It’s a dilemma facing everyone sitting down to write catering tenders. 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?
It’s a question you should have answered when you first set up your catering services company. Right from the begining you would have had an idea on the service you were going to offer, and your catering tenders should be written around this.
If you offer cheap and cheerful services then trying to sell the high quality of your food isn’t the way to go. On the flip side, if you pride yourself on the quality of your food and use expensive ingredients, then trying to compete on price is not the way forward.
And yet it isn’t necessarily that easy to decide when you’re writing the catering tenders. The decision should be based on exactly who you write your catering tenders for.
A few years ago if you were writing catering tenders for schools you would largely be competing on cost. Schools are now more aware that school dinners should be of a higher quality, largely thanks to TV Chef, Jamie Olivers Campaign.
Yet even in this example the answer isn’t clear cut. Schools can’t afford to look like they provide substandard, low quality food. They must also though, watch their costs as their budgets may not be as large as corporate companies.
How should you write your Catering Tenders? What would be the best way for your your catering business?
look at both options, take low caost Cateting tenders for example. Obviously if you’ve priced yourself out of the market this isn’t going to mean you will win the contract. 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. Use these higher quality ingredients as justification for the higher prices of your catering tenders.
If you are amking any claims within your catering tender, you need to make sure you back these 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.
So How would you write your catering tenders if you were offering low cost catering services? The answer lies in the jobs you are pitching for. Focus you efforts on companies that are wanting lower cost catering tenders.
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.