Successfully Writing Method Statements
Method Statements can cause providers a good deal of anxiety.
These are questions or required statements within the tender response document that are quite lengthy and relatively ‘freeform’ in that the writer is often not given a specific structure to follow. There is therefore considerable room for error or ‘missing the point’. On the positive, however, there is a lot more room to prove your point and shine as the expert and favoured solution.
To provide compelling method statements, follow these easy steps:
On each method statement, highlight the key elements of the question and use these to bullet-point the structure of your response. This helps to structure your answer, so make sure when finished that your bullet points read correctly and in an order you would wish to draw your reader along. Pay attention to the key facts being requested within the specification document and to the requirements of the commissioners, who will evaluate the statements.
Next to each bullet point, start creating a small sentence. Limit your use of words at this point and try to make each word count – write clearly and concisely and don’t over-use technical jargon. Under this sentence provide some background information with evidence and testimonials to draw the reader in. This makes your sentencing compelling to the reader and helps to substantiate your original bullet point.
You now have the basis of an answer coming together. Your answer is a series of small sentences in bullet point form with some hard facts and information beneath each one. Your bullets should be in a logical order to deal with each element within the statement title whilst also addressing the specification of the tender.
Make sure you check what you have:-
- Does it make sense?
- Have you answered all the points required?
- Do your bullet points add value to the structure? If not then remove them. Replace them elsewhere if they are in the wrong place or indeed reduce the impact of what you want to say in a given paragraph.
When you’re writing method statements, as well as writing a clear description of your plans or ways of working, you need to remember two other crucial features throughout the text:
- Evidence – remember to back up or substantiate the claims you make or the plans you propose. Do you sound credible? Will the evaluator believe what you’re writing? The ‘evidence base’ of the method statement is important. The evidence might be recent audit figures or a customer/client satisfaction survey, a set of performance management data or a case study or testimonial. Your evidence might be descriptive or numeric.
- Benefit – remember to explain to the evaluator what the benefit of your plans or ways working is to the commissioner, and how this is important. Many people write about their plans or experience in a method statement assuming it will be obvious to the evaluator why this is relevant, important or beneficial. Of course, to the objective observer, if may not be obvious. Therefore, you need to ‘spell it out’ – show them in words that, for example, ‘we work in this way and it has this result and this is relevant and beneficial to the commissioners in the following ways…’.
Finally, having got all of the facts down on paper, substantiated them and explains the benefit and relevance to the commissioner, expand the sentences to make sure the text flows clearly and logically and that the overall Statement is coherent and comprehensive.
Other useful resources available on our site:
Tender Writing | Tender Evaluation | Case Studies
If you need help with tender writing for an important business opportunity, or perhaps you have written a tender and would like an expert to evaluate it, we can help.
Our Tender Writing Case Studies page offers a flavour of how we get our successful results across a broad range of sectors.
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