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How to get security contracts in the UK?
To get security contracts in the UK, there are several steps you should take. Firstly, ensure your company is registered with the UK government’s Contract Finder service to increase visibility to potential customers. Secondly, conduct thorough market research to identify gaps in the local market that your company can address. Lastly, create a strong marketing campaign highlighting why your company is the best choice for security services. To protect employees, customers, and assets while deterring crime and reducing insurance rates, businesses need reliable security systems or manned security arrangements. Following these steps can enhance your chances of winning profitable security contracts. In today’s business landscape, security is of utmost importance.
These contracts can encompass services like key holding, CCTV, manned guarding, and patrols. Tendering for work can be complex but worthwhile. It involves understanding client needs, effectively communicating your company’s capabilities, and preparing a competitive proposal. By adequately preparing and exerting effort, you can increase your success in winning security contracts and expanding your business.
Step 1: Finding security contracts for your business
Security contracts play a vital role in protecting your business, but locating them can be a challenge. With numerous websites in the UK consistently posting new tenders, it becomes arduous to stay informed about all of them. It is advisable to seek out a single website that encompasses opportunities from across the country. This way, you can efficiently search for security contracts that align with your company’s specific needs. Juggling multiple sites can become a demanding occupation, underscoring the significance of finding a comprehensive platform. By conducting thorough research, you can identify the ideal security contracts tailored to your business.
Additionally, the UK Government provides a portal exclusively available to businesses for tendering future security contracts. The process of finding suitable security contracts for your company can become quite daunting. Countless websites throughout the UK publish security tenders daily, often requiring separate login credentials. Managing all these sources can easily become a full-time commitment. Ideally, you should prioritise locating a single site that aggregates industry-specific opportunities from across the UK. Or, hire a dedicated resource to look for security tenders and respond to them.
To find more suitable security contracts for your company, consider a combination of outbound strategies tailored to the security industry. Consider using email marketing to reach out to companies which require private security services. Email marketing involves building a targeted email list, creating engaging content, and personalising emails based on specific needs or pain points. Tracking and analysing results helps refine your email strategy over time.
Telemarketing might be getting outdated, but it’s still an effective way to reach businesses. Telemarketing involves defining your target market, developing a persuasive script, training your telemarketing team, and nurturing leads.
Likewise, networking and referrals can be achieved through attending industry events, joining security associations, and seeking referrals.
By implementing these strategies, you can build relationships with potential clients, industry influencers, and other security professionals, ultimately enhancing your security contract offerings.
Also Read: What is ASCONE Procedure? And how does it help with loss prevention?
Step 2: Quote the right bid
When bidding for a security contract, it is crucial to strike the right balance in pricing your services. Setting prices too low may raise doubts about your company’s credibility, while pricing too high could cause you to lose the bid to a competitor. To find the optimal balance, thorough research is necessary to accurately estimate the project’s costs. By doing so, you increase your chances of submitting a winning bid.
In the private sector, the lowest bid often prevails because businesses prioritise profit and may compromise quality to achieve it. Conversely, in the public sector, contracts are awarded based on the most economically advantageous tender, not solely the lowest price. This means that the public sector seeks the best value for money, ensuring a higher quality product or service.
When tendering for security contracts, it is important not to undercut competitors on price, especially in the public sector. Public sector buyers expect fixed and final prices in bids. While pricing competitively is important, excessively low prices can create suspicion and cast doubts on your company’s legitimacy. In the private sector, however, the cheapest bid may indeed win, as it is not bound by the same rules and regulations as the public sector. The public sector must prioritise the most economically advantageous tender to ensure value for money.
Public sector buyers evaluate a range of factors when looking to purchase these including:
Ease of access
Financial capacity to undertake the tender
Technical proficiency
Quality of customer service
Timely delivery capability
Inclusion and diversity policies
Sustainability
Buyers evaluate multiple factors, and their specific requirements may vary. Since each buyer has different needs, it is crucial to carefully review the specification tender documents before drafting your proposal for a comprehensive understanding of the contract’s nature. So, buyers may assess these factors individually or in combination.
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Step 3: Write a personalised proposal for security tenders
The quality of your writing is significant, regardless of the industry you’re in. This is especially true in the context of tendering, where a well-written response significantly increases your chances of success. Buyers value clear, concise writing that is free of errors. They also appreciate a response that demonstrates a deep understanding of the project and is well-thought-out. Investing time in proofreading and ensuring the highest possible quality can make a significant difference in the outcome.
To enhance your chances of winning contracts in the competitive security sector, it is essential to understand the client’s needs and objectives. Presenting clear and concise proposals that highlight your unique strengths and capabilities is crucial. Additionally, building relationships with key decision-makers within the client organisation can be advantageous.
As companies are looking for previous work, it’s important to include information about your present and previous clientele. As a result, clients may be confident that they are hiring a reputable and competent security company.
9 Tips to Secure Security Contracts in the UK
1. Examine the format of the tender
Reviewing the tender’s structure is of the utmost importance when deciding whether to submit a bid for a specific request for proposals. The structure determines whether the required services are grouped in a single lot or split into multiple lots. If all services are grouped, your business needs to ensure it can effectively fulfil all the requirements. This presents an opportunity to showcase how your business can achieve cost efficiencies by working on multiple security requirements simultaneously. You can demonstrate the potential savings and offer additional incentives if the entire contract is awarded to you.
On the other hand, if you’re bidding for an individual lot, you need to assess how your business can deliver better value compared to larger multi-disciplinary security companies. Checking the tender’s structure allows you to evaluate whether your business is a suitable fit and how it can provide added value in the bidding process.
2. Check out the site(s)
Everyone taking part in the security tender process must visit the site(s) before submitting a bid. By doing so, you can examine the layout of the property, spot prospective security hazards, and comprehend the client’s particular security requirements. By conducting a site visit, you can tailor your proposal accordingly and demonstrate your commitment to meeting the client’s requirements. It also provides an opportunity to personally meet with the client, gain a deeper understanding of their needs, and ask relevant questions.
Even if the tender documentation does not explicitly mention a site visit, it is highly recommended to arrange one to make your bid more site-specific and to uncover the buyer’s underlying motivations. A site visit can also help you identify opportunities to add value and enhance your service offering by addressing local challenges. Making the effort to visit the site(s) demonstrates your seriousness and dedication to winning the security tender.
3. Safety and Health
As a security company, ensuring minimal risk is a top priority. There are several ways to instil confidence in buyers regarding your commitment to health and safety. One effective method is obtaining certification from reputable organisations such as the National Security Inspectorate (NSI) or the British Security Industry Association (BSIA). Certification demonstrates independent verification of your compliance with specific standards. Highlighting the credentials and training of your employees in health and safety is another way to reassure buyers. Additionally, having well-defined policies and procedures that are easily understood and followed by everyone involved in providing security services is crucial.
Buyers are risk-averse and seek assurance that your security services adhere to the highest health and safety standards, minimising potential risks for employees, their personnel, and the general public. Demonstrating staff training, qualifications, and adherence to best practices in health and safety, such as safe working, first aid, and prompt response to incidents, is essential. Staying updated with new guidance and effectively communicating health and safety arrangements to employees are also essential. Providing evidence such as health and safety policies, risk assessments, and audits while demonstrating how lessons have been learned from incidents, rather than claiming an accident-free record, can enhance credibility. By implementing these measures, you can showcase your dedication to delivering high-quality and safe security services.
Also Read: How to run a secure retail business? Retail Security Checklist
4. Assurance of Quality
There are multiple laws and norms that security companies operating in the UK must follow. Accreditation by the Security Industry Authority (SIA) is mandatory among these. The SIA serves as the statutory body responsible for regulating the private security industry. To obtain accreditation, security companies must establish and implement systems and processes for quality assurance.
This voluntary accreditation scheme recognizes private security companies that meet specific standards in management and operations.
Regarding quality control, it is important to assess if your systems and processes have received any quality assurance accreditation. Monitoring service delivery, ensuring the timely and consistent provision of security services, managing staff attendance, and adhering to designated patrol schedules are all essential factors. Providing evidence through reports, log books, audits, and the utilisation of technology demonstrates the presence of reliable systems. Additionally, showcasing how you handle problems, complaints, and feedback, and your commitment to continuous improvement further emphasises the quality of your security services.
5. Handle the contract efficiently
Once the contract is awarded, effective contract management processes are essential for ensuring successful project delivery. Securing a contract is a significant achievement for any business, but it is just the beginning. This entails having an experienced team of account managers who have previously worked on similar contracts, with well-defined lines of communication. To effectively manage the contract, having financial stability and to showcase robust contract management processes is crucial. Demonstrating these factors increases the likelihood of managing the contract successfully.
Additionally, highlighting the use of technology to manage service delivery and how it ensures effective management is important. Providing evidence of previous experiences, such as management information reports, adherence to Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), strengthens your position.
Overall, winning a contract is just the beginning, and effective contract management processes, including a clear organisational structure and financial capacity, are vital for successful project execution.
6. Present and Support Evidence
To assure buyers that you are qualified to provide the requested service, it is crucial to provide evidence of your skills and experience. This includes having staff trained with SIA-approved certification, and demonstrating their expertise in delivering the service. Additionally, buyers will expect to see risk assessments that showcase your consideration of potential risks and the implementation of mitigation measures. Providing comprehensive case studies, testimonials, and relevant evidence from similar projects can strengthen your credibility. Focus on outcomes and benefits achieved for previous clients, highlighting factors such as mobilisation, resourcing, communication, and results. By presenting case studies, you can demonstrate your ability to handle contracts of a similar scale, overcome challenges, and deliver on time and within budget.
Buyers often seek evidence and examples of past contracts, so it is important to be prepared with relevant and well-developed case studies from the past three to five years providing concrete evidence of your company’s abilities. Lastly, consider including positive testimonials from satisfied clients to further enhance buyer confidence.
7. Promote fairness and diversity
The commitment of service providers to equality and diversity is currently valued more and more by customers and buyers. This is no exception for security services, as effective security providers must demonstrate their ability to deliver an inclusive and appropriate service that caters to the diverse needs of their customers. Staff training will enable them to better understand the unique requirements of your diverse customer base and provide a more effective service. Additionally, it is crucial to consider how your security services can be customised to meet the specific needs of different groups within your customer base. By taking these measures, you can demonstrate your dedication to providing an inclusive service that accommodates the needs of all individuals.
It should be tailored to your business and encompass various aspects such as addressing anti-social behaviour during high-visibility patrols. It is also important to highlight how your staff is trained to ensure equal treatment of everyone and showcase your recruitment practices that reflect your commitment to being an equal opportunities employer. By effectively addressing fairness and diversity concerns, you can showcase your ability to provide a comprehensive and inclusive security service that meets the diverse needs of your customers.
8. Provide greater value for money
In order to demonstrate that you deliver the best value for money, you must be innovative. The “best value for money” criteria are critical in winning bids. The bidding organisation specifies the standards that participants must meet. It is important to note that decision-makers seek an organisation or individual who can meet their requirements at the most cost-effective price while maintaining quality. Therefore, it is necessary to approach proposal preparation with caution.
Participants often overlook cost-effectiveness in their security proposals, neglecting the importance of thorough research and understanding competitors. To present a winning proposition, showcase how security services exceed expectations by providing a safe, secure solution, saving money and time, improving compliance, customer service scores, and reducing complaints without compromising quality or standards. By highlighting these aspects, you can position yourself as the ideal choice for delivering exceptional value for money.
9. Accreditations and Qualifications
When bidding for security contracts, you should have a variety of certifications and accreditations. Considering the inherent risks in the security industry, contractors want confidence that your company and its staff are familiar with the relevant norms and regulations. They want to be confident that you have undergone relevant training and that your security company adheres to best practices. These could include: Cyber Essentials, SMAS, SIA Licences, NASDU, CHAS and NSI.
Need Guidance?
Crafting a successful tender response can be perplexing due to the complex procurement terminology and intricate tender specifications. Engaging the services of bid writing professionals can optimise the resources of the security company and provide assistance in the writing process or even assume full responsibility for it. Although adhering to these recommendations and steps may not be a simple and swift endeavour, the potential benefits of a prosperous security tender can be revolutionary.
Agile Guarding Services Limited, founded in 2011, offers SIA certified security services to businesses in Bolton and North West UK. We provide manned and mobile patrols, CCTV, and fire safety systems, ensuring clients’ security needs are met. If you require them or want to outsource them, please feel free to contact us immediately.
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