How to win more bids by demonstrating social value
Price and quality used to decide who won a tender. Increasingly, social value decides it too.
Photo: Give Industries
Cost and quality used to be the only thing that decided who won a tender. Increasingly, social value decides it too.
Australian government agencies and corporate procurement teams are building social outcomes into their tender criteria: local jobs, community benefit, environmental impact, and support for certified social enterprises.
Every state and territory now incorporates some form of social value into tender evaluation and the weighting given to social outcomes is increasing every year. Some tenders place as high as 30% on social value evaluation weighting. This means social value isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a scored component of your tender that could make or break your bid.
Businesses that can really prove they deliver on these measures score well against the criteria set will stand out above the rest.
The numbers back this up. Spend with social suppliers like certified social enterprises hit $304 million in FY25 the highest single-year total, up 18% on the year before. The cumulative total in the last eight years is now more than $1.4 billion and has supported:
- 13,383 employment outcomes,
- 1 million training hours,
- 68,050 tonnes of waste diverted from landfill,
- $103 million in accessible community goods/services delivered, and
- $16.8 million funds donated to charitable causes.
Buyers are actively looking for suppliers who can show real social outcomes, not just how they might do it.
For businesses bidding on tenders, that's an opportunity. A well evidenced social value approach can be the difference between a good bid and a winning one.
Here's how to build one.
1. Build the foundations
Get the foundations right and everything else about presenting your business to bidders gets easier.
- Create a genuine social value culture in your business
- Establish a social value strategy and policy
- Understand how to measure and deliver
- Build a track record
Embed social value across your organisation, from leadership down, so your whole team understands why it matters and gets behind it. Businesses with a clear strategy, and a solid grasp of what to measure and how to deliver it, are better placed to win tenders. Writing the bid gets faster too, because the data and the story are already in place.
Keep your credentials, accreditations and any certified social enterprise partnerships current, so they're ready to go into a bid at short notice.
Impact Practice
2. Understand the ask
Research wins bids. Study the client's economic, community and environmental priorities so your submission fits their needs and reflects their values.
- Gather information about the client
- Analyse the tender requirements
- Identify the evaluation criteria
- Know your competition
Read the tender documents carefully. Look for requirements around delivery plan questions, timelines, prescriptive themes, measures and targets, locations, and contract value and duration. Everything you include should be directly relevant to the opportunity in front of you.
Start with the scoring matrix and the weighting the client will use to assess submissions. Then build your story around that and make sure you can demonstrate how you can deliver on every promise.
Understanding your competitors, and how you differ from them, helps your bid stand out from the crowd.
Computers 4 You
3. Plan well
Clients look for a well organised plan that stands out. Structure your social value initiatives against the measures set out in the tender, or against a recognised social value framework if none are specified.
- Structure the submission
- Articulate delivery clearly
- Identify partners
- Detail remedial action
Cut anything vague or irrelevant so your delivery plan reads clearly. Set out who's responsible, how you'll capture social value data, how you'll report on it, and the dates and locations involved.
Think about who can help you deliver, including certified social enterprises or local partners, and be clear about why they're the right fit and how you'll work with them. Outline the remedial action you'll take if delivery doesn't go to plan. Start early too: register and complete your submission at least five days before the deadline.
4. Set relevant targets
Check exactly what the question is asking and make sure the targets you set are relevant to the contract and achievable for your business.
- Set relevant, achievable targets
- Follow the guidance for each measure
- Adhere to the core principles of social value
- Use the right units of measure
Local benefit is often central to what a tender is assessing, so understand the community's needs and how you can positively impact them, before you commit to a number.
Make sure your targets meet the core principles of social value: attributable to the scope of the contract, over and above your core business as usual activity, realistic to deliver, and free of double counting.
Check the exact unit each measure asks for. If a question asks for hours spent on training, answer in hours, not a headcount or a dollar figure.
5. Prove you can deliver
Build the client's confidence. Show your commitment to delivering economic, community and environmental benefits where they matter most: in the local community.
- Show confidence in your targets
- Justify your metrics
- Outline delivery initiatives
- Highlight your track record
Set out your social value proposition in detail, including how it aligns with the client's own goals. Show how you calculated each target, including the baseline you worked from, so the client can see the number is real.
Where outcomes have been validated by a third party, say so, as it’s a meaningful distinction from self-reported figures.
Name the initiatives you'll run and the people who'll deliver them. Wherever you can, back this up with experience, case studies, and the impact your business has already had in the community.
Resilient Ready
6. Show you are a pro
The quality of your presentation signals your understanding of the brief and gives the client confidence you know what you're doing.
- Present a professional bid
- Use straightforward language
- Be innovative
Bids should be well written and free from errors. Consistent formatting, clear headings, and a document brought to life with images and testimonials all help your message land.
Cut jargon and acronyms that not every reader will understand and keep the text succinct. Look for genuine ways to stand out from your competitors. And whatever the outcome, use the experience to improve your next bid.
Strengthen your bids with our support
We help organisations turn social performance into a competitive advantage. We remove complexity and make it easier for you to deliver, measure and report on the social impact your business have on your people, customers, suppliers and community.
If you're preparing your next tender and need support to show the social value your business can create and how to measure the outcomes, talk to us.
We can strengthen your bid and help you deliver on it.