The challenge
TM Contract Services is a director-led groundworks company with five operatives, based ten miles from the contract site. The kind of firm that wins work on reputation and word of mouth. Mark Hayden, the director, is on site every day. That's the company's biggest strength. It's also why nobody had the time to write a PSQ, six quality responses, a programme of works and a pricing schedule on top of their normal work.
Ashford Borough Council was asking for a full submission with a stack of compliance evidence behind it. Every quality response had to clear a 60% threshold, or the bid was out before anyone looked at the price.
Objectives
- Clear the 60% quality threshold comfortably.
- Build the bid around what TM actually is. No invented certifications, no inflated workforce.
- Write a methodology that read like it was written for Bybrook Road, not lifted from a template.
- Get the full pack submitted on time, in the right format, with every signature in place.
Our approach
We treated the bid as a full service, not a writing job.
Plan
We read every document in the 24-file tender pack and built two things before writing a word. An evaluation framework, scope, rubric, compliance points, KPIs, that every quality response was scored against before drafting. And a submission checklist of every document, certificate, and signature the council would need on file at submission. Every item had an owner and a deadline.
Brief
We took a call with Mark Hayden to capture the substance of the bid. Site management style, operative numbers, insurance position, supply chain, and the work TM had already delivered. We anchored every quality response in real work, drawing on their Dover District Council contracts at Ladywell car park and the bin stores estate.
Write
Six quality responses, two A4 sides each, plain English, first person throughout. Mark on site as the through-line of every answer. Two audit cycles caught factual errors and added KPI-linked evidence to every response before the final version was signed off.
Collate
We worked back through the submission checklist from step one, item by item. Forms populated and signed. Pricing schedule completed. Compliance evidence gathered. Insurance position confirmed in writing by TM's broker. Programme of works built as a resource-loaded Gantt with the right curing windows for the methodology. Every box ticked before the pack was ready to go out.
Submit
Twelve files, named to the agreed convention, every .docx converted to PDF, every signature in place, uploaded to the Kent Business Portal before the 10:00 deadline on 21 April 2026.
By the numbers
24
tender documents reviewed
12
files submitted on time
6/6
quality responses above threshold
£138k
contract awarded
The result
TM Contract Services won the contract. A five-person director-led firm cleared the 60% quality threshold comfortably, and was selected to deliver ten weeks of work across ten residential blocks at Bybrook Road. For a company that had never tendered for a contract of this scale, that was the only outcome that mattered.
“It was a pleasure working with Vlad from Evia Consultancy. It made the full tender process easier and stress-free knowing our weighted questions and tender reply would be taken care of and completed to the highest possible level.”
Mark Hayden · Director, TM Contract Services