation criteria. Often, the tender evaluation criteria will have additional pointers to address for bidders to score highly and must be given as much attention as the question wording. For example, some questions will require specific evidence or added value points to score highly.
Listing Features Without Explaining Benefits
The Mistake:
Writers often describe what the solution does (features) but fail to explain why it matters (benefits), or how it sets them apart (discriminators).
Why It Matters:
Evaluators are looking for value. Features alone don’t answer the “so what?” question. Benefits show impact, and discriminators show why your solution is the best fit.
How to Avoid It:
- Ensure responses are benefits-driven: For every feature, articulate the benefit and identify discriminators
- Quantify impact: Where possible, use metrics or outcomes to demonstrate value
- Translate problems into solutions: Show how your approach understands the customer’s needs, rather than just stating that you understand them
- Test your writing: Read each statement and ask “so what?”. If the answer isn’t obvious, revise.
Example: “We use real-time data analytics.” → “We use real-time data analytics to enable faster decision-making and improve service responsiveness—an approach unique to our platform.”
Overusing Passive Voice
The Mistake:
Passive constructions obscure ownership and weaken clarity. They often lead to longer, less engaging sentences.
Why It Matters:
Active voice demonstrates agency, improves readability, and makes it clear who is responsible for actions. This is especially important in bids, where accountability and confidence in delivery are key.
How to Avoid It:
- Use the active structure: Subject + verb + object.
Passive: “Meetings will be led by the team.”
Active: “Our team will lead the meetings.”
- Assign ownership: Make it clear who is doing what. Use organisational roles or team names to show accountability
- Review sentence structure: During editing, highlight passive phrases and rework them into active voice
- Use informative headings: Apply active voice to headings (e.g. “Delivering Local Recruitment” vs “Local Recruitment”).
Tip: Applying active voice helps reduce word count, a key advantage in page-limited bids.
Overwriting and Lack of Brevity
The Mistake:
Overwriting, including using long sentences, redundant phrases, or unnecessary detail, will dilute the core message.
Why It Matters:
Dense, wordy responses slow down comprehension and risk obscuring key points. Brevity ensures clarity and maximises impact, especially in word- or page-limited bids, making the bid easier to evaluate.
How to Avoid It:
- Apply the 30-word rule: Keep sentences under 30 words; ideally under 20
- Search for superfluous words: Like that, then, of, also, by, and to—and remove where possible
- Replace long phrases with concise alternatives: For example, “in order to” → “to”, “take into consideration” → “consider”
- Avoid tautology: Don’t say the same thing twice (e.g. “unexpected surprise” → “surprise”).
Tip: Use Microsoft Word’s synonym tool to find shorter alternatives and reduce character count without losing meaning.
Weak or Vague Headings
The Mistake:
Generic or passive headings (e.g. “Collaboration” or “Recruitment”) fail to guide the evaluator or highlight the value of your response.
Why It Matters:
Headings are signposts. Informative, active headings improve readability, signal benefits, and make your bid easier to score.
How to Avoid It:
- Use active voice in headings: Turn nouns into actions (e.g. “Establishing the foundation for collaborative working” instead of “Collaborative working”)
- Link features to benefits: Headings should reflect not just what you’re doing, but why it matters
- Elevate headings to mini summaries: Treat them like newspaper headlines—make them informative and engaging.
Example: Instead of “Local Recruitment,” use “Prioritising Recruitment in the Local Area to Boost Employment Outcomes.”
How Does a Bid Writer Add Value?
Avoiding these mistakes will significantly elevate the quality and impact of your bid submissions. Identifying and correcting these issues consistently requires time, skill, and a strategic mindset.
That’s where a dedicated bid writer adds real value.
A professional bid writer brings technical writing expertise and a deep understanding of bid strategy, customer psychology, and compliance. They know how to interpret complex questions, structure responses for maximum impact, and apply proven methodologies to ensure every word earns its place.
By embedding a bid writer into your team, you:
- Increase consistency across responses, reducing the need for last-minute rewrites
- Improve evaluator experience, making your bids easier to read, score, and trust
- Enhance win probability, by clearly articulating value, benefits, and differentiators
- Save time and resource, allowing subject matter experts to focus on delivery while the writer crafts compelling narratives.
A bid writer doesn’t just polish your prose, they elevate your proposition. In a competitive market, this edge can be the difference between second place and a signed contract.