UK Bid Writing Services Company
As a bid writing company, we offer professional bid writing services with over a 75% win rate. Our mission goes beyond just writing or responding to tenders; we provide a full bid management solution focused on winning contracts. We specialise in winning tenders and frameworks in the public sector, including central and local government, education, housing, councils, the NHS, and emergency services. Get a free bid and tender writing quote today!
Get in touch with our experts
Bid Mentors: who will you work with?
As bid writing consultants, we partner with our clients to provide consistent, high-quality bid writing services delivered by our in-house bid team. Our bid writing partnerships provide our clients a consistent team, who know about their business – but who are available on an adhoc basis!
Our core clients are small and medium-sized businesses that require reliable, professional bid writing support. We not only provide bid and tender writing capacity but of course – the key is helping them improve success rates and win valuable contracts!
We don’t just write bids – we work with you to refine your tendering process, ensuring continuous improvement. From the initial call through to contract award, we provide expert guidance to make each bid stronger while reducing your workload. Post-submission, we help analyse feedback to improve future responses.
How Our Bid Writing Services Help You Win More Contracts
Our services are designed to make the tendering process more efficient and successful. We help businesses:
- Develop high-scoring, quality and social value responses tailored to each tender
- Ensure full compliance with buyer requirements – this includes bid no bid advice
- Apply lessons learned from each tender submission
- Reduce internal workload, allowing teams to focus on core business operations
We have been developing our bid writing solutions for over 15 years! Our focus is minimising client disruption – but it is still very much a partnership approach. The first bid is always the toughest – often with a lot to learn in little time, but we have mastered this through continually wanting to improve the service. Each bid should become easier as we jointly develop a working partnership.
Some of our clients have been with us a long time! We work hard to retain them and we believe the key is having a high performing, happy bid team. We directly employ our team to ensure consistency. The last thing you want is to invest your time sharing your approach and key information – to only then have to repeat it for each bid!
Comprehensive Bid Writing Support
Our service really is fully outsourced. We provide guidance and strategy – but we find a lot more clients simply want us to get the work done! And that’s what we do! We offer a full range of bid and tender writing services to suit different business needs, including:
- Providing outsourced bid writing – Ideal for businesses without in-house bid teams. This includes creating a plan – making the use of frameworks, monitoring tenders, completing mini competitions. We just don’t price!
- Bid management – Overseeing the entire bid process, from planning to submission. This is part of our standard bid writing/ management quotes.
- Bid reviews – This gives you access to our expertise but with less capacity required (therefore cheaper!).
- Bid writing courses – Training your team in effective tender writing strategies, as well as understanding procurement.
- Tender portal management – Managing opportunity tracking and submissions
- Bid and Tender writing services – This is very much our core business.
- Bid administration – Handling document formatting, compliance checks, and submission requirements. This includes portal management during live tenders but also afterwards.
- Bid research – Gathering intelligence on opportunities, competitors, and buyer priorities. It’s not just collating it though – it’s then ensuring it makes an impact!
- Bid strategy – Developing structured approaches to tendering for long-term success. Many of our clients provide an excellent service or product and have an excellent businesses. However, work with us to help them create a plan to win more work in the UK public sector.
Take a look at our bid writing services section, which provides further details and testimonials, as well as a hub of information on bid and tender writing.
Professional Tender Writers with a Wealth of Experience
At Thornton & Lowe we are proud to have a wealth of experience working in all the main industry sectors from construction right through to healthcare. Our directly employed team of professional tender writers work closely with you throughout the tender or ITT process, ensuring we maximise your chances of success. Our proven bid management system has been designed to minimise disruption to our clients.
We directly employ (PAYE) a team of nearly 40 bid staff, which means our clients know we will be there for them. You work with the same bid writer, and supporting team, on each tender or framework, which allows our knowledge of your business to grow quickly. We become part of your team and success!Having extra capacity and expertise to support your business to respond to tenders – is where Thornton & Lowe steps in. We offer a same-day tender writing quote, ensuring you have rapid access to our expertise when it’s needed most.
Our Bid Design services
Thornton & Lowe has built a dedicated bid design team which can really make your business proposals, bid documents or company literature stand out.
What do we offer?
Bid/tender documents for use in commercial bids, Pre-bid/internal documents, Rebranding of clients’ current documents, Infographics to break down complex information into easily understandable visuals, Corporate documents – internal and external, Company profile documents, Branding and re-branding services, Branding of CVs, method statements, policies and procedure documents
Bid Review and Improve:
This requires more time, as we take your draft as our starting point. Taking ownership and managing the bid to completion, is all part of our bid review and improve service. We collect further information, complete research, check for any updated clarification questions via the portal, and re-write and develop the quality responses, and supporting evidence.
Bid Strategy, Review and Improve:
This is the same as the ‘bid review and improve’ above, but with the addition of our involvement at the start of the process. We agree with you the storyboard, structures and win themes of the bid prior to the development of the draft. This means when we get sent the draft (which will be closer to the deadline) there should be less development work required, as we are working from an agreed starting point.
Experts in Bid & Tender Writing
Writing a winning bid takes time, knowledge, and a clear understanding of what evaluators are looking for. Some businesses manage this in-house, while others rely on professional tender writers to increase their success rates.
The table below compares the two approaches to help you decide which best suits your business.
Factor | DIY Bid Writing | Professional Tender Writing |
|---|---|---|
Experience & Expertise | Limited knowledge of procurement rules and evaluation criteria. | Strong understanding of scoring, compliance, and bid structure. |
Time Commitment | Takes longer due to limited experience and resources. | Managed efficiently, freeing up internal teams. |
Win Rate | Lower success rates due to weaker responses. | Higher success rates with structured, well-evidenced bids. |
Compliance & Accuracy | Risk of missing key requirements, leading to disqualification. | Ensures full compliance, reducing the chance of rejection. |
Response Quality | May lack structure, clear messaging, and persuasive writing. | Well-written, clearly presented, and tailored to score highly. |
Use of Evidence | Often missing strong case studies, statistics, or proof of success. | Includes case studies, metrics, and testimonials to strengthen bids. |
Bid Strategy & Planning | Often rushed, reactive approach. | Planned, structured approach to improving tender success. |
Consistency Across Bids | Can vary between submissions. | Follows a structured method for strong, reliable responses. |
Cost vs Return | Lower upfront cost but may lead to wasted time and missed opportunities. | Investment in expertise can lead to more contract wins. |
Stress & Workload | Can be overwhelming, especially for small teams. | Outsourcing reduces pressure and allows focus on core business. |
Choosing the Right Approach
If your business regularly bids for contracts, professional support can help improve success rates, efficiency, and bid quality. For one-off tenders, an internal team may manage, but careful planning is needed.
Need help? Talk to our expert bid writers for tailored advice. 01204 238046 or email – hello@thorntonandlowe.com