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Matthew Dunn​​
Consultant
Bid Writer (freelance)
Based nr Maidstone, Kent, SE England
About me
World Cups, Ryder Cups, Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and Olympic Games: in 30 years as a sportswriter, I have been privileged to see up close what it takes to win.
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Details, dedication, and teamwork.
Those are the qualities that enabled me to make a winning start to my bid-writing career. Within months, I had already contributed to successful bids across complex, high-value tenders – as part of a team or as the sole writer.
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Figure 1: Competing to win. Sadly my own playing career could only be described as painful
Prior to that, I was the main voice of football on the Daily Express. I was the chief England writer during the Sir Gareth Southgate era and followed Arsenal, Tottenham, and Chelsea on their Champions League exploits.
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I've met Pele, Messi, Zinedine Zidane, Zico, Luis Figo, David Beckham, Eusebio, Pep Guardiola and two Ronaldos. I've raised a glass with Michel Platini, Gianni Infantino and, worst of all, Sepp Blatter.
I watched Harry Kane make his Spurs, England, and Bayern Munich debuts, was privileged to spend hours sharing intimate football conversations with Jose Mourinho, and faced the Sir Alex Ferguson hairdryer on full-blast in press conferences.
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Simultaneously, as an occasional tennis-writer, I racked up more Wimbledons than Sir Andy Murray.
My journalism career started straight from university and the following year I won the English Sports Council Young Sportswriter of the Year award.
Finally, after 28 happy years in an industry that was changing irreconcilably, I decided to look elsewhere for a challenge.​ That is when I identified the strong alignment between journalism and bid-writing skills.
I have always been competitive and thrive as part of a team.
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Proposals give me the chance to bring that crucial added value to the process of winning work – the ‘marginal gains’ GB cycling guru Sir Dave Brailsford heralds. I thrive under pressure... Fergie's 'Squeaky bum time.' I aspire to be a 'Special One'.
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Unfortunately, I was never more than an average sportsperson myself. My personal highlight came when Southgate once watched me in action at St George's Park and asked me if I used to 'play a bit'? Sadly, not.
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I beat Peter '90 mph' Lorimer at tennis and Jamie Vardy at pool. But In truth, bid writing is finally my chance to make a real difference between winning and losing.
Creating a good impression
I am extremely serious about bid-writing.
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However, I have discovered that not just surviving but thriving in a high-pressure environment where achieving positive results is imperative takes a degree of levity. I try not to take myself too seriously and am blessed by the efforts work colleagues put in daily to help me in this regard.
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This website is the way I have chosen to represent myself: my achievements, my abilities, and the character of a person who, hopefully, one day you will be working alongside. It is probably a different style to the one you would use to present the credentials of your own company.
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Everybody has their own unique voice, which is why I always adapt the language, tone and approach of my writing to capture the spirit of my clients. Vocallly, my Sean Connery impression is hard to tell from my Michael Caine. But with the written word, I have been ghosting articles based on interviews for disparate voices since my first days in newspapers: from Lionel Blair to Sir Henry Cooper; Murray Walker's screech to Angus Deayton's smooth fluency; Dec, but not as yet, Ant.
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These are a few trivial examples among many but the point is an important one. You can be assured that whoever you are, it is your words that will be going out to your customer. Your very best ones.