Tender Pricing and Scoring Review: Test Your Price Against the Buyer's Own Method
Public tenders are often lost on price scoring by bidders whose quality score was close to the winner's. A pricing and scoring review tests your pricing schedule against the buyer's published method, budget and caps before you submit. Glaxtons checks rate caps, wage assumptions, the scoring formula and the realistic price of the winning bid, and sends written recommendations.
Key facts at a glance
- Who it is for
- Bidders who have written the quality answers and have a draft pricing schedule, or who lost a recent tender on price
- What we need
- The pricing schedule with the rates and assumptions behind it (days, visits, staff grades, overheads), plus the buyer's published budget and price scoring method
- What we check
- Rate caps and exclusion thresholds, wage assumptions, the scoring formula, the estimated contract value, and the likely range of competing bids
- What you receive
- Written recommendations before submission, with a modelled price score at the price you propose and at two alternatives
- Typical time to deliver
- Two to three working days from receipt of the schedule
- Fee
- Fixed, agreed in writing before work starts. Call 020 3668 5488
Three ways a good bid loses on price
The first is exclusion. Many tenders publish a maximum hourly rate, a maximum unit price or a budget ceiling, and a bid above it is not scored. The cap sits in the pricing schedule, often not in the notice, and a bidder who prices from its own cost model without reading it can be removed before an evaluator reads a word of its quality answers.
The second is stale inputs. A schedule built on last year's wage rates, an old employer on-cost or an out-of-date living wage will price below the true cost the first year and above the cap in the next. When a living wage rises during the tender window, the schedule needs rebuilding from the wage upwards.
The third is the formula. Price scoring methods differ, and a bid can sit close to the winner on quality yet far behind on price if the formula punishes distance from the lowest price steeply. Bidders who have not modelled the formula do not know how much one pound is worth.
How price is commonly scored
The most common method awards the full price weighting to the lowest compliant price and scores everyone else in proportion: lowest price divided by your price, multiplied by the weighting. On a 30 percent price weighting, a bid 20 percent above the lowest scores about 25 of the 30 points.
Other buyers use a distance method that penalises the gap more sharply, a method that scores against the average of the bids, or a budget-relative method that scores against the published estimated value. A budget-relative method rewards a bid near the budget and punishes both the very low and the very high.
The ITT states which one applies. The review models your price under that method and shows what a change of five or ten percent does to the total score, so the decision on price is made with numbers.
What the review does
We read the pricing schedule, the scoring method and the published budget, then test the schedule line by line: whether every rate sits under any cap, whether the wage and on-cost assumptions are current for the full term, whether the unit assumptions match the specification, and whether the total reconciles to the sheet the buyer will score.
We then compare the total to the published estimated value and, where award notices for comparable contracts are public, to what comparable contracts were awarded for. The report recommends a price position and sets out the risk at each option.
Pricing is one part of a bid. If the quality answers are not written yet, see our final tender support or the urgent bid writing service.
Frequently asked questions
What is a tender price scoring method?
The formula in the ITT that turns each bidder's price into points. The most common divides the lowest compliant price by your price and multiplies by the price weighting. Others score against the average of bids or against the published budget.
Can a bid be excluded for being too expensive?
Yes. Where the buyer publishes a maximum rate or a budget ceiling, a bid above it is typically excluded without being scored. Read the pricing schedule for caps before you price.
Do you recommend a price?
We recommend a price position with the modelled score at each option and the risk of each. The decision is yours, because the price must reflect your costs and your margin.
What happens if the living wage changes during the tender?
The schedule needs rebuilding from the wage upwards, and the answer on how you will absorb wage changes across the term should be consistent with the price. The review checks both.
Can you review a price after we lose?
Yes. Reviewing the published scores and award notice against your submission is the quickest way to learn whether you lost on price, on quality or on compliance, and what to change for the next round.
Pricing a tender this week?
Tell us the buyer, the deadline and the scoring method. A director replies the same working day with a view on timing and a fixed fee.
Test the number before the buyer does
Send us the pricing schedule and the ITT scoring section. We will tell you what the review would cover and how quickly it can turn. Call 020 3668 5488.