Every bid team has answered a tender it should have skipped. The deadline looked manageable, the buyer seemed familiar, and saying no felt like leaving money on the table. Three weeks later, the team had spent dozens of hours on a response that never had a real chance.
A good go or no-go decision is the cheapest win in bidding. It protects your team’s time for the tenders you can actually win. The challenge is making that decision quickly, with the right facts, before the clock runs down.
1. Can you meet the mandatory requirements?
Start with the pass or fail items. If you cannot meet them, nothing else matters. Look for:
- Minimum turnover, insurance cover and financial standing
- Required certifications, licences and registrations
- Mandatory experience, such as a number of similar contracts in recent years
- Local presence, staffing or subcontracting rules
If one of these is a hard gap, stop here, or decide now whether a partner could close it.
2. Does the scope match what you do well?
A tender can be within your sector and still be the wrong shape. Compare the scope, volumes and locations with your current operations. A contract that needs a new depot, a new team or a new system has a cost that rarely appears in the price.
3. Do you know the buyer, and do they know you?
Bids written cold tend to score lower than bids from suppliers who understand the buyer’s priorities. Ask whether you have worked with this buyer, attended its supplier events or answered its previous tenders. If not, is this the right first contract to pursue?
4. How will the bid be scored?
Read the evaluation criteria early. A tender weighted 70% on price needs a different strategy from one weighted 60% on quality. Check whether there are minimum quality thresholds, interviews or presentations, and whether social value or sustainability carries real weight.
5. Can you price it to win and still make money?
Look at award history for similar contracts if it is published. If the realistic winning price is below your cost to serve, it is better to know now.
6. Do you have the people and the time?
Count the hours. A complex public tender can need input from operations, finance, HR, legal and senior management. Check who is available before the deadline, and what else is due in the same weeks.
The goal is not to bid less. It is to bid on purpose.
Turning the checklist into a habit
The checklist only works if it is quick to complete. That is why many teams hold a short weekly bid review, where every new opportunity is scored against the same questions and the decision is recorded with a reason.
In BidPilots, ReviewPilot reads the tender pack and fills most of this checklist for you, marking each requirement as met, to confirm, or a gap. The decision itself stays with your bid manager.
