Our Approach to Bidding as an SME in the Public Sector

Challenges SMEs Face

While SMEs face challenges when bidding for public sector contracts, such as competing against larger firms with greater resources, they also have unique advantages, including niche expertise and agility. This post explores how SMEs can improve their success rate by adopting a strategic approach, investing time in bid preparation and review, and seeking collaborative partnerships.

Tips for Writing

One common challenge for SMEs is feeling intimidated by larger companies bidding for the same work. While big firms have significant resources, it is important to recognise the value of your own niche and expertise. SMEs often provide specialist knowledge, faster turnaround times, and more cost-effective solutions than larger competitors.

As such, when writing your bid, your main priority should be to clearly outline the advantages of choosing your company. Maintaining a consistent brand voice and clearly communicating that you meet all bid requirements will improve your chances of success in a competitive bidding environment. A good way to achieve this is by using measurable responses and concrete actions rather than vague statements. Additionally, ensure you communicate your company’s core mission and unique selling point (USP) to make your bid stand out and be memorable. To support this, use a tone that aligns with your company’s identity, employing clear, direct, and relatable language.

A frequent mistake SMEs make is failing to read and respond to every part of a bid correctly. You may put significant effort into crafting strong responses, only to overlook a small but crucial detail, such as ticking a required box, which can lead to automatic disqualification. Some slightly larger SMEs submit extensive bids yet still get rejected because they miss minor details, much like an automated job application where missing a required checkbox means your submission is not considered. While there may be opportunities to clarify minor oversights, it is best not to rely on these chances. Always read each question carefully, paying close attention to the specific wording, and ensure your bid reflects your company’s genuine voice rather than a templated response.

The Bidding Process

Regardless of size, every company should have a strategy for identifying and pursuing bids. Each company has its own approach to bidding. Many follow structured processes, such as Shipley, but may adapt certain elements to suit their needs. At Clarion, we have built our own process around Shipley to better fit our company’s size while ensuring consistency. The most valuable stages for us have been planning and reviewing.

Planning

A key aspect of planning your bid is understanding why you should win. Some companies focus solely on answering the bid questions, but it is more effective to step back and ask: What are the client’s real priorities? What themes will make our bid stand out? What evidence can we provide to demonstrate we are the best choice? Framing your answers strategically is more impactful than simply responding to each question in isolation.

Reviewing

Reviewing can be a bit harder in a smaller company, as larger companies typically have multiple review cycles involving bid managers, commercial and legal teams, and practice leads. However, while this structured approach ensures quality, it can also slow things down. If you are working in a smaller organisation, it’s worth implementing a more agile review process. Even if it’s just a handful of people checking over your work, it will always benefit you to have this process in place. If possible, have someone outside the bid team review your responses. A fresh perspective can help identify misinterpretations, much like how reading an email in your own voice may not reflect the sender’s intended tone.

Partnership, Collaboration and Communities

If a bid is too large for your company alone, teaming up with another SME or a larger firm can be beneficial. Public sector contracts increasingly encourage SME participation, and large firms often seek smaller partners to meet these requirements. Finding the right partners can increase your chances of success. Large companies do not always have the specialist skills that SMEs offer and often need partners to fill those gaps. For example, recently Clarion Insight successfully partnered with Kainos on a bid, providing a dedicated transformation and change function. By collaborating with companies that complement their strengths, SMEs can strengthen bids, win contracts, and establish successful partnerships. Government buyers also value SME collaboration as it aligns with policy goals around economic growth and enterprise support.

It is beneficial to explore different communities and frameworks when bidding for work. For example, Clarion’s work with the ACE community has provided opportunities to discover new prospects. ACE is a capability for the UK government to connect with specialists and vendors to solve operational challenges, often by rapidly prototyping solutions. Through ACE, we have collaborated on numerous projects with different companies, leading to new partnerships, opportunities and ideas.

Final Thoughts

While SMEs face significant challenges in the competitive public sector bidding environment, their niche expertise, agility, and capacity for strategic collaboration provide distinct advantages. By adopting a well-structured bidding process that prioritises careful preparation, thorough review, and clear, measurable responses, SMEs can overcome these obstacles, secure valuable contracts, and build strong partnerships.

To find out more about how we work and the frameworks we operate through, visit our ‘How to Work with Us’ page.