What are the decision gates in a bid/no-bid process?
Most small contractors need three gates: a fast screen, a qualification review, and a final bid decision. Each gate should have a clear owner and a time limit.
| Gate | Question | Typical owner |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Screen | Are we eligible and is this in our lane? | Capture or BD lead |
| 2. Qualify | Can we credibly compete and deliver? | Capture lead with delivery input |
| 3. Bid decision | Is this worth the proposal cost now? | Executive sponsor |
What criteria should a bid/no-bid scorecard include?
Score what you can verify: eligibility, scope fit, past performance, competitive position, delivery capacity, and the proposal effort required. Weight the criteria that have actually predicted your wins and losses.
- Eligibility: set-aside, NAICS, size standard, vehicle access, clearances
- Scope fit: share of the work you can perform with your own staff
- Past performance: relevant, recent, and referenceable contracts
- Customer knowledge: prior contact, known requirements, incumbent position
- Teaming: partners in place for the gaps
- Capacity: people available to write the proposal and deliver after award
- Effort and timing: proposal cost against the realistic win probability
How should missing information be handled in a bid decision?
Record it as an open check with an owner and a due date. A recommendation built on a title or notice summary alone should be labeled provisional until the full solicitation is reviewed.
This is where many teams lose time: a promising notice gets a confident "bid" before anyone has read the attachments, then the team discovers an eligibility or staffing gap two weeks into writing.
How do you keep the bid/no-bid process from becoming a formality?
Track every decision and its outcome, then review the record quarterly. If no-bids are rare, the criteria are not doing any work.
- Log the score, decision, and reason for every opportunity reviewed
- Compare win rates by score band
- Adjust weights when the scores stop predicting results