10 Tips on how to prepare yourself to participate in tenders

A few years ago i participated in applying for tenders, unlike today when there are tender briefings by most state agencies, you had to to learn to swim through the murky waters of tendering and learn some painful lessons on your own, some that took even two to three years to learn. I recently started going for the tender briefings and was amazed at the sheer number of people present each looking to get a peace of cake from the national treasury.

Here are 10 tips i would like to share with you to be able to participate well.

1. Get your paper work right, get all the mandatory documents, certificates, letters, Cvs, Testimonials, audited accounts etc before you start, and get them directly from the issuing agency by yourself do not fake them as these are checked after submission.
2. Make Several Copies of the mandatory documents and get a file with several pockets to put them. You avoid running up ad down every time you are making a new application.
3. Make list of all the companies you would like to work with and include Name of Organisation, location, contact person, and telephone numbers. This may mean you walk into each company and extract this information at the reception.
4. Start pre-qualifing with each organization if applying under AGPO the process is simple and straight forward submit a company profile, well bound with all the mandatory documents.
5. Work through each organization slowly each week tackle a different organization. There is no rush here, you want to do a good job with each application and trying to apply to all at ago only complicates things, makes the work look overwhelming and makes you do a shoddy job.
6. Please decide on a category your are going to supply there is enough for everyone and being a jack of all trades again only makes you stretched thin, makes you over worked and you will always be in bad mood.
7. As you deliver your profile start to build relationship with the buyer over time. The good thing with state corporation is people are likely to stay on the same job at least 3 years so it makes sense to know who you shall be dealing with. Building relationship does not mean promising kitu kidogo before you get the work. But be human on this area. As you get to know someone get them tickets for their family for an event you shall be at, a cup of tea after work, etc.
8. Ensure to check your email, first get a business email address and by this i do not mean the free email we see everywhere buy a domain name for your business and check email regular also keep your phone line open.
9. When you get an order reply on email saying if your pursuing it or not and the reason you are not able to take up the order.
10. Finally remember to thank the person you are dealing with all the time from the bottom of your heart. So that they shall remember you next time.