It’s a dilemma facing everyone sitting down to write catering tenders. It’s the old, do I focus my catering tender on the high quality of the food or the low cost of the service?
The answer really lies in what your selling points were when you initially set up your business. Where you have chosen to position yourself in the market should have an impact on how you write your catering tenders.
You will get knowwhere selling expensive high qaulity food if you pride yourself on a value for money service. 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. This decision can be helped by that of the catering tender you are looking to win.
There have been many changes in the way Catering tenders for schools are written, 3 years ago you would have only been successful if your tender was competative on cost. Jamie Olivers School Dinners Campaign has shifted the empasis towards high quality food.
Without sounding contrdictory, its not that easy. Schools can’t afford to look like they provide substandard, low quality food. However in most cases they can’t afford to pay the high cost of genuinely high quality catering services.
How should you write your Catering Tenders? What would be the best way for your your catering business?
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. Or your chocolate is fair trade. Make sure your higher prices are justified.
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. Your suceess rate will be much higher if you only write catering tenders for businesses who are looking for a low budget service.
Writing catering tenders is a difficult balancing act. The potnetial client either way is going to be looking for value in the service when reading through the catering tenders submitted for consideration.