When preparing a tender response, how much time do you spend understanding your competition? Knowing the buyer’s requirements is essential but understanding who you’re bidding against can help you develop a more competitive proposition.
Through our experience supporting public sector bids, we’ve found that suppliers often invest significant time understanding the buyer and specification but overlook the competitive landscape, particularly the incumbent supplier. Competitor intelligence can strengthen your approach, from deciding whether to bid to shaping your win themes, pricing and supporting evidence.
Why competitor intelligence matters
Differentiation and positioning: Understanding competitors’ strengths and gaps helps you identify what sets your organisation apart. Use this insight to demonstrate how your approach meets the buyer’s priorities, improves delivery or provides additional value.
Bid/no-bid decisions: Assessing competitors’ capabilities, coverage and performance helps you judge whether an opportunity is realistically winnable. Recognising where others have a stronger offer allows you to focus resources on opportunities where you have a credible competitive advantage.
Pricing and value: Understanding competitors’ pricing and value propositions helps you assess your own offer. Being the cheapest does not necessarily mean being the most competitive. Demonstrate the efficiencies, outcomes and measurable benefits your solution delivers against the evaluation criteria.
How to understand your competitors
Start with publicly available information. Contract notices and award information can help identify previous winners, contract values and incumbent suppliers. Framework supplier lists, competitor websites, case studies and published accounts can provide insight into experience, capabilities, geographical coverage and financial position.
Review your previous tender feedback too. It can reveal where your response fell short and where competitors may have performed more strongly.
Build this research into pipeline development, before a tender is released. Starting early gives you time to assess the competition and shape your strategy without the pressure of a submission deadline. Update your findings regularly as suppliers and markets change.
Turning intelligence into a competitive advantage
Research only adds value when it influences your bid. Use your findings to shape win themes and evidence-backed benefits that address the buyer’s priorities.
For example, if research identifies gaps in an incumbent’s geographical coverage, can you evidence a stronger local presence or faster response times? Where services are similar, can you demonstrate measurable efficiencies, innovation or additional support?
Make those advantages explicit in your response. Explain what the buyer will gain, how you will deliver it and what evidence supports your claims. Understanding the competition helps you move beyond demonstrating capability to making a compelling case for choosing your organisation.
How can Bid Advisory help? Our experienced bid consultants support organisations with pre-bid intelligence, competitor analysis, bid strategy and tender qualification, helping suppliers approach opportunities with greater insight and confidence.
Important to know your competitors