Another selection questionnaire, due Thursday
A client's selection questionnaire arrives through a procurement portal: company details, turnover, insurances, accreditations, quality and environmental arrangements, equality and modern slavery statements, three relevant projects with client references, and a dozen scored questions. Your bid coordinator finds the last submission that looked similar, copies what she can and asks four people for updates. The insurance certificate in the old submission expired. One of the project examples was for a client who has since become a competitor.
Much of the next two days goes on answering questions you have answered before.
Why every questionnaire starts from scratch
Questionnaires look different enough that copying the last one never quite works. Portals want answers pasted into boxes with word limits. The master content, if there is any, is a Word document nobody has updated. So each submission becomes a new version, and the best answers are scattered across old ones.
- Answers live in past submissions rather than one approved source.
- Certificates, turnover and insurance figures date quickly.
- Project examples are rewritten each time for a different word limit.
- Policies and statements are attached in whatever version is to hand.
- Nobody knows which version of an answer scored well.
What retyping costs
Bid time goes on admin, leaving less for the scored questions that decide the result. Errors creep in: out-of-date certificates, wrong figures, inconsistent answers between submissions. Rushed submissions miss the pass mark on questions you should have passed. And some opportunities are not bid at all because the team cannot face another questionnaire.
The answer library we build
- Your approved content is gathered into one library: company details, financial figures, insurances, accreditations such as Constructionline or ISO certificates, policies, and project examples with client, value, dates and references.
- Each item has an owner and an expiry or review date. Expired items are flagged and owners are reminded.
- Project examples are written once in full and tagged by sector, value and type, with shorter versions for common word limits.
- When a new questionnaire arrives, its questions are read from the document or portal export and matched to library content.
- A draft is produced with each answer filled from the library, and anything unmatched is left clearly for the bid team.
- The bid coordinator edits and checks everything before submission. Edits can be saved back as improved library content.
- Scores and feedback, where the client gives them, are recorded against the answers used.
| Question type | Library content | Bid team's job |
|---|---|---|
| Company details and finance | Current approved figures | Check |
| Insurances and accreditations | Current certificates and expiry | Check nothing has lapsed |
| Policies and statements | Latest approved versions | Attach |
| Project examples | Tagged examples, several lengths | Choose the best fit |
| Scored method questions | Past answers as a starting point | Write for this client |
Drafts are only a starting point for the scored questions. The bid team writes to the client's specific requirements; nothing is submitted without a person checking it.
Bid time spent on what scores
Standard answers take minutes instead of days, and they are current. Certificates and figures are the latest approved versions. Project examples are consistent across submissions. The bid team spends its time on the scored questions for this client. And over time you learn which answers score, because feedback is kept against them.
Is this your PQQ process?
- Each questionnaire starts from the last similar submission.
- Expired certificates have gone into submissions.
- Project examples are rewritten every time.
- The bid team asks the same people for the same updates repeatedly.
- You have skipped opportunities because of questionnaire workload.