The Truth About Tender Finding Services (And What to Do Instead)
'Can you find us tenders?'
I get asked this question at least once a week. And my answer might surprise you. it's not what a bid consultancy is supposed to say.
No. We won't find you tenders. And honestly? You probably shouldn't pay anyone else to do it either.
Before you close this page, let me explain why. because this might be the most valuable piece of bidding advice you'll read this year.
The tender finding industry has a problem
There are dozens of companies out there offering 'tender finding' or 'tender alert' services. You pay a monthly fee. usually £100-£500. and they send you a list of tender opportunities that match your keywords.
Sounds useful, right? In theory, yes. In practice, here's what actually happens:
They scrape the same public databases you can access for free. They match your keywords loosely. so a company that does 'cleaning services' gets alerts for everything from industrial deep cleaning to office maintenance to window cleaning at military facilities. You end up with 30 alerts a week, 28 of which are completely irrelevant.
And the two that are relevant? You could have found them yourself in ten minutes.
The free tools that actually work
Every public sector tender in the UK is published on one of two platforms. and both are completely free:
- Contracts Finder (www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk). for contracts above £12,000 from English public sector bodies
- Find a Tender (www.find-tender.service.gov.uk). for contracts above the procurement thresholds, covering the whole of the UK
Both platforms let you set up email alerts with specific keywords, locations, and value ranges. You'll receive daily notifications directly to your inbox. No middleman, no monthly fee.
For devolved administrations, you also have Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales, and eTendersNI. all free.
Why finding tenders isn't actually the hard part
Here's the bit that tender finding companies don't want you to understand: finding the opportunity is the easy part. Winning it is what matters.
I've worked with over 500 UK businesses, and not a single one has ever failed because they couldn't find tenders. They've failed because:
- They bid for everything instead of focusing on contracts they can genuinely win
- They had no existing relationship with the buyer
- Their bid was technically accurate but not evaluator-focused
- They didn't understand the scoring criteria
- They submitted a 'brochure' instead of a scored response
Paying someone to send you more opportunities doesn't solve any of these problems. If anything, it makes things worse. because now you're spreading your time and resource across even more bids you're unlikely to win.
The difference between bidding and winning
Let me give you a real example. A facilities management company came to us last year. They'd been subscribing to a tender finding service for 18 months and had bid for 22 opportunities in that time. They'd won zero.
Twenty-two bids. Months of senior management time. Thousands of pounds in both the subscription fee and the hidden cost of preparing unsuccessful submissions. Zero return.
We looked at their bid history and immediately identified the problem: they were bidding for everything the alert service sent them, with no bid/no-bid qualification process. Half the contracts were outside their geographic capability. A third were for services they could technically deliver but had no relevant case studies for.
We helped them develop a proper bid pipeline strategy. Instead of 22 scatter-gun bids, we focused on 4 carefully selected opportunities over the next 6 months. They won 3 of them, with a combined contract value of £8.7M.
That's the difference between finding tenders and winning them.
How to build a bidding pipeline that actually generates revenue
If you're serious about winning public sector work, here's what to do instead of paying for a tender finding service:
1. Set up your own alerts (10 minutes)
Register on Contracts Finder and Find a Tender. Set up keyword alerts for your specific services. Check them every morning. it takes less time than reading the news.
2. Build relationships with buyers (ongoing)
Attend market engagement events. Register on Dynamic Purchasing Systems and framework supplier lists. Make yourself known to procurement teams before the tender is published. Buyers want to hear from potential suppliers. that's what market engagement is for.
3. Develop a bid/no-bid process (critical)
Not every tender is worth your time. Before committing to a bid, ask yourself: - Do we have relevant experience and case studies? - Do we have (or can we build) a relationship with this buyer? - Is the contract value worth the investment in bid preparation? - Can we realistically compete on both quality and price? - Do we have the capacity to deliver if we win?
If you can't answer 'yes' to at least four of these, don't bid. Your time is better spent on opportunities you can actually win.
4. Invest in quality, not quantity
One exceptionally well-written bid is worth more than ten mediocre ones. The businesses that win consistently put serious effort into fewer, higher-quality submissions. often with professional bid writing support for the contracts that really matter.
When professional support makes the difference
To be clear: I'm not saying you should never get help with your bidding. There are situations where professional bid support delivers enormous value:
- Framework applications (G-Cloud, Pagabo, CCS, CWAS). getting on the framework unlocks years of call-off revenue
- Complex ITTs where the evaluation criteria require specialist writing techniques
- High-value contracts where the potential return justifies the investment
- When you've been losing and need an objective assessment of what's going wrong
The point is: invest your money in winning the right bids, not in finding more bids to lose.
The bottom line
Save your £300 a month on tender alerts. Spend 10 minutes each morning on the free platforms. Focus your energy and budget on writing winning submissions for the contracts that genuinely suit your business.
That's how you build a sustainable public sector revenue stream. Not by casting a wider net. but by fishing in the right waters with the right bait.
Want to win more of the tenders you find?
That's what we do. With a 93% success rate across 500+ tenders, we help UK businesses turn the right opportunities into contract wins. Call 020 3816 2086 or visit https://www.glaxtons.co.uk/contact for a free consultation.