Go/No-Go for tenders: decide in 30 minutes whether a bid is worthwhile

A bid for a public tender can easily take several working days. The go/no-go decision, also known as bid/no-bid, clarifies beforehand whether you meet the requirements, whether you can realistically win and whether the contract pays off. Those who decide early and against fixed criteria submit fewer but better bids.

What the go/no-go decision is

Go/no-go is the deliberate decision on whether your company submits a bid for a specific tender. It is made after a tender has been found and before the actual bid work begins. In bid management, the same step is called bid/no-bid or bid qualification.

Many companies decide on gut feeling: the contracting authority is familiar, the subject roughly fits, so they bid. The result is bids that fail because of a missing piece of evidence or lose to a competitor who has held the contract for years. A structured decision prevents exactly that.

When you should decide

Ideally in two stages:

1. Initial screening (5 to 10 minutes) directly after finding the tender, based on the contract notice. Do service, region, term and rough order of magnitude fit? Are there obvious grounds for exclusion?
2. Decision based on the tender documents (20 to 40 minutes), as soon as the documents are available. Now you check suitability, evidence, award criteria, contractual risks and deadlines.

The decision should be made at the latest while the period for bidder questions is running. That leaves time to clarify any uncertainties with the contracting authority.

The five questions of every go/no-go decision

1. Are we allowed to bid at all? Grounds for exclusion, selection criteria, required evidence such as turnover, references, certificates and insurance, minimum requirements for staff.
2. Can we deliver the service? Capacity during the performance period, staff with the required qualifications, location, need for subcontractors or a bidding consortium.
3. Can we win? Award criteria and their weighting (price or quality), who held the contract so far, who regularly wins in this segment and whether the specification appears tailored to a particular supplier.
4. Is it worth it? Contract value, margin, term and extension options, contractual penalties, liability, payment terms and the strategic value, such as a new contracting authority or an important reference.
5. Can we complete the bid in time? Submission deadline, effort for concepts and forms, available people in the team.

Scoring matrix: turning gut feeling into a decision

Rate each criterion with 0 (not met), 1 (partially met) or 2 (met) and weight it by importance. Must criteria are knockout criteria: if one is not met and cannot be remedied before submission, the answer is no-go, regardless of the score.

How to read the result (example): from 70 percent of the possible points go, between 50 and 70 percent go with conditions, such as finding a partner or submitting a bidder question, below 50 percent no-go. In the example the result is 77 percent, so go. You set the thresholds for your company and adjust them to your win rate after a few procedures.

Checklist to tick off

• Submission deadline, deadline for bidder questions and bid validity period noted
• Procedure type and lots checked, partial bid possible?
• Grounds for exclusion and self-declarations checked
• Selection criteria matched point by point against your own evidence
• References suitable in type, scope and period
• Certificates valid until contract award, e.g. ISO 9001 or ISO 27001
• Staff with the required qualifications available
• Award criteria and weighting understood, price sheet reviewed
• Contractual penalties, liability, warranty and payment terms assessed
• Previous contractor and typical competitors researched
• Need for subcontractors or a bidding consortium clarified
• Internal effort estimated and team named
• Decision documented with reasons: go, go with conditions or no-go

Typical mistakes

• Deciding too late. Anyone who only realises after days of concept work that a piece of evidence is missing has chosen the most expensive option.
• Reading only the contract notice. The decisive requirements are often found in annexes, the bill of quantities and forms.
• Overlooking the competition. Contract award notices show who held a contract so far and who wins in your segment. This data is public and rarely used.
• Bidding on everything. A high number of bids is not a success. What matters is the win rate per working day invested.
• Not evaluating no-go decisions. The reasons for a no-go show which evidence, references or partners you lack on a lasting basis. The same applies after a rejection.

Where the information comes from

• Contract notice and tender documents: suitability, deadlines, award criteria, contract terms.
• Contract award notices in TED and in the German public procurement data service (Datenservice Öffentlicher Einkauf): previous contractors, contract terms, number of bids and in some cases contract values.
• Your own documents: reference list, certificates, staff profiles, previous bids and their outcome.

Go/no-go with validait

validait checks a tender against your company profile and your catalogue of criteria and gives a recommendation: go, conditional or no-go. Every statement is backed by the source reference in the tender documents, so you can verify it in minutes instead of reading for hours. From contract award data, validait also shows who wins in your segment. More on the bid/no-bid review

Frequently asked questions