About Complete Tenders

We are about supporting small and medium-sized businesses to win contracts

Our Vision

Our vision is for a more equal, more sustainable and more prosperous future for everybody. To achieve this, we want SMEs to hold the lion’s share of all UK contracts.

SMEs are the core of a healthy economy, they drive growth, provide jobs and deliver value to the community, but quite often the procurement system lets us down. It can be complicated, discriminatory and geared towards big business where commissioning authorities see less risk.

SMEs will often provide better quality of service and deliver a contract to a higher standard than larger competitors.

Our Mission

Our mission is therefore to help small & medium sized businesses to compete against their rivals and win contracts. We aim to win contracts for every customer we work with and contribute to the overall gain of market share by UK SMEs.

Essential Facts

35 years’ experience in successful bid management
Worked across public and private sector as both buyer and supplier
100+ NHS tenders won
100+ Council tenders won
£120m single largest contract win
£25m new revenue < 2 years for 1 NHS supplier
45% to 93% score improvement for regular client
100% win rate on frameworks & DPS
£245,000 average win value
Between 1/3 and 2/3 average tender success rate (depending on sector)

Our Values

Do the right thing

Attend to the details

Enable success

Be tenacious

Use your initiative

Elevate others

These values are embedded in us and our business.
We use them every day to guide how we work, who we work with, and why we do what we do.

Meet The Team

Jennie Billings

Tender Search Manager

After a fifteen-year career in marketing across sectors as diverse as stately homes and contract flooring, I’m well versed in the challenges that come with identifying the right business opportunities. This, combined with my masters in marketing, allows me to see our clients’ perspective from both the strategic and detailed level.

The tendering process often appears daunting to those who’ve never tendered before. I simplify the journey from first step to fruition. I enjoy combining my experience and skills to ensure that smaller businesses access the opportunities to take their enterprise to a new level, particularly by matching their precise needs with market expectation.

When not doing all this, I run my own successful business - and oh yes, I’m also mum in chief!

Matthew Smith

Managing Director

I’m a Chartered Town Planner and started my career bending over backwards for volume housebuilders. Through many successful planning applications, I learnt the craft of writing compelling arguments in response to a set of requirements. I did however struggle with the constant compromise between corporate arrogance and the quality of the end product.

So, without knowing it at the beginning, I probably co-founded Complete Tenders as a reason to start getting my own back! I believe there are so many smaller businesses out there that are more than capable of delivering a service more successfully than the larger ones; if only they were given the opportunity. I want to address the imbalance, ensuring those that really deserve a contract have the best chance of winning it, so that we as the public, service users and patients are ultimately better off.

I am personally contracted to provide a Tier-1 managed service for my daughter’s rapidly expanding schedule of activities and parties.

Karen Shuttleworth

Tender Writer

I initially worked in the telecoms industry, starting as a test engineer before test management and project management roles gave me a deeper understanding of how to prepare and respond properly to the technical requirements of a project. I took a break to have a family and my two boys keep me very busy, but I decided I wasn't quite busy enough, so I joined the Complete Tenders team! Now I help customers win contracts by understanding their business from a technical perspective and writing tender responses tailored to them, using the same attention to detail needed when testing communication systems. I really enjoy the variety of the businesses we work with, the learning, and the feeling of achievement when a tender is successful.

I love reading and baking and I try to offset that by running when I can. Travel is my passion. I spent 18 months travelling overseas and although very different now I have children, I take them exploring whenever I can.

Julian Quaife

Senior Consultant

Previously holding contract and tender management roles in the NHS, I moved into the private sector to create better opportunities for companies wanting to win public sector business. I have applied more than 25 years e-sourcing and tender writing experience to develop the winning processes that enable us to consistently secure healthcare and local government contracts for customers across many service categories and industries. Being results-driven with a common-sense approach has ensured an outstanding success rate and a long list of happy customers.

Winning contracts is rewarding in itself, but so is creating fresh, thought-provoking and compelling tender submissions for businesses owners that are new to the tendering process and want to grow. When I’m not helping put our customers into pole position, I’m watching 2 or 4-wheeled motorsport.

Tony Murphy

Tender Writer

My career has mostly involved negotiating and bidding for commercial contracts in telecoms, IT and facilities management. I’ve always been in commercial roles, on both the buying and selling side. My early career was in the oil industry, but I moved into telecoms when I started working for BT shortly after it was privatised. After a few operational roles, I managed commercial and contractual support to a wide range of business units within BT, from broadcasting, to videoconferencing, and satellite to submarine cables. That’s where I learned how to pick up new technologies and lines of business in double-quick time – a skill I’m still using at Complete Tenders, where our clients come from so many different sectors.

I left BT for a move into mobile and Wi-Fi, with T-Mobile and later, a tech start-up in the rail industry who pioneered Wi-Fi on trains. There, I worked on both sides of the fence, we won two company-transforming bids, worth €135million and I evaluated tender responses from people who wanted our business.

A few years later I set up my own company. After a pivot or two, we were writing bids for clients and coaching them to be fit to compete. This meant winning new business by writing knockout tender responses, developing clients’ value propositions and reinvigorating content to make it persuasive and compelling. That’s exactly what we do at Complete Tenders - and now I get to work with outstanding people who I learn from every day.

Having moved around a lot in my youth, I lived in London for most of my post-University life, moving to Hertfordshire ten years ago. I still think of myself as a Londoner, but have set down roots here. As a passionate supporter of social justice, I’m chair/trustee at East Herts Citizens Advice, where I also bring my tender writing skills to bear in fundraising. I’m also a coach and treasurer at the Hertford Company of Archers, where I (uncharacteristically) made my own longbow a few years ago.

James Irvin

Graduate Bid Writer

Having graduated from the University of Hertfordshire in 2020, I am now beginning my career working with Complete Tenders. I spent three years at University completing a degree in English Language & Communication with English Language Teaching. During my studies I prepared reports on a wide range of subjects, investigating how language is used in many different fields, from sports commentary to police work. Such work has given me a lot of the writing and communication skills necessary to produce compelling material and succeed with tenders and winning contracts. I have previous experience working in retail and I am looking forward to developing my career with the great team at Complete Tenders.

When I’m not working, I am more often than not found watching my beloved West Ham United lose (again!).

Louise Niemantinga

Office Manager

I’m a chartered company secretary and as well as handling the accounts and administration within the business, I provide project support services to ensure the tendering team gives the best value and dedicates the time on each job to where it ought to be.

I’m a South African and have worked at executive level for several top investment and financial management firms, in Cape Town and in the UK. I became a mum in 2015 and love the flexibility that Complete Tenders has given me to balance work and home. I love being part of a progressive and caring team that is growing together as well as really helping our customers to grow too.

Leanne Elia

Bid Coordinator

Since 2019 I co-owned an installation company in Hertfordshire who carried out physical security installations on behalf of manufacturers before selling it this year. When I first joined the business, I was operating out of a room at the bottom of the garden with just the one client and two engineers.

For us to grow we needed to implement internal processes and policies to compete against the bigger companies. Within 6 months we moved into our very own premises in Hertfordshire and took on more engineers and support staff.

We gained various accreditations including ISO 9001 and 14001 and as a result our client base and sales increased. I know first hand what it is like to run a small business and how each win is personal and can make a huge difference to the success of the company. I am now looking forward to using what I have learned to help other smaller businesses; supporting them to get tender ready and of course helping them win contracts.

Mike Black

Tender Writer

I have spent many years in the corporate world across a variety of industries from Fortune 500 to regional – as an employee and an organizational leader as well as a consultant. This includes a number of years building solutions for and responding to tenders with scope ranging from fairly straightforward to large, complex and global.

I have also been on the client side of these deals as the one purchasing products and services. Add to that my work with small business owners helping them stabilize, streamline and grow their businesses and I have a very well-rounded view of the tender process from multiple perspectives.

I have three boys and have enjoyed every step of their journey. I hope I have instilled in them my belief that the world should be a better place because we were here. Now that they are getting older, I am hoping to do a little more travelling and pouring my energy into helping business owners succeed.

Philip Laughlin

Tender Writer

I have enjoyed a successful career working within the private sector for a range of businesses from privately owned SMEs to Global Corporations, managing procurement functions, sales and marketing teams, customer service call-centres and multi-country operations.

Tendering has always been a necessary feature of my work, on both sides of the table. I know from experience that regardless of the size of your business, responding to an ITT is always a challenge, and I now put this knowledge to good use, supporting the broad customer base at Complete Tenders.

The winning of new and retention of existing customers is the life blood of every business, and helping our SME customers achieve successful, profitable sales growth is what drives me.

Outside work, I enjoy extensive travel in UK & Europe in our caravan (sorry to all of those who we’ve held up!) and sing/perform with an award-winning mixed voice choir.

Could This Be You?

Complete Tenders are always looking for ambitious and experienced tender writers that thrive on making a real difference to our customers. We are a small team who understand and help each other to achieve outstanding results. Take a read of Graduate Bid Writer James’ blog My Experience As A Tender Writer to find out how James found his first year.

If you are looking for your next challenge, then we would love to hear from you.

I asked Complete Tenders to advise and help me prepare tenders for the NHSE Orthodontic Services contracts and we were successful in both bids. Matthew and his team were a great help and support with their deep knowledge of healthcare services and how to win NHS contracts as well as their calm influences during a challenging process and very stressful time. I highly recommend Mathew and his team.

Dr Amal Maizar, E&G Ortho Ltd

I have been using Complete Tenders services that support and develop organisations like mine since August 2017. Complete Tenders look out for any upcoming tenders that I can bid for. They have a good understanding of the services I provide and have tendered for 3 contracts that have all been successful. I have been dealing with Julian Quaife; he has excellent tender writing skills. The communication was fantastic even though we are based in Bradford. Julian would go above and beyond to ensure I was completely satisfied with the content and quality of the work produced. I value Julian’s expertise. I would recommend Complete Tenders to anyone that wants to provide services to Local Authorities.

Nazia Pervez, Pemberton Transitions Services Ltd

Our Company first used Complete Tenders in May 2018 where I was struggling to finish a tender due to the complexities of the finances. I called Complete tenders and Matthew dropped everything he was doing to assist and pulled the figures together in a short space of time which I then submitted on time. As a result of Matthew's intervention, we were awarded the contract in June 2018. Since then, I have asked Matthew and his team to write tenders for several other large prestigious organisations and both have progressed us to the final stages of the tender process, awaiting to hear if we have won!

Andy Pearman, United Cleaning Solutions

Complete Tenders assisted me in the process of re-tendering for our NHS orthodontic contract as part of a large procurement project. From the outset Matthew was an excellent listener and provided a high level of support in the whole process. I found him easy to communicate with and responsive, with quick turnaround when I posed questions via email or telephone. His team assisted with the writing of the documentation for the submission - Matthew and his team helped me to create a thorough and robust framework to which I could add the stamp of how I wanted the submission to be presented so that it reflected my practice in the best light.

Dr Beth Richardson, Basingstoke Orthodontics

Read all our testimonials