Know if a government bid is worth it, and what to charge, before you write a word.
Send one RFP, RFQ or tender. Get a clear bid, bid-with-conditions or no-bid call, with the reasoning and the price behind it.
It’s Sunday night. The RFP is due Thursday. Do you bid?
Most owners decide the way you probably do: a read of the requirements, a feeling about the buyer, a look at the calendar. If it seems doable, you bid. Then the price is set by what you think the others will charge, with a margin added to a cost estimate that never included what the bid itself cost you.
That is how companies win government contracts and end up worse off. The work was fine. The numbers were never looked at before the commitment was made. This assessment puts them in front of you first.
Where government bids quietly lose money
None of these show up in the price you quote. All of them show up in the year-end numbers.
- The bid itself is a cost. Senior time, writing, pricing and review add up to real hours before anything is won. Lose, and it is gone.
- The cost estimate is too kind. Supervision, travel, ramp-up, rework and overhead are the lines that most often go missing.
- You fund the work until the buyer pays. Payment terms are a financing cost, and on a long contract they are not small.
- Rates are fixed for the whole term. Wages, materials and subcontractor prices move. Your rate may not.
- A requirement you only half meet. Either it disqualifies you, or it is a promise you will pay to keep.
- Vague scope. Where the RFP is unclear, the risk usually lands on the bidder.
What a “15% margin” can turn into
An illustration of the logic. The numbers are invented for this page. They are not a client.
A two-year services contract, quoted at $600,000. The cost estimate says $510,000, so the margin looks like $90,000, or 15%.
Then the costs the estimate left out arrive: the bid itself, labour increases under fixed rates, slow payment, insurance requirements and scope disputes. Together they take about $58,000. What is left is $32,000, about 5%.
Same contract, same price, a very different decision. The assessment is how you find that out before you submit, when you can still ask the buyer a question, change the price, or walk away.
Three possible answers, all of them useful
Bid
It is winnable, it pays, and the risks are ones you can carry. You get the price to submit and the reasoning behind it.
Bid, with conditions
It works if certain things are true. You get the list: a question to put to the buyer, a quote to have in hand, a floor price below which you do not go.
No-bid
The numbers do not work, or the odds are poor. You keep the weeks of effort you would have spent. This is often the most valuable answer.
What the assessment covers
What we look at
- Whether you can realistically win it: fit with the mandatory requirements, the scoring, and what the buyer appears to want
- What the bid will cost you to prepare and submit
- What the work will really cost to deliver, including overhead, risk and payment terms
- What margin is left, and how price changes it
You walk away with
- A bid, bid-with-conditions or no-bid decision you can act on
- The lowest price that still pays you
- The risks that could sink it
- The conditions that need to be true before you proceed
How it works
Send it over
Send the RFP, RFQ or tender package, plus whatever you know about your costs.
Fixed quote
Scope and fee within one business day. No hourly billing.
The assessment
Delivered in 3–5 business days by the person you spoke with. No handoffs.
Walkthrough
A 30-minute call to go through the call and the price, and answer questions.
Is this the right fit?
Best for
Owner-led companies that already bid on government work and have a live RFP, RFQ, tender or standing offer they keep going back and forth on. Also firms winning contracts that turn out thinner than expected, or unsure which opportunities deserve the effort.
Not the right fit if
You have not bid before and need to find opportunities first (start with Capture Planning), or you have already decided to bid and just need the response written (see Proposal Writing & Management). Sometimes the honest answer is no-bid. That is a result, not a failure.
Questions
What is a bid/no-bid decision?
It’s the decision to pursue a government bid or pass, based on whether you can win it and whether it’s worth winning once price, delivery cost, risk and the cost of bidding are counted. Read the full guide.
How do you price a government bid so you don’t lose money?
Start from what is scored, estimate what the buyer can pay and what competitors are likely to bid, then set your lowest viable price before you write a word. Read the pricing guide.
What do you need from us?
The full RFP, RFQ or tender package and anything you know about your own costs for the work. If you’ve bid on similar work before, past prices and results help. We’ll tell you what else is useful when we send the quote.
Can you promise we’ll win?
No, and nobody honest can. What you get is a clear view of whether the bid is worth pursuing and the lowest price that still pays you, so the bids you do chase are chosen on purpose.
What does it cost?
Every engagement is a fixed fee agreed before work starts. You get the quote within one business day of sending the opportunity. If you go ahead with proposal support afterwards, the fee is credited.
Do you work in both Canada and the US?
Yes. We work on tenders and RFPs for Canadian and US buyers. Canadian clients are billed in CAD, US clients in USD.
Related
- Proposal Writing & Management: if the answer is bid and you want help with the response.
- Win/Loss Review: if you want the same view across your last two years of bids.
- Fractional Bid Manager: if you want this on every opportunity, not just one.
- All services
Got an opportunity you’re not sure about?
Send it over. You’ll get an honest first read and a clear next step.