Procurement glossary · Writing and evaluation
Bid or no bid
The decision on whether to pursue an opportunity, taken deliberately and against criteria, before any writing starts. It weighs eligibility, capability, capacity, the competitive field and the realistic probability of winning. A bid you were never going to win costs more than the fee it would have earned.
Also called Bid no bid, Qualification decision.
What it means in practice
Most suppliers do not make this decision. They receive an opportunity, feel they ought to respond, and start writing. The decision gets made by default, and the cost lands in management time and pricing effort that was never going to convert.
The criteria that matter are mostly answerable from the published documents in under an hour. Do we meet every mandatory selection requirement. Do we have genuinely comparable references. Do we have capacity to write this properly alongside what else is live. Who else will bid and why would the buyer choose us over them. What is the realistic probability, honestly stated.
Deciding not to bid is a result, not a failure. The capacity freed goes to an opportunity where the probability is real. Suppliers who qualify hard bid less and win more, and their win rate improves for the arithmetical reason that the denominator got smaller as well as the numerator getting larger.
Where suppliers get caught
Bidding because the opportunity arrived rather than because it fits. The strongest signal to walk away is usually present on day one in the published documents, and it is ignored because nobody wants to be the person who said no.
Common questions
What should a bid or no bid decision consider?
Mandatory eligibility, genuinely comparable references, capacity to write it properly alongside live work, the likely competitive field, and an honest probability of winning. Most of that is answerable from the published documents in an hour.
Is it worth bidding if we probably will not win?
Occasionally, where the bid builds reusable content, opens a buyer relationship or is a deliberate first attempt at a market. That is a decision made on purpose with a stated reason. Bidding by default because the tender arrived is not the same thing.
Related terms
If a tender in front of you turns on this, send us the documents and the deadline and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth bidding. Call 020 3668 5488, or read the rest of the UK procurement glossary.