Should You Hire a Bid Writer or Do It In-House? Here's What Actually Works

The question I get asked more than any other

A managing director sat across from me last month and said something I hear almost every week: 'Richmond, we've been writing our own bids for three years and we keep coming second. Should we just hire someone?'

It's the right question. And the honest answer is: it depends.

I know that's not the definitive 'hire us immediately' answer you might expect from a bid consultancy. But I've seen enough businesses waste money on bid writers they didn't need. and equally, I've watched brilliant companies lose life-changing contracts because they insisted on doing everything themselves.

So let me give you the real picture.

When doing it in-house makes perfect sense

If you're bidding for straightforward, low-value contracts where you have a strong existing relationship with the buyer, keeping it in-house can absolutely work. Especially if:

• You have someone in your team who genuinely enjoys writing (and is good at it)
• The tender is relatively simple. say, a standard PQQ with predictable questions
• You've won similar contracts before and have strong case studies ready to go
• The contract value doesn't justify the investment in external support

There's nothing wrong with writing your own bids. In fact, nobody knows your business better than you do. The challenge isn't knowledge. it's translating what you know into the specific language that evaluators need to see.

Where it starts to fall apart

Here's what typically happens with in-house bids. And I'm not being critical. this is genuinely the pattern we see across hundreds of clients:

The bid lands on a senior person's desk. They're already busy running the business. They start the response two weeks before the deadline, realise it's more complex than expected, and end up writing frantically over a weekend. The final submission is technically accurate but reads like an internal report rather than a persuasive, evaluator-focused response.

They score 55 out of 100 on quality. The winner scored 85.

The gap isn't knowledge. It's structure, strategy, and knowing exactly what evaluators are looking for.

The real cost of 'coming second'

This is the bit that most businesses don't calculate properly. Let's say you're bidding for a £2M contract. You spend three weeks of senior time preparing the bid internally. that's easily £15,000-£20,000 in opportunity cost when you factor in the work that didn't get done.

You come second. The contract goes to a competitor. You've spent £20,000 in hidden costs and won nothing.

A professional bid writer for that same contract might cost £5,000-£8,000. If they help you win, you've secured £2M in revenue. If they don't win it (which happens. nobody wins everything), you've at least had a properly structured submission that you can build on next time.

The maths usually speaks for itself.

What a good bid writer actually does (that you probably can't)

I don't say this to be patronising. But there are specific skills that professional bid writers develop over thousands of submissions that are genuinely hard to replicate in-house:

• Reading evaluation criteria backwards. We start with how the bid will be scored and work backwards to structure the answer. Most in-house writers start with 'what do we do?' and hope the evaluator finds the relevant bits.

• Writing to score, not to inform. There's a fundamental difference between explaining your service and writing a response that maximises marks against specific scoring criteria. Every sentence needs to earn points.

• Knowing what 'good' looks like across industries. When you've written bids for NHS trusts, MOD contracts, local authority frameworks, and construction tenders, you develop an instinct for what works. That pattern recognition is almost impossible to build if you're only bidding a few times a year.

• Being ruthlessly objective. It's hard to critically assess your own company's strengths and weaknesses. An external bid writer can spot the gaps. and more importantly, the strengths you're not selling hard enough.

The hybrid approach (what most smart businesses actually do)

The clients who get the best results from us aren't the ones who hand everything over and disappear. They're the ones who stay involved.

Here's what a good working relationship looks like:

• You provide the technical knowledge, case studies, and subject matter expertise
• We structure the response, develop win themes, write to the evaluation criteria, and manage the submission process
• Together we review, refine, and submit something that's genuinely the best version of your capability

This hybrid approach works because it combines your deep business knowledge with our bid writing expertise. Neither side could produce as strong a result alone.

When you absolutely should get professional help

There are certain situations where going it alone is a genuine risk:

• High-value frameworks (Pagabo, G-Cloud, CCS) where getting on the framework unlocks years of revenue
• Your first major public sector bid. the procurement process has specific compliance requirements that catch newcomers out
• When you keep losing. if you've submitted five or more bids and haven't won, something structural needs to change
• Tight deadlines. if you've got less than two weeks and the ITT is complex, trying to do it internally is a gamble
• NHS and MOD contracts. these have particularly rigid evaluation frameworks where specialist knowledge makes a measurable difference

A word on choosing the right bid writer

Not all bid writers are equal. Some are brilliant. Some are generalists who'll produce adequate copy but won't transform your win rate. Here's what to look for:

• Ask for their success rate. If they won't tell you, that tells you everything. Ours is 93%. and we're happy to evidence it.
• Ask for sector experience. A bid writer who's won NHS contracts understands clinical governance language. One who's won construction frameworks knows RIDDOR reporting. Sector knowledge matters enormously.
• Check they'll work with you, not just for you. The best outcomes come from collaboration, not delegation.
• Look for transparency on pricing. We publish our pricing because we think you deserve to know what you're investing before you pick up the phone.

The bottom line

Writing your own bids isn't wrong. Hiring a bid writer isn't a magic bullet. The right answer depends on the contract value, your internal capacity, the complexity of the tender, and how important winning is to your business.

But if you're consistently coming second. or if there's a contract out there right now that could genuinely transform your business. it's worth having an honest conversation about whether professional support could make the difference.

We've helped over 500 UK businesses win more than £500M in contracts. That doesn't mean we're right for everyone. But if you want to talk it through, we're here.

Ready to talk?

Call us on 020 3668 5488 or get in touch at https://www.glaxtons.co.uk/contact. we'll give you honest advice on whether professional bid support is right for your situation.