Check the gates before scoring the opportunity
A high overall score cannot repair a mandatory requirement you cannot meet. Read the notice and the relevant tender documents, then distinguish three states: evidenced, unknown and not met. Mark the document and section supporting each conclusion. If a condition is ambiguous, use the buyer's stated clarification process.
- Is the opportunity open, and can you meet the submission timetable?
- Can you meet the stated conditions of participation and evidence requirements?
- Can you provide the required services, including support and transition?
- Can the named team deliver within the buyer's timetable?
- Are the proposed contract, payment and liability terms acceptable after review?
This is a screening framework, not a universal procurement rulebook. Requirements differ between competitions. Do not assume that an incumbent, a large contract value or a familiar technology decides the answer by itself.
Build a one-page evidence log
| Question | Evidence to record | Decision implication |
|---|---|---|
| Can we deliver the core scope? | Comparable project, your role, scale and outcome. | Investigate if the work is demonstrably relevant. |
| What is missing? | Exact requirement, missing fact, owner and check date. | Clarify before treating an unknown as acceptable. |
| What would delivery displace? | Named people, availability and existing commitments. | Resolve a capacity conflict before promising dates. |
| Can the work support a viable price? | Scope assumptions, effort range, external costs and support. | Rework or pass if plausible costs exceed viable revenue. |
| Why might the buyer choose us? | Evidence mapped to the published evaluation criteria. | Find a specific reason beyond matching keywords. |
Put a cost on preparing the bid
Illustrative arithmetic: a delivery lead spends 12 hours, a technical lead 10 hours and a writer 18 hours. At an internal planning cost of £60 per hour, 40 hours cost £2,400. Add an assumed £300 of external review and the bid costs £2,700 before any extra clarification or interview work. These are invented inputs, not agency benchmarks or suggested rates.
If the potential contribution after delivery costs were £18,000, the simple break-even win probability would be £2,700 ÷ £18,000 = 15%. That calculation does not tell you your probability of winning. It ignores several timing, risk and opportunity-cost considerations. Its purpose is to expose what you would have to believe, not to turn an uncertain bid into a precise forecast.
Write a decision that someone can challenge
Copy this decision note: “We will [investigate / clarify / pursue / pass] because [requirement and evidence]. The unresolved issue is [specific fact]. [Owner] will check it by [date]. Our bid-effort allowance is [hours and cost]. We will reconsider if [observable condition].”
Hypothetical decision: a ten-person agency can show two comparable migrations but has no confirmed support partner. It assigns an owner to check the required service levels and subcontracting conditions before committing proposal time. The missing partner is a concrete action, not a reason to call the whole opportunity a strong fit.
Keep the decision connected to the documents
Revisit the note when the buyer publishes an amendment or clarification. Record what changed instead of carrying an old decision forward automatically. After the outcome, compare your original assumptions with what you learned, including bids you decided not to pursue.
Find official notices through Find a Tender and Contracts Finder. TenderVerdict's BID, STRETCH and SKIP judgements help with notice screening; they do not replace this document-level decision. The checklist and examples above are editorial guidance, not outputs from a live assessment.
Keep working through the decision
See your own tenders judged.
Start with five free briefs, no card. Confirm your email and check the capability profile drafted from your website. See which published notices deserve a closer look, with the reasons.