ExpertiseBid and Tender Management
Fueling growth through strategic bid management
Tenders are becoming a decisive growth driver in many industries. For numerous organisations, just a few flagship bids can determine success for years to come. These bids follow strict, formalised procedures that require a targeted sales and procurement strategy. In the public sector alone, services worth hundreds of billions of euros are tendered every year.
Tenders are growing in scale and complexity. Winning profitably depends on the quality of the bid process, both internally and within consortia, as well as at every explicit and implicit customer interface.
Strategic bid management excellence means creating a seamless, customer-oriented synthesis: breaking down internal silos, aligning stakeholders at the right time, and keeping information and decisions tightly synchronised. The result is a bid that is compelling, competitive, and economically sound.
Successful participation in major tenders requires a deep understanding of both the formal tendering frameworks and the bidder’s internal structures. Strategic positioning during bid preparation and negotiations is critical to reflect the tendering organisation’s priorities and maximise the chances of success.
We support companies across the entire tendering/ bid process — public or private — including:
- Market analysis and strategic positioning
- Consortium and stakeholder alignment
- Costing and commercial modelling
- Bid preparation and negotiation support
- Management of entire multi-billion tender processes
Fortlane Partners brings extensive experience in managing complex bids and building high-performing bid organisations. Our track record: over 40 successful private and public tenders, total volume exceeding € 40 billion, with an unbeaten success rate.
Bid Management requires synchronization of four key elements
A) Strategy, Market and Stakeholder
- Clear and client-ready bid narrative aligned with customer needs
- Robust market, competitor, and stakeholder intelligence
- Strategic negotiation skills and consistent external communication
B) Project Management
- Strong governance with clear ownership and responsibilities
- Reliable tracking and transparent reporting across all streams
- Continuous alignment, feedback, and improvement
C) Concepts & Documents
- Seamless synthesis of all inputs into a consistent, persuasive, customer-oriented proposal
- High-quality, accurate, and technically relevant documents as foundation for credibility
- Commercial documents that clearly articulate value, differentiation, and client benefits
D) Financial Modeling, Calculation & Pricing
- Transparent, dynamic and integrated business case quantification with clear KPI
- Rigorous evaluation of risks, opportunities, and sensitivities
- Pricing strategies optimised for competitiveness
Strategic Bid Management means continuous synthesis of information – iteratively connect and alternate between the big picture and in-depth details across the board
Challenges
- Know the market and your competitive position to be ahead of the game
- Understand the customer’s needs and the (hidden) agendas of (hidden) stakeholders
- Develop a compelling value proposition – and ensure that stakeholders acknowledge and value it
- Communicate effectively and consistently
Our approach & solutions
Market & competitor analysis, SWOT analysis, Stakeholder analysis
USPs, Bid/sales strategy, Communication strategy
White papers & media coverage, Events, Stakeholder lobbying
Challenges
- Track the different workstreams in the light of the sales and bid strategy
- Align all stakeholders (machine room and captain’s deck) and bridge between organizational silos
- Ensure entrepreneurial spirit in the bid proposal generation process (bids take months!)
- Avoid a risk-only or sales-only mindset
Our approach & solutions
Host and prepare regular alignment meetings with
internal project lead
Regularly follow up with crucial stakeholders in one-on-ones
Host “risk and upside work-shops” to sharpen the mindset for the known unknown
Challenge internal calculations, approaches and concepts
Systematically synchronize with relevant internal sales people
Challenges
- Technical: Compliance matrix, tech. concepts, tech. requirements, time schedule etc.
- Contractual and commercial: Obligations, business model, pricing, guarantees, payment, termination etc.
- Political and communicative: Non-explicitly stated conditions etc.
Our approach & solutions
Structure and content-oriented analysis of requirements
Review of expert inputs regarding overlaps, language (not a triviality), and customer orientation
Generation of a summary per document, and an overall Executive Summary
Steering and checking of process
Iterativ process to develop the concepts and documents
Challenges
- Generate an overall financial project perspective without losing granularity
- Ensure consistency between inputs
- Direct coupling with the customer’s price formation sheet and the award conditions
- Dynamic balancing of the valuation price
Our approach & solutions
Like with M&A deals: large bids are complex and require a dynamic & integrated financial model – for the bid phase and beyond
Our approachesWays to collaborate
As being embedded part of the sales team
Potential support depth
- Provide interim bid leadership to run strategic bids end-to-end or
- Embed an A-team to co-lead and steer the bid organization or
- Modularly workstream support for selected bids
Create scalable strategies and structures
Potential support depth
- Directional reorganization of the sales/ bid management organization or
- Redesign end-to-end processes and interfaces to remove handoffs and rework or
- Improve selected steering interfaces and capabilities
Start with hands-on support on a live bid to deliver results, then derive organizational enablement for lasting impact.
We combine deep expertise across industries, bids, and organizational scales
Infrastructure & Construction | Mobility & Transportation | Energy | Industrials | Defense | TMT | Information Technology
Experience across bids from €2m entry-level projects to multi-billion euro contracts of up to €12bn
Deep insights into market trends and procurement strategies through a strong industry network
>40bn in successfully won bid volume | 99% win rate | >20 organizations transformed
Focus on DACH market | Broad European project experience | Proven international project track record
Public Tenders | Private Sector Contracts | International Consortias | Special Purpose Vehicles
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"In high-stakes tenders, our strategic bid management approach has always paid off for our clients."
Dr. Christian Wältermann, Managing Director at Fortlane Partners
Client StorYWinning 3 out of 3 lots in Germany’s fast-charging tender
In 2021, the German government announced Europe‘s largest tender for the installation and operation of high-power charging (HPC) infrastructure (‘Deutschlandnetz’) in Europe.
Key achievements for our client:
- Awarding of 3 out of 3 possible lots in the Deutschlandnetz regional tender to the client
- Installation and operation of >100 charging hubs and approx. 1,000 charge points (>300kW each)
- Long-term multibillion value for our client
Client StorYSustainable strengthening of the bid management setup
The client is a globally leading manufacturer of rolling stock and provider of rail technology services, developing and producing trains as well as delivering comprehensive service and maintenance solutions.
Key achievements for our client:
- Sustainable strengthening of the organization as a foundation for winning profitable bids more efficiently
- Establishment of a robust end-to-end bid proces with clearly defined responsibilities
- Introduction of best-in-class tools (e. g. integrated costing tool) enabling synthesis, optimization and steering of all core bid elements
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