Tender and bid follow-up for electrical equipment: a working routine

The bid went in on time, with every type test report attached. Three weeks later the utility's evaluation committee emailed a clarification with a reply-by date. It went to the inbox of a colleague who had left. The bid was set aside as non-responsive. Tenders run on fixed dates, and a bid that misses one is out before anyone reads its price. The working routine is one register with every bid's dates in it, one person who owns it, and a set of actions at each stage from pre-bid to purchase order.

Why a tender is not a quotation

A quotation can be followed up whenever the buyer seems ready. A tender cannot. Its dates are printed in the document, and after the submission date the buyer will hear from you only in the ways the tender allows.

Much of the follow-up therefore happens before the bid goes in, or through formal letters afterwards. Read the tender's conditions on contact during evaluation. Some public buyers do not allow it, and rules differ by buyer and change. A phone call to an evaluation committee member that was welcome on a private project can count against you on a public one.

The register, column by column

Keep one register for every tender you decide to bid, in a shared sheet. One person owns it. Fill a row the day you download the tender, not the day before submission.

Sort the sheet by the "Next action" date at the start of each working day. The row at the top is today's job. Anything that has gone past its date goes to the top, in red, and is cleared before new work starts. Keep the sheet in one shared file, not copies on separate desks, or two people will update two different versions.

What to do at each stage

Before the pre-bid meeting. Read the technical specification against your designs. List every deviation, and every rating for which you hold no current test report. Send your queries before the last date. A query answered at pre-bid can turn a deviation into a compliance.

At submission. Check the bid against the tender's own checklist, page by page. Keep a copy of exactly what went in, with the portal's acknowledgement.

After technical opening. Expect clarification letters. Answer each one inside its date, point by point, with the page reference of your bid.

When validity is extended. Buyers write asking bidders to extend their bid validity. Reply in writing, and change the date in the register. A bid whose validity lapses is out of the race.

After price opening. Record every bidder's price if the result is published. Where you are lowest, prepare for drawing approval and the inspection call. Where you are not, keep the bid alive.

After the result. Win or lose, write for your earnest money and log the date of that letter.

Clarifications: the letter that decides the bid

Clarification letters from an evaluation committee are short, formal and dated. They ask why your transformer's losses differ from the guaranteed figures, or whether a test report covers the exact rating offered. The reply-by date is short. Silence, or a vague reply, can be enough for a bid to be set aside.

Treat each one as the most urgent item on the register, and log the day it arrived so the reply-by date is counted from the right day. Route all tender mail to one shared address. Never a person's own. Reply on letterhead, answering each point in the order asked, and attach only what was requested. Which test reports and certificates qualify is for the buyer's specification and your own adviser to settle, not your sales desk.

Imagine a substation kiosk maker in Butibori

Imagine a maker of compact substations and RMU kiosks in the Butibori industrial area of Nagpur, bidding for state utility and industrial tenders. Each tender sits in a different salesperson's inbox. A clarification from a state utility goes to the old address of an engineer who left, and the bid is set aside. When the owner looks, there is also earnest money from two older tenders never asked for back.

The owner makes the tender executive the keeper of a single register. A shared tender address replaces the personal inboxes, and every portal login is changed to use it. The executive enters each tender's dates on the day it is downloaded and sorts the sheet each morning. Refund letters go out for the two old tenders the same week. One buyer replies that the instrument lapsed and must be revalidated first, which takes the better part of two months; the other pays. When the next clarification arrives from the utility, it is at the top of the sheet that morning, and the reply goes out two days before its date.

When to stop, or not bid at all

Stop following a bid when it is formally rejected and the rejection is final, or when the buyer cancels the tender. Close the row with the reason. That record will save you a bid next time.

Better still, decline before you start. Do not bid where you lack the qualifying experience or a current test report for the rating asked. Do not bid where the delivery period is shorter than your honest lead time. Being found by tender buyers in the first place is a separate job, covered in being found by tender buyers who do not know your firm.

Enter the open bids and chase old deposits

Enter every open bid in the register with its next date, today if you can, then look for earnest money you never asked back. Setting up the document set and the dates is RFP and tender management, and how electrical products are bought more widely is on the electrical equipment manufacturing page. If bids slip between submission and order, tell us what you need.