Writing Catering tenders pose challenging questions right from the offset. Should your catering tenders tell everyone about the high quality catering that you can offer? Or should your catering tenders focus on the low cost of your services?
for clarification on this, look back to what you decided when you first decided that you were going to offer catering as a service. Your inital business model should map the future for the way your catering tenders are written.
If you offer cheap and cheerful services then trying to sell the high quality of your food isn’t the way to go. Equally if you only use the finest of locally sourced, organic, non-GM ingredients then competing on price in your catering tenders won’t work.
However, That is a lot easier said than done when you site down to write your catering tender. A lot of this will dependant of the catering tender you are bidding for.
A few years ago if you were writing catering tenders for schools you would largely be competing on cost. Jamie Olivers School Dinners Campaign has shifted the empasis towards high quality food.
Yet even in this example the answer isn’t clear cut. Schools can’t afford to look like they provide substandard, low quality food. But they also have budgets to stick to and cant be seen to be squandering money.
So what‘s the solution for your catering services company? How should you pitch your catering tenders?
Take a look at competing on cost for catering tenders. If your catering tender is over priced, you won’t stand a chance. But, if you know your services aren’t the cheapest, explain that to anyone reading your catering tenders.
Perhaps all your produce is sourced locally. Perhaps you only use organic ingredients. It could be that all your hot drinks are Fairtrade. Justify your slightly higher prices in your catering tenders while explaining why that matters.
Make sure any claims you make within your catering tender are backed up. Are you registered as a distributor of Fairtrade products? Do you only use Soil Association certified ingredients? Then it needs to be in all your catering tenders.
And what if you are the cheap and cheerful catering services provider? How then do you pitch your catering tenders? The trick is to pick the right jobs to tender for. Not everyone will be looking for the best quality ingredients. So if you only write catering tenders for those companies, you’ll have a greater chance of success.
Getting the balance right for writing catering tenders is not the easiest. Just remember that whether company is looking for cheaper or higher quality food, they all want to see value for money in all of the catering tenders they read.
