... And the Moral of These Stories?

• Follow the client's instructions. If you choose to do something different, you have to justify it convincingly.

• Keep bids direct and to the point. The right choice of style will strengthen your image as the right source of professional advice.

• Apply a structured approach to managing the development of the bid. Remember, in asking you to prepare a bid the client is setting you a test: the quality of your response will be seen as a proxy for your performance of the work.

• Don't feed clients data they have already. It's your ideas and your insights that are important.

• Recognize that the client sees your work as part of a process to be translated into action, not as an end product in itself.

• Don't commit yourself to an unrealistic work plan or lead the client to expect results you cannot deliver. Show you have thought the programme and its challenges through.

• Put energy and enthusiasm into your writing. The contract is important to the client and it has to be seen as important to you.

• Keep a close eye on quality all the way through the development and writing of the bid.

• Understand what the client values. Make this a strong feature of your bid. Add value by offering more.

• In competitions for service contracts and consultancy there is seldom a second prize. The winner usually takes all. To write a winning tender it is not enough just to be the best value for money: you have to demonstrate your value throughout the bid and communicate it to the client emphatically and irresistibly.