Steel Work Tenders in the Public Sector

Steel work tenders can help your steel company secure a pipeline of construction contracts. There are buyers in both the public and private sectors. Within the public sector, local councils are often commissioning steel work tenders and services. Such services could range from a multitude of buildings including residential, educational and commercial.

Steel work tenders can be released by buyers to procure:

• Primary Framing
• Secondary Framing
• Structural steel work
• Maintenance painting of steel work
• Steel work for major projects.

6 tips to succeed when writing your responses for steel work tenders

1. Plan

You should always plan your response for steel work tenders. Adequate planning can help you avoid any silly errors such as misjudging deadlines, formats and word counts.

Remember to note down all the important dates listed in the tender specification, these are likely to include:

• Submission deadline date and time
• Clarification questions deadline
• Site visit deadline.

2. Attend on-site visits 

Site visits can be a great opportunity to strengthen your written responses. It’s strongly advised that you undertake a site visit where possible. Attending one may help you gain an insight into the buyer and help you achieve more accurate pricing.

They also allow prospective suppliers to see the environment they will be working in. This allows you to see things with your own eyes. You might just pick up on something that you otherwise wouldn’t be aware of.

3. Demonstrate value for money

Steel work tenders in the public sector will award responses that produce the best value for money. Public sector contracts will be looking to award the Most Economically Advantageous Tender, known as the MEAT. The MEAT means the buyer is looking at more than just price. It is important to note that the cheapest bid does not always win.

You should price your services sensibly. Under-pricing your services won’t give you an edge over your competitors in this case. In the most commonly used tendering procedures, negotiating isn’t permitted further down the line. Some steel work tenders will put a larger weighting on price than quality, and visa versa. However, to ensure value for money, you should consider the following, for example:

• Quality costs and benefits of products
• Any additional economic benefit that may result from your project
• Energy and water management
• Full costs associated with transport and delivery
• Insurance
• Maintenance
• After sale support
• Waste disposal and reduction of waste
• Sustainability
• Supply chain management
• Ability to deliver on time
• The costs and benefits to society as a whole.

4. Don’t gloss over social value

It’s essential for any successful bid, that your business considers the social economic and environmental impacts of fulfilling the contract. Social value now has a mandatory minimum weighting of 10% within government contracts.

It is not something that should be glossed over or treated as an afterthought. The government takes this part seriously and wants to see you making commitments that you can keep. There are qualifications that are relevant for this, such as ISO 14001.

The social value model has the aim of:

• Encouraging economic growth.
• Tackling economic and diversity inequality.
• Creating new jobs.
• Tackling climate change.

Within your steel work tenders response, you should note how your business is:

• Supporting COVID-19 recovery.
• Providing skills and development training, supporting the local community and long term unemployed.
• Sustainably sourcing.
• Considering environmental issues and helping to fight climate change.
• Upholding equal opportunity and diversity policies. 

5. A high-quality written response

The quality of your written response for steel work tenders is always going to matter. Buyers expect a strong written response, even if there is a larger weighting on price. Your written response is what can help separate you from your competitors.

Your written response is should be persuasive to the buyer. Why should they pick your business? Why are you the best business for the job? What do you offer that your competitors don’t? Sell yourself and your company to the buyer and give them a reason to pick you.

Remember to keep your response clear and concise, writing as close to the word count as possible. Avoid rambling on with overly technical jargon.

6. Provide evidence

Make sure that you have relevant past experiences that you can evidence in your response.

You will likely be required to provide up to three case studies of previous contracts you have carried out. They should be similar in calibre, scope, scale and tailored to demonstrate your abilities. They should be contracts that you have completed within the last five years.

Need help writing your next steel work tenders?

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% bid success rate. They have over 60 years of collective experience and are well versed in writing construction industry tender responses. They offer four levels of bid writing support.

Tender Ready

The Tender Ready 4-week programme is designed for businesses who are completely new to tendering. Our Bid Writers will work with you to ensure you have everything you need to produce a winning bid.

Tender Improvement

Our Tender Improvement package can help if you aren’t seeing success from your current tendering efforts. Our Bid Team will assess your previous steel work tender responses and tender documents. They’ll then give you guidance and feedback, working with you to improve for future submissions.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect steel work tenders for your business, why not send it over to our team? They’ll provide you with a full Tender Writing breakdown, letting you know what they need from you. Our Bid Writers will take care of everything for you – they’ll even submit it on your behalf.

Tender Mentor

Our Tender Mentor service can make sure your response is free of grammar and spelling mistakes before you submit. One of our Bid Writers will proofread your response, checking it’s in line with the specification.

How can I find the right steel work tenders for my business?

Use a sector specific portal

Finding the right steel work tenders for your business is half the battle. Often tender websites host tenders across multiple sectors and industries which are updated daily. It can take a large amount of time out of your day trying to find suitable tenders. Relying on CPV codes can result in missed opportunities. This is because they are often mislabelled, meaning you could be missing out on the right tenders for your company.

You should use a sector-specific portal to save you time when searching for your next steel work tenders. One that uses keyword tracking and provides good customer service is a plus. Construction Tenders focuses on opportunities in construction. Our Opportunity Trackers manually source contracts for clients who can then filter the results by keyword, location, budget and more.

Below are previous steel work tenders sourced on our portal:

Civil Ground Works & Site Preparation, Including Structural Steel Works and Relocation of Site Offices

Mayo County Council- International- Budget: Undisclosed

Gable Grade11* Listed Prep & Repainting High Level Steel Work

Manchester City Council- North West- Budget: Undisclosed

Mezzanine Steel Works for The Zepher Building Harwell Science & Innovation Campus

Satellite Applications Catapult Limited- South East- Budget: £50,000

Whiffens Avenue, Chatham – Primary Steel Works – Secured Project

Medway Council- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

The best way to venture into the tendering world is through booking a live demo of Construction Tenders. We source opportunities for services including;

• Electrical Tenders
• Building Works
• Joinery Tenders
• Architectural Tenders
• Refurbishment Tenders
• Brickwork Tenders
• Health & Safety Tenders
• Small Construction Tenders
• Civil Engineering Tenders
• Surveying Tenders
• Demolition Tenders
• Flooring Tenders
• Glass Tenders
• M&E
• Cost Consultancy
• Painting Contracts
• Decorating Tenders
• Masonry and many more.

A 12-month subscription to Construction Tenders offers your business:

• A team of Opportunity Trackers sourcing steel work tenders from thousands of websites.
• Access to unique, private and public construction bids from across the UK.
• An on-hand Account Manager to answer any questions or queries you may have about steel work tenders.
• The ability to filter search results by keyword, budget, location and more.
• A daily email bulletin notifying you of all relevant construction leads uploaded that day.
• Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our Bid Writing division.
• 20-minutes of free consultancy each month with our Bid Experts.

Want to save even more time?

Discover Elite can help optimise your tendering opportunities – even when you’re busy! Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each package can help save you even more time when searching for steel work tenders.

The Ultimate Time Saver package includes:

• An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option best suits a business that overlaps two industries such as Construction and Logistics.
• A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
• Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
• Buyer portal management including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid
• Weekly phone calls with your on-hand Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package offers your business:

• All of the above.
• Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
• A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.