We think all documents should be tender. Easy to digest. Engaging and evocative.

But they’re often dense and likely to result in a migraine or an inflamed gut.

Yes, life can be made difficult by page limits, but that creates an editing challenge and the ruthless elimination of repetition and fluff.

For many companies, especially in the infrastructure and construction sectors, the quality of tender documents is critical, and the bigger projects require something special.

Creative thinking and design are two important tools that bid teams can use to produce documents and package tenders that cut through to connect, engage and influence.

The starting point to creating any winning tender is addressing these issues up front:

• Defining the role of the brand

• Deciding how the tender will be positioned relative to the competition

• Creating a winning theme

• Developing a strategy for responding to key points in the RFP.

Once the foundation is laid, design comes into its own – clean page layouts, a clear hierarchy of information on each page, generous use of headings and subheadings and the use of images and graphics to support the content.

And if the bid is from a joint venture, this is another important design consideration that needs to be factored into the mix.

Speaking of joint ventures, we produced the Ghella Abergeldie JV tender submission that won the Watercare $1 billion, Central Interceptor project.

It truly was a pitch perfect process, which included developing a brand, because the JV didn’t exist as a living, breathing entity when the tender process commenced. Then we designed, typeset, produced and packaged the tender documents and presentations.

We like to think that our contribution played a part in the Ghella Abergeldie JV win.