Give the whole bid one clear reason to choose you
Before different people disappear off to write different answers, we help you get clear on the story for this tender: what matters to the buyer, why your solution fits, what makes you credible and which messages need to keep coming through across the submission.
You need the core story, messages and evidence agreed before the answers start pulling in different directions.
Win Themes is probably the right place.You want an independent evaluator view before submission.
Look at Bid Review →Your bid/no-bid decisions, roles, process or wider way of working need attention.
Look at Bid Consultancy →You want people to understand evaluators, scoring and stronger bid answers themselves.
Look at Bid Training →They give the bid a thread people can follow
A good submission should feel as though one organisation wrote it with one clear understanding of the buyer, even when several people contributed. Win themes give everyone that common starting point before the drafting begins.
They help your team decide which strengths genuinely matter for this opportunity, what evidence supports them and how those messages should show up across the answers without becoming repetitive.
What matters here?
We pull together the specification, evaluation criteria, buyer priorities and context so the team is working from the same interpretation of the tender.
Why you?
We identify the strengths, approach and differentiators that are actually relevant to this buyer rather than trying to squeeze every good thing about the business into the bid.
Can you prove it?
We connect the messages to evidence, examples, outcomes and practical detail so writers know what they have available when they start building answers.
Where should it show up?
We map the strongest messages into the submission so they keep reinforcing the overall story in the places where the evaluator is most likely to score them.
We get the important bits agreed first
The workshop gives everyone contributing to the bid the same starting point, so they are not making separate decisions about the buyer, the message and what evidence matters most.
We identify the priorities, pressures and scoring cues that should shape the way the bid is positioned.
We agree which strengths and differentiators are genuinely relevant to this opportunity rather than trying to say everything.
We connect those messages to the evidence, examples and outcomes that give the evaluator confidence.
A usable framework for the actual bid in front of you
The useful bit is what happens after the workshop. Your writers need to be able to pick the document back up and use it while they are drafting, reviewing and deciding what earns the word count.
The overall message that should come through when the evaluator reads the submission as a whole.
A focused set of messages that matter to this buyer and this opportunity.
Evidence, examples and outcomes that give each message credibility.
A practical view of which themes should be reinforced across the key responses.
Do the thinking before everybody starts writing
The best time to do this is once you have decided to bid and before the responses have gathered too much momentum.
Send us the tender
We review the specification, questions, evaluation criteria and anything useful you already have about the opportunity.
Get the right people together
We run a focused session with the people who understand the buyer, solution, delivery and commercial picture.
Build the story
We challenge assumptions, surface the strongest messages and connect them to evidence the evaluator can actually see.
Use it to write
You leave with the agreed framework so writers and reviewers can keep coming back to the same story as the submission develops.
The people with the useful information, not just the people writing the bid
Win themes get much stronger when the people closest to the solution are involved early. The exact mix depends on the tender, but we usually want enough knowledge in the room to understand the buyer, delivery, commercial reality and what genuinely makes the offer strong.
To connect the discussion back to the questions, scoring and submission plan.
To bring the practical detail, credibility and real-world understanding that generic bid language cannot replace.
To surface the specifics, evidence and technical strengths that need to make it onto the page.
Where useful, to clarify strategic priorities, risk, commitments and what you are prepared to stand behind.
Win Themes happens before the drafting gets too far
This is live-opportunity support. If the thing you need help with sits somewhere else in the bidding process, there is probably a better service for it.
“We cover win themes at kick-off, but it had always felt a bit superficial because most of the team did not really get why we were doing it or how to use it. Melissa changed that. She made us think about what made us different and why that mattered, and the bid read completely differently afterwards.”
Bring us in before the first draft starts doing its own thing
Win Theme support is priced as a fixed piece of live-bid work, with the workshop and practical framework built around the tender you are actually pursuing.
Win Theme Workshop
For one live tender, delivered remotely with preparation and the post-session framework included.
- Pre-workshop review of the tender and evaluation criteria
- Focused workshop with the relevant bid and delivery team
- Agreed tender story and core win themes
- Evidence and proof points linked to the themes
- Practical guidance on where the messages should show up
- A usable post-session framework for writers and reviewers
Larger or more complex submissions, multiple lots and in-person workshops may be quoted separately.
We have different rates for eligible charities, CICs and other VCSE organisations below £1m annual turnover, so the standard pricing above may not apply to you.
Before you decide whether you need it
Ideally once you have made the bid decision and before the main drafting starts. That gives the team time to use the themes to shape the answers rather than trying to retrofit a story once everything has already been written.
The workshop gives your team the strategy and framework to write from. You keep ownership of the submission, and we can come back in later through Bid Review if you want an evaluator-led review of the developed draft.
No. It is useful whenever the opportunity matters enough that you want the team aligned before they write. Smaller bids can benefit just as much, particularly when several people are contributing or the offer is difficult to explain clearly.
Yes. If the goal is to build this skill for future tenders rather than work through one live opportunity, that sits more naturally within Bid Training & Workshops.
Get everybody working from the same story
Send us the tender and tell us where you are up to. We can work out whether a Win Theme Workshop is the useful next move or point you towards something that fits better.
Talk to us about your tender
connect with us
Navigate
Legal
Lets keep in touch
We’ll drop into your inbox with new blogs, bid tips, and our latest YouTube videos when they go live.
© 2026 Bidsmithery™