Chasing The Win

Before a tender is released, the shortlist is often already taking shape. In this episode of Chasing The Win, Deb speaks with Susan Mercer, Business Development Manager at ADCO Constructions, about pre-tender positioning and what it really takes to be “in the game” before probity tightens and the tender process becomes formal.

Susan breaks down why business development in construction tendering is not surface-level sales. It’s about building trusted client relationships early, understanding what matters to the client, and asking the questions that uncover real priorities, risk concerns, and what’s keeping stakeholders awake at night.

She also unpacks why your first interaction is a preview of delivery, and why introducing the right delivery team early can be a competitive advantage. When capability is similar across contractors, culture fit, communication style, and the personalities a client will work with for the next one to three years can be the deciding factor in winning tenders.

If you’re trying to improve your pursuit strategy, strengthen your bid and tender pipeline, and stop wasting time on opportunities that were never real, this conversation is a practical guide. You’ll hear how to share pursuit intelligence with bid teams, shape the opportunity before the tender drops, and make smarter bid/no-bid decisions in a competitive market.

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Introduction

01:37 Trust and values alignment with clients

03:00 Introducing delivery teams early

06:17 Why relationships beat open tenders

08:47 Client fit personalities and culture

10:10 Building consultant trade partner trust

12:15 Reliability over cheapest price

14:23 Shaping the opportunity before probity

18:11 Guardrails for client-safe innovation

21:51 Ask better questions avoid assumptions

22:42 When to walk away bid no-bid

26:25 Breaking into new markets

27:42 Seven touchpoints to build trust

30:39 The thrill of the chase in pursuit

Connect with Susan Mercer

Linkedin: https://au.linkedin.com/in/susan-mercer-gaicd-1366bb2a

Connect with Deb at Tender Plus

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

If your bid process always turns into a scramble in the final week, you don’t have a “busy team” problem. You have a timing problem. In this episode, I sit down with Tania Field from Tender Plus about shifting left in tendering and bid management, and why moving key work earlier is one of the fastest ways to reduce stress and lift submission quality.

We take a look at why the end of a tender gets so ugly, with mandatory criteria, forms, CVs, org charts, commercial and legal input, and approvals all landing at once while the team is still trying to write, review, and polish the proposal. Shifting left is a practical bid planning approach that spreads the load across the timeline so the final stretch becomes a controlled finish, not a rescue mission.

Tania explains what shifting left actually looks like in a real bid environment, including pulling forward the parts of a submission that don’t need to live in the last week. We talk compliance and governance, early drafts, baseline checks, and the decision points that create bottlenecks when they’re left too late. The key idea is simple: decisions are the real deadline, not submission.

We also get into the human side of bids, because stakeholder alignment matters more than a perfect Gantt chart. When teams have context early, they collaborate better, make stronger judgement calls, and stop changing things out of nerves at the eleventh hour. If you work in tendering, proposals, submissions, or bid leadership, this is a practical framework you can apply on your next bid straight away.

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Introduction

03:06 What Shift Left Means

03:46 Resourcing Reality Check

05:38 Early Wins in Writing

06:47 CVs and Org Charts Early

10:48 Preplanning Roles and Timeline

13:14 Burnout and Sustainability

14:45 Reprioritising Team Workload

17:42 Hold the Line on Decisions

19:03 Ringfencing Unblockable Items

20:20 Strategic Reviewer Timing

22:42 Ending Long Hours Culture

25:00 Governance and Approvals

Connect with Deb at Tender Plus

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

In this episode, I’m joined by David Harding, a senior executive and board leader with deep experience across infrastructure, construction, energy, transport and public policy, to unpack strategy and leadership lessons from the Sydney Metro Martin Place integrated station development. We go back to the Macquarie Group unsolicited proposal and why the work that wins major projects rarely starts with clever bid writing. It starts with outcomes, and making sure every stakeholder can see themselves in the story.

David explains why a strategy without a north star is aimless, and why complex pursuits usually need multiple north stars that can be quantified and described in language different audiences actually believe. We talk about how to frame direct, indirect and amplified benefit, and why unsolicited proposals work when they unlock outcomes government can’t easily connect through silos, budgets, or existing strategies. The goal is bigger than compliance. It’s creating human outcomes that improve a city, not just a project that looks good on paper.

We also discuss the Powerhouse Museum Parramatta and what it looks like to stay outcome-led through an international competition, from early concept work in a small office to a cultural asset that can represent Western Sydney to the world. Along the way, David makes the case that tendering is storytelling, not paperwork, because bids are often won on trust, capability, capacity, and the client’s confidence that the team can deliver safely and well.

Finally, we get into leadership and delivery, including what David took from nearly nine years in the Royal Navy: clear aims, empowerment, training, and putting the right people in the right roles with the right tools and ethics. We also cover modern construction methods, productivity, and why change needs to be introduced carefully so small business and industry capability comes with it. If you work in tendering, strategic pursuits, infrastructure bids, or major project leadership, this one will give you a sharper way to think about outcomes, strategy, and the story that makes a proposal land.

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Introduction

03:37 Outcomes First Strategy

06:29 Global First Metro Hub

08:29 Amplified Benefits Framework

11:00 Powerhouse Museum Parramatta Bid

15:41 Storytelling Wins Tenders

17:28 Royal Navy Leadership

21:28 Translation Across Sectors

23:17 Modern Construction Methods

27:18 What Excites Him Next

Connect with David

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-harding-a8b90320/

Website:

Connect with Deb at Tender Plus

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

Building a career in bids and proposals is a funny mix of chaos, challenge, intrigue, pride and growth. In this episode, I’m joined by Tania Field, Principal Pursuit Strategist and Submission Manager from our Sydney office, and also the Chair of the APMP ANZ Chapter, to shine a light on what proposal management professionals actually do, and why the work is far more skilled than most organisations realise. If you work in tendering, bid management, submissions, or proposals, you’ll recognise the pace, the pressure, and the constant need to keep people aligned while the deadline keeps marching.

Tania shares how she fell into the profession through a secondment into a proposal coordination role on a major joint venture for Central Place Sydney, an unsolicited proposal worth around $3 billion. We talk about why so many people “accidentally” end up in proposal management and what changes when you decide to build an intentional career path in bids, including training, certification, and finding the part of the craft you want to be known for.

We also take a look at the real proposal manager skillset, from stakeholder management and project management to communication, problem solving and empathy in high-pressure bid environments. Tania explains why not everyone wants to be a bid strategist, and why the profession needs people with different strengths from across the end-to-end process. If you’re leading tenders or managing submissions, this is the kind of conversation that helps you understand where your “superpower” fits.

Finally, we get into what’s emerging across the profession right now, including AI in bids and proposals, the future of work and what technology might free proposal teams up to do next. We also talk about ambiguity, flexibility and why command-and-control leadership can become a bottleneck in a bid room. If you’ve ever felt the stress of major submissions, hybrid bid teams, or the quiet gap between tenders, you’ll take something practical from this one.

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Introduction

00:38 Falling Into Proposals

01:09 Big Bid Origin Story

03:23 Core Skillset

04:30 Strategy Isn’t Everything

06:14 Soft Skills That Matter

08:20 Command Control vs Flex

10:19 Conference Future Themes

14:54 Pride and Advocacy

16:10 Surprises and Stress

Connect with Tania

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tania-field/

Website:

Connect with Deb at Tender Plus

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

Building an intentional career in tendering and bid management is rarely something people plan. Most submission professionals fall into it, then realise they’ve built a whole identity around deadlines, stakeholder management, and staying calm while everything shifts. In this episode of Chasing the Win, I’m joined by Veronica Simeoni, a strategic pursuits and submissions leader with close to three decades across water, transport, civil infrastructure and building.

We talk about what actually keeps people in this profession for the long haul and Veronica keeps coming back to curiosity. Not as a nice trait, but as a practical advantage in tendering, because the subject matter changes constantly and the best bid teams keep learning. If you work in infrastructure bids, you’ll recognise that feeling of seeing a project come out of the ground and knowing you helped win it.

We also get into what separates competent bid writing from exceptional submissions management. Veronica is blunt about the real skill being maturity with people, especially when you’re coordinating SMEs, managing review gates and adapting without drama when the goalposts move. We cover bid planning, capture management, Bronze Silver Gold reviews, and why tendering needs to be treated like a project with milestones and a critical path, not an emergency.

Finally, we talk about culture, leadership, and the future of bids. From setting expectations early on major pursuits to choosing the right bid manager, and even the basics of creating a functional bid environment that respects the team. We also unpack AI in tendering, including why AI tools are powerful for information retrieval and content libraries, but still need human judgement, empathy, and value proposition thinking to win work.

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Introduction

04:03 Skills of Great Tenderers

06:40 Calm in the Chaos

08:01 MBA Research Findings

09:42 Making Tendering a Career

11:30 Treat Bids Like Projects

13:34 Collaboration and Leadership

15:51 Respect the Bid Team

18:02 AI in Bid Management

21:56 Advice for Newcomers

Connect with Veronica

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-simeoni-bb466560/

Connect with Deb at Tender Plus

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

Pre-contracts strategy is the part of tendering most teams say they do, but few teams actually run properly. It’s the thinking and shaping that happens before the bid machine kicks in, when you still have choices, influence, and time to reduce risk. In this episode, I’m joined by Richard Cowley, Fulton Hogan’s 30-year tendering veteran, to talk about what strong pre-contracts strategy looks like in the real world, what gets missed when teams leave it too late, and why this stage is often the difference between a bid that reads well and a bid that wins.

Richard leads the pre-contracts team for Fulton Hogan’s northern region across Queensland, the Northern Territory and WA, and he’s spent nearly three decades in and around tendering across client, consulting and contractor roles. He’s blunt about the shift in the market, especially how probity has changed early engagement in the public sector, and why that makes it harder to get the insight you need to build a real strategy. If you’re chasing bids without that context, you can still burn the time and money, but you’re doing it with one hand tied behind your back.

We also get into the disconnect between clients and contractors, and how often both sides underestimate what the other is dealing with. Richard shares examples that explain why “small” changes can ripple through pricing, risk and approvals, and why project realities can be shaped by politics, governance and pressures you’ll never see from the outside. The takeaway is simple: if we want better outcomes, we need to get better at communicating the work, not just doing it.

From there we talk partnering and delivery, because pre-contract decisions don’t stop at submission. Richard breaks down why partner selection is make-or-break on large pursuits, why culture and behaviours matter more than a shiny capability list, and why your delivery performance can undo even the best tender strategy. We finish on the human side too: kindness, context, and the personal traits that actually hold up over the long game of tendering.

CHAPTER MARKERS (AUDIO VERSION)

00:00 Pre-Contracts Strategy Intro

02:33 Win Tenders With Pre-Contracts

02:58 Probity Rules Client Engagement

04:47 Tender Cost Client Disconnect

07:09 Competitive Edge In Tendering

07:58 Lessons Learned Bid Culture

10:27 Trust In Bid Teams

12:37 Contracts Vs Delivery Behaviours

15:15 Tender Pipeline Productivity

18:20 Deadline Risk In Major Tenders

20:17 Delivery Performance Wins Work

22:27 Align Tender And Operations

25:28 Joint Venture Partner Selection

31:19 Worthy Rivals Tender Mindset

32:33 Early Pipeline For Tenders

37:12 Bid No Bid Strategy

39:51 Stakeholder Alignment Pre-Contracts

Connect with Richard

Linkedin: au.linkedin.com/in/richardcowleyaustralia

Website: https://www.fultonhogan.com/

Connect with Deb at Tender Plus

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

If your bronze review feels thin, your silver feels rushed and your gold feels like a panic, it might not be your team. It might be the way you’re timing your bronze, silver, gold reviews.

In this episode, we’re breaking down the “bronze, silver, gold” tender review framework and what each stage is actually for. Bronze is structure and compliance. Silver is where the solution becomes readable and the features become clear. Gold is where you sharpen the story and make the benefits obvious.

We’ll walk through how to apply the framework across three common tender timeframes: 16 to 18 week bids, nine week tenders and the fast two to six week bids. You’ll hear why bronze should be pushed later on long bids and why on short bids the submission manager often needs to do bronze themselves by blueprinting the document and setting compliance expectations.

If you want a tender review process that creates clarity instead of chaos, this is the mindset shift. Match the review checkpoints to the time you actually have and you give your team a real chance of ending up on the podium.

CHAPTER MARKERS (AUDIO VERSION)

00:00 Introduction

01:26 Long Bid Bronze Timing

02:52 Silver Review Expectations

03:41 Gold Review Benefits

04:58 Nine Week Bid Setup

05:57 Two to Six Week Bids

07:27 Key Takeaways Wrap Up

07:51 Final Podium Mindset

LINKS:

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

Two teams can buy the same AI tool and get totally different results. One gets faster and sharper. The other ends up with more noise, more rework, and generic words that do not sound like them. When I spoke with April Shields, Head of Submissions at Built, she made it clear why. AI adoption in bid teams is not a software problem. It is a leadership and governance problem.

April shares how she was told to “go and get AI” and why she refused to start with features. She started with the real problem: how do you equip a flat-out team to deliver fewer bids that are far more complex and far higher impact? That shift changes everything, including what “success” even looks like.

We talk about what makes AI genuinely useful in a bid environment, including tools that link safely to your libraries so you can find and pull together relevant content fast. But the bigger win is what you do with the time you get back: more judgement, more time with SMEs, and better strategic decisions.

And we get blunt about quality and risk. Garbage in, garbage out still applies, and governance is what stops AI turning into sludge. April also raises the long-term question the industry cannot dodge: if AI takes the junior work, how do we train the next generation of bid leaders?

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Meet April Shields and Built

01:41 Why AI adoption varies in bid teams

02:44 Define the real AI problem to solve

04:33 The content search time sink

05:14 Team trial and adoption buy in

07:08 Garbage in garbage out and libraries

08:50 Judgement over automation in bids

10:20 AI and better SME collaboration

13:32 AI governance and rules of use

14:42 Tone of voice and quality control

15:58 Asking better why questions

16:25 Getting senior stakeholder buy in

16:37 Training junior bid writers with AI

18:33 Clarity under bid pressure

19:51 Better SME conversations and strategy

22:01 From blank page to first draft

23:34 Predictable leadership cuts rework

25:03 Culture and behaviours before tools

27:42 Governing AI long term in tendering

29:10 The human edge in competitive bids

30:05 Closing thoughts and thanks

April Shields - https://au.linkedin.com/in/april-shields-9aa22434

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

In the tendering world, time is our most precious resource. Yet, there is a pervasive culture that treats sleeplessness, late-night bid submissions, and running on pure caffeine as a status symbol. In this episode, Deborah challenges a long-standing industry norm and explains why treating long hours in tendering like a badge of honour is not a sign of commitment; it is a major operational red flag.

Stretching your bid team into 18-hour days does not produce better work. In high-stakes tender submissions, extreme fatigue triggers a law of diminishing returns, resulting in a drop in quality that can easily cost you the win.

Chronic overwork is a diagnostic symptom of a deeper problem. Persistent late nights point directly to structural issues within a business: internal bottlenecks, poor resource management, onerous governance, or a failure to respect the bidding process. If a company wouldn't run its core operations in a constant state of emergency, it shouldn't allow its tender management and proposal teams to operate that way either.

This is a vital conversation for anyone involved in competitive bidding, whether you are a bid manager, tender coordinator, proposal writer, graphic designer, or executive stakeholder. Winning work requires strategic clarity, sharp decision-making, and care. None of which can be delivered by an exhausted mind. It’s time to stop rewarding the martyrdom of the all-nighter, respect the craft, and build a framework that allows your team to win well-rested.

CHAPTER MARKERS

0:00 - The "Long Hours as a Badge of Honour" Club

0:50 - Sleeping Under Desks: A True PPP Tender Story

1:25 - Why Burnout Culture is Ruining the Tendering Industry

1:52 - The Law of Diminishing Returns in Bid Management

2:25 - How Exhaustion Lowers Your Tender Submission Quality

2:48 - Why Long Hours in Tendering Are an Operational Red Flag

3:27 - Diagnosing Bottlenecks, Poor Resourcing, and Broken Governance

3:53 - Choosing Strategy Over Exhaustion: How to Win Rested

LINKS:

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

In this episode of Chasing the Win, Deborah from Tender Plus speaks with Carla Garvie, Commercial Director (Australia and New Zealand) at Alstom, about what actually creates an edge in high-stakes bids. If you work in tendering, major projects, government procurement, or competitive bids, this is a practical look at how winning teams think and lead when the pressure is on.

We discuss why major tenders are won or lost early, often before the submission is even drafted. Carla shares what preparation really means in bid management, including getting the right people in the room, creating role clarity, and aligning the team on what “good” looks like. If you are a bid manager, tender manager, proposal manager, or part of a pursuit team, you will recognise how quickly assumptions and unclear roles can derail a tender response.

Carla also explains why communication is a system. We talk about the discipline of capturing information, running regular reviews, and keeping submission work, governance, and interactives aligned. Interactives are now a major part of many tender evaluations, and the teams need to use them to test solutions and build trust and collaboration.

Finally, we take a look at what “data-driven tendering” actually looks like in major bids. From pricing risk and departures, to modelling lifecycle cost, reliability and availability, data analytics shifts a tender from intuition to evidence. If you want to improve your approach to tendering this conversation is one to listen to.

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Introduction to major tenders and tendering strategy

01:21 Carla Garvie career journey in rail and mobility

02:08 Early tender strategy and role clarity

04:23 Left shifting and pre tender preparation

05:30 Aligning submission, governance and interactives

07:06 Strategy before win themes

09:13 Data driven bidding and tender analytics

12:41 Leading diverse bid teams

14:50 Keeping the bid on strategy

18:39 Transport sector tender challenges

21:34 Winning tender interactives

23:33 Leadership under pressure in major tenders

24:49 Mentoring and wrap up

LINKS:

Carla Garvie LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/carla-garvie-12896533/

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/