Winning pre-contract strategy and insights with Richard Cowley

Pre-contracts strategy is the part of tendering most teams say they do, but few teams actually run properly. It’s the thinking and shaping that happens before the bid machine kicks in, when you still have choices, influence, and time to reduce risk. In this episode, I’m joined by Richard Cowley, Fulton Hogan’s 30-year tendering veteran, to talk about what strong pre-contracts strategy looks like in the real world, what gets missed when teams leave it too late, and why this stage is often the difference between a bid that reads well and a bid that wins.Richard leads the pre-contracts team for Fulton Hogan’s northern region across Queensland, the Northern Territory and WA, and he’s spent nearly three decades in and around tendering across client, consulting and contractor roles. He’s blunt about the shift in the market, especially how probity has changed early engagement in the public sector, and why that makes it harder to get the insight you need to build a real strategy. If you’re chasing bids without that context, you can still burn the time and money, but you’re doing it with one hand tied behind your back.We also get into the disconnect between clients and contractors, and how often both sides underestimate what the other is dealing with. Richard shares examples that explain why “small” changes can ripple through pricing, risk and approvals, and why project realities can be shaped by politics, governance and pressures you’ll never see from the outside. The takeaway is simple: if we want better outcomes, we need to get better at communicating the work, not just doing it.From there we talk partnering and delivery, because pre-contract decisions don’t stop at submission. Richard breaks down why partner selection is make-or-break on large pursuits, why culture and behaviours matter more than a shiny capability list, and why your delivery performance can undo even the best tender strategy. We finish on the human side too: kindness, context, and the personal traits that actually hold up over the long game of tendering. CHAPTER MARKERS (AUDIO VERSION) 00:00 Pre-Contracts Strategy Intro02:33 Win Tenders With Pre-Contracts02:58 Probity Rules Client Engagement04:47 Tender Cost Client Disconnect07:09 Competitive Edge In Tendering07:58 Lessons Learned Bid Culture10:27 Trust In Bid Teams12:37 Contracts Vs Delivery Behaviours15:15 Tender Pipeline Productivity18:20 Deadline Risk In Major Tenders20:17 Delivery Performance Wins Work22:27 Align Tender And Operations25:28 Joint Venture Partner Selection31:19 Worthy Rivals Tender Mindset32:33 Early Pipeline For Tenders37:12 Bid No Bid Strategy39:51 Stakeholder Alignment Pre-Contracts Connect with RichardLinkedin: au.linkedin.com/in/richardcowleyaustraliaWebsite: https://www.fultonhogan.com/Connect with Deb at Tender PlusWeb: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/