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Bid, tender and sales-proposal writing

Well-written bids and proposals are key to securing new business. With the right techniques, you can create a strong, persuasive case that gets your prospect to ‘yes’.

Trusted by over 1,000 organisations worldwide

Overview

Well-written bids and proposals are key to securing new business. With the right techniques, you can create a strong, persuasive case that gets your prospect to ‘yes’.

That’s why we developed this course. It will give you a comprehensive understanding of the best practices of bid and proposal writing – making sure your writing skills don’t stand between you and winning your next contract.

Successful bids, proposals and tenders are your greatest allies in securing new business. But writing winning bids and proposals is a complex skill. This intensive, practical course will give you and your team a complete understanding of the best practices in bid, proposal and tender writing, ensuring their writing skills aren’t what’s standing in the way of winning your next contract.

Outcomes

By the end of the training, attendees will be able to:

  • fully answer the questions in a client brief, ITT or RFP
  • engage all readers – from senior executives to compliance teams
  • use win themes and highlight benefits that are meaningful to the client
  • write in plain English and incorporate the right tone of voice for your company
  • avoid misusing ‘boilerplate’ text
  • bring together multiple contributions to make a winning argument
  • spot embarrassing errors in a bid before it’s sent to the client.

All attendees will also receive our unique pre-course writing analysis. This covers 15 different areas of writing skills and helps us ensure the training meets attendees’ precise writing needs, while allowing for rapid, targeted improvements.

Who's it for?

Our bid-writing course is suitable for anyone who has to write persuasively to win business.

For in-house group courses, we can tailor the content to your team’s needs and the ITTs/RFPs you respond to.

Find the training that fits

For individuals

Book one to three people on one of our public courses. With a maximum of eight learners per course.

For groups

Train four or more people (up to your whole organisation) with in-house training designed for your team and your needs.

Tailored to you

Individual writing analysis

We’ll analyse each attendee’s writing across 15 different areas

N
N

Expert trainers

Each with 15+ years’ experience as professional writers, editors and coaches

N
N

Individual coaching

Expert one-on-one feedback with personalised insights embeds learning

N
N

AI writing

Learn how to get the most from AI tools: supercharge your writing without losing your human edge

N
N

Tailored content

Course content built around your specific learning objectives

K
N

Real-world examples

Activities and exercises modified to use your team’s documents

K
N

Where

Online virtual classroom

Online or in person at
your chosen venue

Duration

One day

Tailored to you

Price

£495

per person + VAT

Get a quote

for your bespoke course

Course programmes

For individuals

Book one to three people on one of our public courses. With a maximum of eight learners per course.

For groups

Train four or more people (up to your whole organisation) with in-house training designed for your team and your needs.

For groups

Train four or more people (up to your whole organisation) with in-house training designed for your team and your needs.

Individual writing analysis

We’ll analyse each attendee’s writing across 15 different areas

N
N

Expert trainers

Each with 15+ years’ experience as professional writers, editors and coaches

N
N

Individual coaching

Expert one-on-one feedback for each learner to ensure lasting improvements

N
N

AI writing

Learn how to get the most from AI tools: supercharge your writing without losing your human edge

 

N
N

Tailored content

Course content built around your specific learning objectives

N

Real-world examples

Activities and exercises modified to use your team’s documents

N

Where

Online or in person at
your chosen venue

Duration

Tailored to you

Course programmes

Price

Get a quote

for your bespoke course

For individuals

Book one to three people on one of our public courses. With a maximum of eight learners per course.

 

Individual writing analysis

We’ll analyse each attendee’s writing across 15 different areas

N
N

Expert trainers

Each with 15+ years’ experience as professional writers, editors and coaches

N
N

Individual coaching

Expert one-on-one feedback for each learner to ensure lasting improvements

N
N

AI writing

Supercharge your writing learn, get the most from AI tools without losing your human edge  

N
N

Tailored content

Course content built around your specific learning objectives

K

Real-world examples

Activities and exercises modified to use your team’s documents

K

Where

Online virtual classroom

Duration

One day

Course programmes

Price

£495

per person + VAT

Book now

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Frequently asked questions

Can the training be tailored to us specifically?

Definitely – in fact, bespoke group training is the main thing we do. One course programme doesn't look exactly like what you need? No problem. We can combine elements from any of our courses to fit your needs exactly.

Your course can also be part of a blended programme that will support your team in changing their writing for good.

Note that our scheduled course materials cannot be tailored in the same way as our bespoke training. But our trainers will always adapt their delivery based on the individual writing samples which attendees send beforehand – as well as on what people share during the day.

Is the training suitable for non-native speakers of English?

Our courses aren’t ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) courses. They’re not designed to introduce new second-language speakers to the basics of the English language. What they are about is the best ways to use the English language to create effective writing in the professional world. 

But our trainers’ experience does mean that they understand and can support the typical challenges learners of English face.

Many of our trainers have experience as ESOL or TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) teachers, and enthusiastically welcome the presence of non-native speakers on courses. Not least as this tends to best represent our workplaces in our globally connected world!

In short, non-native English speakers with a proficient grasp of English will certainly benefit from the courses – including even in some ways that native speakers don’t.

We have written a full post about this, which you can read here.

Why are group sizes on courses so small?

We limit the number of attendees on our live in-person or remote courses to ten. The reason is simply that we find people learn best in groups of no more than eight to ten. 

Having larger groups affects how long activities take and changes the group dynamic: it can discourage shyer attendees from taking part and limits sharing in discussions.

Effective training happens through active learning, including supported (and tailored) practical elements. Increasing the group size compromises how personalised and practical courses can be.

If you’d like to, you can read a fuller answer to this question here.

How much does the training cost?

For our bespoke in-company training, this is a tricky one to give a short or absolute answer on. The cost will depend on many factors, including the number of delegates, the extent of the tailoring, and the elements you choose to include. 

For a single course for eight to ten people, the price will range from £3,000–£3,900, or £300–£390 per delegate – as compared with £495 per delegate on a scheduled open course.

We’ll be able to tell you exactly how much you can expect to pay once we’ve spoken with you and understand your requirements.

If you’d like to read a longer explanation of our pricing, you can do that here

I'm dyslexic – will this course be OK for me?

Yes, certainly. Dyslexia affects around one in ten people, so we often have attendees with dyslexia on our courses.

All of our trainers have received training from the British Dyslexia Association. They are also very experienced at adapting their approach in any course to the needs of the individual learner.

And we produce the materials for each course ourselves, which means we can make accommodations to help. This includes providing manuals printed on coloured paper or a PDF ahead of the day. For in-person courses, we can also provide coloured reading aids.

It's entirely up to you whether you mention your dyslexia during the training. Some attendees do, some don't. It can help for the trainer to be aware though, and you'll have the opportunity to share the information in the run-up to the course. Your trainer will keep it confidential, and you can decide whether you'd like to talk about it during the course.

What our learners say about us

Would you like to speak with us?

If you’d like to know more or have a quick chat with one of our team, then fill out the form below and we will be in touch.