Build a Tender Response Library to Get Better Outputs From AI Tools

TLDR: Better inputs give better outputs. Investing the time into building a great set of high quality responses will massively improve your efficiency with AI.

Despite the claims that AI can do everything for you, it doesn't change the fact that you need to give it somewhere to start.

AI is not magic. It might be able to create something generic from a simple instruction, but it’s unlikely to write something meaningful or overly compelling about your business.

If you want to get the most out of AI tools including better responses, more specific and tailored outputs for your business then you should start by building a response library.

Why Uploading An Entire Past Tender Into AI Sabotages Outputs

Long tender documents filled with contract clauses, policies, and extra details confuse AI and dilute your responses.

AI has limited processing capacity, so when you include unnecessary information, it can't focus on what matters most, resulting in less specific and valuable outputs.

Uploading the whole document may seem like a time-saver but in the long run, you’ll end up spending more time editing and clarifying your prompt just to get the right response output.

To solve this, you should build a tender library with just the necessary information. 

Here’s how to do it.

1. Start With What You Already Have

The secret to great AI performance is having good inputs, and the more specific and relevant these are to your business the better.

If you've been tendering and winning work for a while, you’ve probably got heaps of responses in the depths of your company SharePoint. Some of these are likely great responses, with clear and well written answers that perfectly articulate your company’s value proposition.

The goal is to hunt down the good ones. The more you can find, the better your AI results will be.

2. Create Your “Best of” Collection

Once you’ve tracked down your winning responses, the best way to get ready for any AI tool is to put them into a well-structured document. (If you are short on time, you can grab a copy of our Library Template here)

Note: the ‘best’ responses could be anything ranging from:

• Submissions you’ve won
• You’re proud of
• Tells a compelling story about your organisation
• Clearly explains your value

Don’t overthink it. If it’s good quality and represents your organisation well then it belongs in the folder.

3. Turning The Collection Into Your Master Tender Library

After you’ve found your best responses, the information you need is super simple.

Start by grabbing the ‘stems’ (these are questions, prompts or other requested information) from each tender and your responses and paste them into a new document.

What you're aiming for here is to build one clear document that has all the best parts of your tenders that are solid, high quality and distilled communication from you to your customer.

This is your gold master.

Using Your Library With AI

Now when a new tender submission rolls around you have a library of clear, winning and business-relevant information to feed into your AI tool.

Instead of asking AI to create something from scratch (and getting generic results), you can say:

"Here's how we've successfully answered similar questions before. Help me adapt this for the new tender.”

The goal is to save time and increase the quality of automated ‘done for you’ information generated by AI.

Summary

The best AI responses come from clear and succinct inputs…the more general and unnecessary the information you provide, the less relevant the responses you will receive.