Consider how you will use the endorsement

When obtaining third party endorsements, consider how you will use them. You may want to show that you have relevant experience, have provided a good service and possess a whole range of specific skills. So take some time to prepare a list of things that a prospective client might want to know. This might vary from sector to sector or with building type. Take a look at past tenders or bids and identify which questions the clients ask most frequently. Are there recurring themes?

Let’s assume that Wren Barry Architects have just finished the design of a school and are now looking for client endorsements that could be used to help win future bids. After some consideration, they have decided that they want endorsements to show their strengths in the following areas:

• liaising with the client
• working well with the project stakeholders
• taking the client through the design process
• understanding current school design requirements
• being innovative
• being a pleasure to work with
• working well with other consultants and the building contractor
• being able to accommodate change
• being proficient project managers once on site and competent contract administrators
• helping the school to use the project as a learning tool for their students.

Therefore, Wren Barry Architects could perhaps send a letter to the headmaster along these lines:

From this we might expect something on the lines of:

This endorsement might seem to be long, but the idea is that it can be harvested for a number of quotes to cover many different requirements, as shown below.

Given the endorsement above, you would be able to produce quotes to incorporate within bid documents along the lines of:

And so on, for innovative approach, team coordination and other aspects of the project.

In addition, a request to the other consultants involved in the project covering technical issues could generate further endorsements on points such as:

• taking a proactive approach to resolving problems
• driving the team to produce a high-quality building
• taking great care to reduce the carbon footprint of the project
• being open to ideas from other consultants that could result in a building that offers better value for money.

From this single project it can be seen that it is possible to generate many useful quotes as endorsements for future use. Ensuring that you follow this process for every project will result in a whole library of endorsements to prove a variety of claims that you may make in your bids and proposals.

Always review your endorsements to make sure that questions that are currently being asked at the tender and pre-qualification stage are covered. If new issues start to arise, then incorporate these within your requests to clients when seeking endorsements.

Creating a bid-specific CV

When creating a bid-specific CV you should ask yourself:

• What is the client looking for in their professional team?
• Does the CV show off the appropriate qualities to secure the assignment?
• Are there any additional points that could be included, or might existing elements be restructured to improve the CV and make it more appropriate?

If the bid is for a new science block in a school then do not focus heavily on housing project experience. If the person does not have specific school science block experience, then include other relevant experience, such as similar projects or other projects for schools. If there is no relevant experience then seriously reconsider your chances of being successful.

Use the résumé section, which may be placed at the beginning of the CV, to bring out the specific points that you want the client to notice. Also, to make this more bespoke, mention the client and project within this résumé, as shown in the following example:

To improve your chances of success, always rewrite the CVs and make them as bespoke as possible. Where several CVs are included, make sure that they are all in the same format (which might be specified by the client). This is particularly important if you are teaming up with external consultants.

Using an experience or skills matrix

Figure 9.3: Typical layout for a skills matrix

If the project is large or complex, then the client will probably want to be reassured that your proposed team has all the relevant experience and skills. In this situation the inclusion of an experience or skills matrix will be a useful addition to your portfolio of CVs. This will also enable you to show additional skills and experience that might not have been asked for but could be relevant and might help to differentiate you from the competitors. The example in Figure 9.3 shows a simple typical format.

When using a skills matrix, try to use skills descriptions that the client will understand, especially if they have not identified such a skill requirement in the bid documents. In the example shown in Figure 9.3 the client might not know what is meant by ‘value engineering’ or ‘stakeholder workshops and liaison’. Therefore you may need to explain within the submission what these skills are and their consequent client benefits.