Medi-Interim

For Medi Interim, tenders were never a side issue.

They formed an important part of the commercial strategy. Not just because of the volume they bring in, but above all because they determine your position in the market. Especially in processes such as GGD tenders, where national coverage and continuity come together.

Richard van Baarlen was commercially responsible in that period and sat right in the middle of those processes. He co-wrote, reviewed, and worked together with various disciplines within the organization. Tenders were not a theoretical story, but daily practice.

And yet there was something underneath that wasn’t right.

“The writing itself went fine,” he says. “But the preparation phase? That basically didn’t exist.”

Tenders came in and then the process started. Someone was brought in to write, input was collected, and everyone worked toward the deadline. But real preparation on the client, understanding the question behind the question, or making sharp choices up front: that was missing.

And you feel that.

Not always directly in the result, but in everything around it. In the time pressure. In the discussions along the way. In the feeling that you are mostly busy delivering, instead of winning.

The turnaround only came when the collaboration with Appalti started.

Not because someone extra suddenly came to “co-write”. But because the entire way of working changed.

“What really made the difference for me,” Richard says, “is that structure suddenly appeared. Not just in the writing, but in the whole process. From the moment you know something is coming, right up to the moment of submission.”

Where it used to be the work of one or two people, it now became something of the whole organization. The right people were brought in, there were fixed review moments, and time was deliberately set aside to really sit down for it.

That sounds logical. But before, it wasn’t.

As with any change, it didn’t happen by itself. In the beginning, everyone had to get used to it. To each other, to the way of working, and to the sharpness that comes with it.

“Sometimes there was friction,” he says about that. “But if there’s no friction, it’s not good either.”

It was precisely in that friction that something better eventually emerged. From the second and third tender onward, it started to flow. There was rhythm. Calm. And above all: overview.

What also stayed with him was the commitment. Not the feeling that an external party was standing next to you, but that you were truly doing it together.

“It never felt like ‘us and them’. Appalti wanted to win this just as badly as we did.”

That way of working together ultimately translated into concrete results. Tenders with top scores. Processes such as GGD Limburg-Noord and the City of Amsterdam, where as an organization you claim a position that becomes hard for others to reach.

But perhaps even more important than those wins is what stuck afterwards.

The way of working.

Richard still carries it with him today. In his current work environment he applies the same principles. Involve people early. Bring structure. Don’t wait until the deadline approaches, but steer for quality from the start.

“The first thing I do when a tender comes in,” he says, “is make sure the right people are at the table and that there is a plan. I really learned that there.”

Ask him what he would pass on to other organizations, and he doesn’t have to think long.

Many organizations think they can handle it. That someone internally can pick it up. That good writing gets you a long way.

But according to him, that is exactly the pitfall.

Winning tenders is not about how well you write at the last moment.
It is about how well prepared you are before it starts.