Evaluate and develop your organisation’s ability to bid
Overview
This standard is about evaluating and developing your organisation's ability to bid. This important stage involves alignment of business objectives with the bid requirements, evaluation of your organisation’s areas of competence and expertise, assessment of financial and technical capabilities and assessment of all potential risks. Bid preparation takes a lot of time and resources, so the crucial ‘bid-no bid’ decision is an important step in the process.
This standard is for professionals involved in evaluating and developing your organisation's ability to bid. It is relevant to in-house bid managers, other related professionals, technical specialists, marketing, sales and business development teams and business owners.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
- select the opportunities to bid in line with your organisation's business strategy and corporate objectives
- collate all documents relating to the tender and familiarise yourself with project requirements
- identify any uncertainties about the tender and collate the list of queries
- research the buying company in terms of their values, objectives and strategies
- participate in pre-market engagement sessions
- evaluate how the bid specifications align with your organisation’s business strategy
- research potential suppliers on the market and benchmark your organisation against them
- define your organisation’s competitive advantage in relation to other potential suppliers
- appraise how the bid may potentially impact your organisation
- evaluate your organisation’s capability by assessing the team competencies, skills set, technical expertise
- collate the scope of internal and external resources and calculate the costs of these
- assess and evaluate the profitability of the project
- collate all potential risks and carry out risk assessment with contingency measures
- assess your organisation’s strengths and weaknesses
- examine successful and unsuccessful records in your organisation’s bid library
- analyse the buyer’s evaluation criteria and how all factors are weighted
- seek external experts’ opinion to get another view on your chances to win the bid
- carry out a structured bid-no bid assessment against the project requirements
- improve your overall bid management by implementing scoring systems to streamline your organisation’ bid-no bid decisions
- present the 'bid no-bid' proposal to senior managers or directors
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
- the relevant legal, regulatory and ethical requirements relating to bidding, tendering and procurement
- the current best practice and bodies of knowledge relevant to bidding
- your organisation's corporate objectives
- the tender specifications and requirements
- the buyer’s evaluation criteria and the weighting factors in the tender
- how your organisation’s business strategy potentially aligns with the requirements of the tender
- the benefits and the purpose of Pre-Market or Preliminary Market Engagement (PME)
- the methods of research, gathering market intelligence and analysing information on activities of potential customers and competitors
- your organisation’s position on the market and its competitive advantage
- how to research the buyer’s organisation and their objectives
- your organisation’s resources and timelines for potential delivery of the project
- the required scope of skills, technical expertise and competencies in relation to requirements of the tender
- how to ensure that processes and procedures for bid development are in place and remain fit for purpose
- the types of potential risks in relation to the contract and contingency measures
- the relevant techniques for assessing your organisation's bidding strengths and weaknesses based on previous activities
- the importance of seeking external opinions on your organisation’s chances to win the bid
- how to structure and develop your company's bid library and ensure that the information is kept up to date
- how to source the appropriate skills and maintain their relevance to bidding activities
- the principles of your organisation’s ‘bid-no bid’ assessment
- your organisation’s systems and procedures for streamlining the ‘bid-no bid’ decisions
Scope/range
Scope Performance
Scope Knowledge
Values
Behaviours
Skills
- Data collection and research
- Information management
- Planning
- Reporting
- Strategic thinking
Glossary
Best and Final Offer (BAFO)
A customer request for a document that describes an organisation's final price. The customer will request this after the bid has been submitted to help select the final companies to negotiate with. (Source: APMP – Glossary of terms – amended)
Bid library
A repository of previous responses and resources which can be used in bids, usually stored and searched electronically.
Bid (tender or proposal)
A formal proposal containing a service model and pricing to deliver goods or services.
Call Off Contract
An individual contract between an organisation and a supplier which falls under a framework agreement.
Commissioning
A structured way of deciding how and on whom public money should be spent.
Expression of Interest (EOI)
Usually made following a PIN, the EOI is how a bidder communicates to the commissioning body that they are interested in bidding for the contract. The bidders are asked to provide information on their capability to do the work. It is usually the first stage of a multi-stage tender process.
Invitation to Tender (ITT)
A structured, competitive procedure inviting potential providers to submit a service offer which will be assessed against standardised aspects set by a Contracting Authority. An ITT may also refer to the document(s) provided to the competing providers, containing the instructions and resources for a compliant bid.[GH1]
Opportunity Management System (OMS)
A system that provides information on sales leads or opportunities, along with other supporting information. Typically, these systems provide a visual interface that organises certain kinds of data like customer or potential customer identifiers, transaction status, past purchases and other relevant information that will help to assist sales teams. (Source: techopedia.com)
Pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ)
Now called Selection Questionnaires (SQs). A questionnaire issued to gauge experience, capacity, and financial standing of potential providers, often used to assess general suitability of potential providers or shortlist companies according to contract requirements. Providers successful at PQQ will be invited to participate in the ITT stage.
Procurement
The act of acquiring goods, works, or services from an external source, often via a competitive tendering process.
Purchasing guidelines or procedures
A set of steps that an organisation follows when making purchases of goods or services, which may also include contract value thresholds, triggering different levels of process detail.
Prior Information Notice (PIN)
A published notice which provides advance warning of a Commissioner’s intention to launch a procurement. A PIN may be issued up to 12 months in advance of procurement, and potential bidders may be requested to make an Expression of Interest.
Pre-Market or Preliminary Market Engagement (PME)
A process that takes place before the publication of a tender or transparency notice and helps contracting authorities and the market prepare for the procurement. The public sector buyers consult with the supply market to understand market capabilities, refine requirements, and foster innovation for a more effective procurement outcome. This is important under Procurement Act 2023 (the Act), because this will enable the buyers to have additional advantage to design their procurement procedures. (Source: GOV.UK)
Request for Proposal (RFP)
A document which sets out the contract requirements and general nature of the service, inviting bidders to submit their proposals. An RFP is generally written more openly than an ITT and requires bidders to submit more detailed proposals, which may not be guided by specific questions.
The Procurement Act
The Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025. It is a new UK legislation that reforms public procurement. It aims to simplify processes, encourage more small and social businesses to win public contracts, and increase transparency for taxpayers. Key changes include tougher rules for excluding underperforming suppliers, greater scrutiny of spending on a new Central Digital Platform, and improved monitoring of supplier performance. (Source: GOV.UK)
Links To Other NOS
INSSAL004 Develop sales strategies and plans
INSSAL005 Devise sales strategies to win procured business
External Links
Crown Commercial Service: www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/
Contracts Finder: www.gov.uk/contracts-finder
Public Contracts Scotland: www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/
Sell2Wales: www.sell2wales.gov.wales/
eSourcing NI: e-sourcingni.ukp.app.jaggaer.com/
eTendersNI: etendersni.gov.uk/
Official Journal of the European Union: www.ojec.com