Every hour spent on a tender you were never going to win is an hour taken from one you could. A disciplined bid/no-bid decision is the least glamorous and most valuable habit a bidding business can build.
Most teams qualify by instinct, in a corridor, in about ninety seconds. The opportunity looks like work you do, the value looks good, so you go. Three weeks later you have burned your operations manager’s evenings and finished fourth.
A structured decision does not need a committee. Five questions, answered honestly and written down, will separate the tenders worth chasing from the ones that flatter your pipeline.
First: do we meet every mandatory requirement today, without caveat? Turnover thresholds, accreditations, insurance levels and comparable contract examples are pass/fail. If one is missing, the rest of the conversation is academic.
Second: do we have evidence, not just capability? Evaluators score what you can prove. If you have delivered the work but cannot point to a named contract, a measured outcome and a reference, you will lose marks to someone who can.
Third: is there an incumbent, and is there a reason the buyer would change? A re-procurement with a satisfied incumbent is a high bar. Not impossible — but you need a specific, evidenced reason the buyer should move.
Fourth: can we deliver it profitably at a competitive price? Winning work you cannot deliver is worse than losing it. Involve whoever owns the numbers before, not after, the decision.
Fifth: do we have the time and the people to produce a genuinely competitive submission by the deadline? Not a compliant one — a competitive one. If the honest answer is no, the choice is to buy in capacity or to stand down.
Score each question, agree a threshold, and let the answer stand even when it is disappointing. Teams that qualify properly bid less often and win considerably more — and their best people stop dreading tender season.