About us

Bidbetter takes all of the confusion out of the public sector tender process and will help you win government contracts.

With an enviable success rate in winning government tenders for our clients, we tailor everything we do to meet your needs and address any lack of knowledge or resource which is preventing you from bidding for government contracts and winning.

We work both locally from our Dorset base and UK wide, with SMEs through to multi-nationals. We have won over £500 million of contracts for our clients so far.

Our core area of expertise is in the public sector marketplace; helping you approach the public sector in a more strategic way, identifying suitable opportunities, building relationships with the buyer and winning public tenders, time and time again. We can help you with any aspect of winning government contracts, be it a large ongoing project or simply reviewing your bid before you submit it.

For more information about our approach and advice on how to win government contracts, please download our free e-Book.

Bidbetter People

Philip Norman

Managing Director

Philip is a CIPS qualified, public procurement professional and bid expert. Being an ex-public procurement professional in a devolved government administration and having evaluated many government tenders himself, his expertise lies in how public bodies procure goods and services and how they evaluate contracts to award a winner.

Philip loves seeing his Bidbetter clients grow their businesses through winning sustainable government contracts.

Charlotte Norman

Marketing Director

Charlotte is an experienced graphic designer with extensive expertise in marketing, advertising and copywriting. She is also a linguist with fluency in German, Spanish, French and conversational Polish.

Previously she worked in marketing roles within two modern universities and was involved in European funded projects. She has a good understanding of the workings of UK universities and their interactions with other public bodies.

John Fernau

Consultant

John is a senior commercial leader with extensive experience of public procurement. He started his career in international development procurement and became a management consultant, advising on procurement in local and central government. He was Head of Procurement for the Olympic Delivery Authority and after the Games in 2012, became Commercial Director of the Home Office. John now helps businesses navigate public sector procurement and win government contracts.

Julian Clarke

Bid Writer

Julian is a dynamic writer and researcher with over 15 years’ experience and a proven track record in managing successful tenders, bids and research projects. He has published research in academic and policy journals and maintains a strong understanding of social and public policy. The breadth of Julian’s experience in different yet complementary areas means he is adaptable and can apply his tender writing and management expertise in new situations quickly. He is experienced in tendering for public sector contracts and winning innovation funding.

Vicki Stewart

Bid Writer

Vicki is an experienced bid and tender writer with a strong track record in winning public sector tenders across a range of industries. Whilst she is accomplished at writing bids for private sector proposals and funding opportunities, she is recognised as a specialist in the public sector and EU tendering arena. This is due to the application of the knowledge she gained during her 6 years working within the public sector as a buyer.

Dan Hayden

Bid Writer

Dan began his career in the Learning and Skills Council and Skills Funding Agency and has evaluated dozens of bids from organisations seeking public funding. He now uses this insight to help organisations access millions of pounds’ worth of new contracts. Dan has worked with suppliers and organisations, from small private training providers and community-based charities to large national companies and an international NGO. Successful bids include applications to the EU, central government departments, the Welsh Assembly Government, UK local authorities, Big Lottery Fund and private foundations.

Gemma Wall

Data Insights

Gemma supports our clients in obtaining data insights to gain market intelligence, having worked in an administrative environment for over 10 years. Working for a prestigious law firm in Dorset, Gemma worked closely with Senior Partners and Senior Management members in her role as Office Manager on various projects. Gemma brings these skills with her in her work with Bidbetter.

What our clients say

During 2014 we tendered to secure a place on a key framework to provide postal services for Central Government and Local Authorities. Knowing Bidbetter’s past experience within public sector procurement, we engaged their services to review our bid submission to ensure our responses adequately addressed all requirements. Following the bid evaluation process, we were successfully awarded a place on the framework and were delighted to achieve consistently high marks for each Lot. Bidbetter’s impartial and insightful critique proved very valuable and we rate their services highly.

Caroline Ley, Head of Tenders

We used the services of Bidbetter to aid us in bidding for public sector work more effectively and to strategically analyse our internal bid management process. We found their public sector procurement process training to be practical, easy to understand and jargon free. In addition they provided very adoptable bid management recommendations for us to implement when we next go for that all important tender. I would strongly recommend Bidbetter and the services they deliver.

Ronnie Fraser, Head of UK Education Sales

Bidbetter’s approach to strategic tender management is both incisive and practical. They have taken the time to really understand our business and have offered sensible and actionable advice which is already showing positive results.

Sophie Weate, Bid Manager

We utilised Bidbetter’s services to project manage and write the tender response for an exceptionally large collaborative Public Sector tender. In addition to this, Phil Norman, our Bidbetter consultant, provide an excellent insight in to the public sector procurement process, public sector procurement strategy and perhaps most relevantly the process of how public bodies award contracts

Tony McHardy, Sales Director

We have called upon the services of Bidbetter now for two large tenders for one of the UK’s largest public sector corporations. We have found Philip to be incredibly helpful and efficient, helping us every step of the way to completing these complex and lengthy tenders. We will continue to use Bidbetter for all our tenders.

Paul Davies, Head of Sales

Since 2013, when we first worked with Bidbetter, a small investment has assisted us in delivering over £600k worth of public sector contracts. They even introduced us to a supported specialist business advice grant, to which we were successful in obtaining. Bidbetter are extremely personable, very flexible and always encouraging. Because of this – and the obvious results they have helped us deliver- we intend to continue working with Bidbetter to ensure we retain our current public sector contracts and win new ones.

Carole Ricketts, Business Development

Latest Blog Posts

Bid Pricing: Complete Your Bid Compliantly and Successfully

With public sector tendering, pricing used to be the be all and end all, but in this era of MEAT (Most Economically Advantageous Tenders), public bodies rarely issue a tender with the pricing element accounting for over 75% of the total…

Gaining Informal Feedback from the Public Sector Buyer

After submitting your bid, you might think that you have completed the bid process, but there is an invaluable additional step which you can take to keep you one step ahead of your competitors: Gain informal buyer feedback. Informal feedback from the…

If you want to win public contracts, you will need to start considering social value

Social value has once again been on the agenda in the last few weeks, with the UK government planning to announce that businesses wanting to win public sector contracts will have to do more to help improve society. Very soon, businesses will no…

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