Security tenders are unusually easy to get wrong, because the thing being bought is hard to see. Two providers can quote the same site and differ by half, and neither is lying: they have simply assumed different cover, different grades of officer and different amounts of management.

A short, specific brief fixes most of that. It does not need to be long. One page is usually enough.

Say what the site is, honestly

Size, layout, entrances, opening hours, how many people are on site at peak and at night. Say what is valuable and why: stock, equipment, data, reputation, or the safety of staff dealing with the public.

Include your incident history, even the embarrassing parts. A provider who knows you had three break-ins through the same fence line will quote for that fence line. One who does not will quote for a generic site.

Specify outcomes, not just hours

Instead of "two officers, 12 hours", describe what you need to be true: the yard is never unobserved between 8pm and 6am; someone attends an alarm within a set time; every visitor is signed in and escorted.

That invites providers to propose a smarter mix, and makes it obvious when one of them has quietly left a gap to look cheaper.

Reviewing a document with a pen at a meeting table
Outcomes written into the brief make it obvious when a quote has quietly left a gap.

Ask the questions that reveal the delivery model

  • Who will manage this contract day to day, and how often will they visit?
  • How are officers selected for our site, and what site-specific training do they get?
  • What is your officer turnover on similar contracts?
  • What happens when someone calls in sick at 5am?
  • What will we see in reporting, and can we see a real example?
  • How do you handle an incident that becomes a police matter?

Turnover and cover arrangements matter more than any glossy statement about quality. A site protected by a different agency officer every week is not protected in any meaningful sense.

Compare like for like

Ask every provider to price the same cover pattern, then to propose their own alternative alongside it. The first makes the quotes comparable; the second tells you who is thinking.

If a quote is significantly cheaper, find out which hours, which grade of officer or which management time has been removed. There is usually a specific answer.

Agree how it will be reviewed

Write into the contract how performance will be judged: response times, report quality, officer continuity, and a monthly review with someone who can change the plan. Security needs are not static, and a contract that cannot flex ends up either wasteful or thin.