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Writing Machine’s unique Writing for Bids enables individuals and teams to write clearer, more compelling, more professional and far more competitive bid and pitch documents.

When competing for large contracts, it’s sometimes not enough to have a technically excellent, credible and cost-competitive solution. Very often, organisations lose tenders simply because they are unable to articulate a clear, compelling and competitive proposition when writing commercially significant bid and pitch documents.

 

Writing, then, is a critical part of any sales proposal, RFP or pitch. Well crafted writing can, quite simply, improve an organisation’s win rate. With the right specialised training, companies can make significant improvements to the bottom line simply by improving the quality of their writing and the efficiency of their writing processes.
Created by the writers at Writing Machine Agency, the course teaches the Structured Writing Method, based on tried-and-tested specialist techniques used to provide bid writing services to companies such as BAE Systems, HP, Fujitsu, Logica, Mott MacDonald, SITA, Thales, and QinetiQ.

What will you learn?

You will be taught a variety of techniques and processes to follow in order to write bid documents that are clearer, more concise, compelling and competitive. By teaching an effective and unique writing process, the course will help you and your team become much more productive.

On completion of this course, you will be able to:

  • Implement an effective writing process
    making bid creation more efficient, and leading to better quality tender documents
  • Identify key messages from existing source material
    to speed up the transition from subject matter to sales bid
  • Formulate sophisticated, highly competitive messages
    whether for executive summaries or for answering complex bid questions
  • Effectively plan and structure lengthy bid and pitch documents
    using structured writing techniques and Microsoft Word’s Outline View functionality to ease the stress of managing document creation
  • Rapidly structure executive summaries
    using the messaging created earlier and Microsoft Word’s Outline View
  • Successfully answer complex bid questions
    to optimise scoring
  • Use storyboards to improve writing efficiency
    by enabling editorial ideas to be captured, negotiated and agreed before writing starts
  • Use writing embellishments effectively
    to make the writing clearer, more concise and compelling
  • Improve the quality of writing across the tender document
    to make bids and pitches more professional in appearance and easier to skim-read
  • Proofread your writing
    to ensure your bid documents are free from typos, grammar and punctuation mistakes


Structured Writing Method for Bids eLearning lessons

The Structured Writing Method for Bids eLearning is either available as eLearning only, or as part of a blended delivery with classroom or virtual classroom courses.

In this lesson, you discover how to analyse the requirements of a bid to work out exactly what your prospect is asking, how you can best fulfil those requirements and – crucially – whether your organisation should be submitting a bid at all.
This lesson teaches a tried-and-trusted messaging method for creating clear, compelling and competitive messages. These will form the key elements used when structuring an executive summary in a later lesson.
If your job is to answer one or more questions in a tender document, it is important to know how to create messages that are clear, concise, competitive and compelling. This lesson shows you how.
In this lesson, you will learn how to use Microsoft Word’s extremely powerful Outline View tool to help you rapidly and more effectively structure your writing.
Not all RFPs allow you to write an executive summary. But if you are given that option. then it is a great opportunity to communicate your competitive position. This lesson provides clear guidelines on how best to structure your executive summary. It shows how the structure should communicate your competitive messages and discusses where and how the other elements of your executive summary should be included.
Failing to answer the question properly is, sadly, one of the worst crimes committed in bid responses. In this lesson you will learn how to break down a question into its key components to make sure you answer it fully. We also explore the importance of assigning appropriate word counts to different aspects of your answer.
Structuring is also key to creating a plan (or storyboard) for a bid answer. You can then show this to the final review team at an early stage – before you write – enabling you to often cut out hours of unnecessary revision time. This lesson will show you how to create a storyboard, and use it to get your bid answers approved internally before you craft your writing.
Just like web readers, procurement people tend to skim-read bid documents – looking for things they can score. In this lesson, we will look at a variety of useful techniques that will enable you to create bid documents that can be skim-read by your prospects. You will see how you can use devices such as headings, bullets, boxes and bold text to make your documents simple and manageable to navigate and read.
This lesson asks: ‘How are you going to hold your reader’s interest if your text is uninspiring and dull?’. You’ll learn how to engage your readers by turning facts into benefits, and by writing lively, direct sentences.
It is important that your bid documents convey your proposition as clearly as possible. This lesson shows you how to cut jargon from your bids, and how to use words and sentences that are as short and simple as possible.
Writing with authority is important for internal documents. But it can also be critical for external facing documents offering consultative advice. This lesson looks at the particular challenges of such documents and will give you guidance on authoritative structure and language. In addition, it will give advice on when to provide legal caveats, and how best to incorporate them.

Poor grammar and punctuation create the effect of an unprofessional organisation. This lesson clears up a number of common grammatical queries, and shows you the correct way to use punctuation marks such as colons, semi-colons and apostrophes.

As you can imagine, a few silly mistakes in a bid document can undo all the hard work that you’ve put into it. So finally, and appropriately perhaps, the Structured Writing Method finishes with a lesson about proofreading, in which you will learn our top 10 tips to help you improve the accuracy of your writing.

It’s your choice: virtual blended classroom, open courses and many more.

The course is available in many delivery formats to suit your needs or those of your team.

Blended Virtual Classroom

Blended Virtual Classroom

Combine the geographical reach of eLearning with the benefits of virtual classroom sessions focusing on the specific writing needs of your team.

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Open courses

Open courses

Writing Machine’s unique writing training courses are available as open courses.

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Other options

Blended Classroom

There are many other ways to benefit from Structured Writing Method training including: classroom only, individual eLearning licences, eLearning-only (hosted) and eLearning (site licence).

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What our clients say

‘The course made me aware of how easy it is to make mistakes.’

EY delegate

‘I will use the structuring every day.’

Advanced Delegate

‘The Writing for bids course was spot on. People left the training with real skills and techniques that they could implement immediately, on a day-to-day basis. I’m very confident that our writers now have the foundation they need to produce clearer, punchier documents.’

Andy Sampson, Senior Bid Manager, NATS

‘Writing Machine’s Structured Writing Method has not only improved the way we write our reports, it has also changed the way we think as a business.’

Senior Manager, Leadership, Management and Talent Development, Principality Building Society

‘I’m sure that the course will help me produce better quality, more engaging documents and challenge the status quo around content headings.’

Hewlett Packard Delegate

‘The team has absorbed many valuable skills and techniques for creating and communicating clear and concise messages in their writing with greater confi dence. The interactive eLearning format is great. It lets each participant proceed at their own pace and the ability to re-visit course modules over weeks and months is a useful tool for reinforcing and refreshing the learning experience.’

Special Advisor, Indra Navia AS

“The training provided some great insights for the team who were inspired to put the learning straight into action.”

Jodie Yates, Strategic Development Manager, CBRE Global Workplace Solutions

‘My writing will totally change.’

Deloitte delegate

‘I have a clearer idea how to adapt sentences to ensure the messaging is clear.’

AXA delegate

‘[The Structured Writing Method] will help me improve the way I structure my documents, which will also improve my efficiency and the time spent working on them.’

Critical Software delegate

‘I thought I was OK at writing, I know now that I can improve a lot!’

Principality Building Society delegate

‘I feel much more confident when starting to write now – I won’t dread it like I used to!’

Mitchells & Butler delegate

‘It will make me question everything I write… Is it necessary? Is it clear?’

Adelphi delegate

‘I feel more confi dent with my writing and starting with a blank page.’

Electrolux delegate

‘I will think more about structure and headings to bring out key messages and themes.’

Deloitte delegate

‘[I would recommend this course for]… new joiners.’

DLA Piper delegate

‘[I would recommend this course for …] ‘… anyone who writes.’

Principality Building Society delegate

‘I think the course will help my communications to be clearer and more succinct.’

Lloyds Banking Group delegate

‘This course will improve my writing greatly and give me confidence in the future.’

Brand Rexcruitment delegate
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For more information, including a detailed course structure, please download our brochure

Transform the way you write

Every company’s writing training needs are different. 

For more information or to discuss your challenges in more detail, get in touch and let’s start a conversation about the right approach for you.

Contact us