Going Out to Tender: 5 Things Every Business Needs to Know First (2026)
The decision to start tendering for contracts is one of the most commercially significant a service-based business can make. Done well, it opens a sustained pipeline of contracted revenue — work that is defined in scope, confirmed in value, and secured for a fixed period. Done without adequate preparation, it consumes significant time and resource in pursuit of contracts that were never genuinely winnable.
This guide is for organisations approaching tendering for the first time — or returning to it after a period of absence — who want to understand what the process actually involves before they commit. The five considerations below are the ones that determine whether going out to tender produces results or frustration. Work through them honestly before submitting your first response.
For the complete overview of how tendering works from opportunity to award, see our guide to tendering for contracts. For the step-by-step breakdown of producing a competitive submission, see our guide to how to write a bid.
5 Things to Consider Before Going Out to Tender
1. Public sector or private sector — the rules are different
The most fundamental distinction in tendering is between public and private sector procurement, and understanding it before you begin shapes every decision that follows.
Public sector tendering is governed by the Procurement Act 2023 for contracts above defined financial thresholds. Buyers — local authorities, NHS trusts, central government departments, housing associations, and other public bodies — are legally required to run a transparent, competitive process, evaluate submissions consistently against published criteria, and award contracts on the basis of the Most Advantageous Tender rather than simply the cheapest price. That evaluation framework, which assesses quality, price, and social value together, is what makes writing quality the primary competitive lever in public sector tendering.
Public sector contracts also offer a payment security that private sector work rarely provides. Under the Procurement Act 2023, contracting authorities must comply with prompt payment requirements — typically 30 days from invoice. For businesses managing cash flow through a period of growth, that certainty has real commercial value.
Private sector tendering operates under fewer formal regulations. Buyers can award contracts on any basis — including price alone — and are not required to publish opportunities, disclose evaluation criteria, or provide feedback to unsuccessful suppliers. Relationships and track record carry more weight in private sector procurement than in public, and the process is more variable. Our guide to types of tendering procedures covers both sectors in detail.
For most organisations going out to tender for the first time, the public sector is the more accessible starting point — because the process is transparent, the opportunities are publicly advertised, and the evaluation criteria tell you exactly what you need to produce to be competitive.
2. Assess honestly whether you can deliver the contract
Before investing any time in a tender response, confirm that your organisation can actually deliver what the contract requires. This sounds obvious — and it is — but the number of businesses that begin writing a response before checking their eligibility is consistently higher than you would expect.
Delivering a contract and winning a contract are different things. Winning requires being able to demonstrate capability convincingly in writing, against the specific evaluation criteria the buyer has published. If your delivery capability is genuine but your written evidence is weak — insufficient case studies, thin policies, limited team credentials — you will not score competitively regardless of what you can actually do. The buyer has no way to assess capability other than what your submission tells them.
The bid no-bid decision should be a structured assessment, not an instinct. Before committing to any submission, apply a consistent set of questions: Can you meet every mandatory eligibility criterion? Do you have the relevant case studies? Is the contract financially viable? Is your team available to deliver? Does this opportunity align with your strategic direction? Our guide to the bid no-bid decision gives you the complete framework.
3. Understand your financial eligibility
Most public sector tenders — and many private sector ones — assess your financial standing as part of the eligibility process. Buyers do this to protect themselves from the commercial risk of awarding a contract to a supplier who lacks the financial resilience to deliver it without the contract itself putting the business at risk.
The standard threshold applied across most UK public procurement is that your annual turnover should be at least double the annual contract value. If the contract is worth £250,000 per year, you need a minimum annual turnover of approximately £500,000 to pass the financial standing assessment. This is not a negotiable requirement — it is a pass or fail criterion that disqualifies your submission regardless of writing quality if you do not meet it.
Beyond turnover, buyers also check insurance levels — public liability, professional indemnity, and employers liability at minimums specified in the tender documents — and sometimes financial ratios such as current ratio or net assets. Check every financial requirement stated in the tender documents before committing to write a response.
If the contract value exceeds what your current financial standing supports, consortium tendering — bidding jointly with another organisation to pool financial standing — is a route to eligibility in some procurement frameworks. The consortium arrangement must be disclosed and its structure approved by the buyer.
4. Do you have the experience to evidence your capability?
Most tenders — particularly in the public sector — require you to provide two to three case studies demonstrating comparable delivery within the past three to five years. These are not optional additions to your submission. They are the primary mechanism by which buyers assess whether you have done something comparable before and can be trusted to do it again.
A strong case study covers the contract value and duration, your specific delivery approach, the outcomes achieved, any challenges encountered and how you resolved them, and a verifiable reference contact. It demonstrates not just that you have done similar work, but that you did it well and learned from it. Our guide to writing case studies for tenders explains exactly what evaluators are looking for and how to present your experience to maximum scoring effect.
If you are genuinely new to the market and lack the required case study evidence, start with smaller contracts — through local government tenders, subcontracting arrangements, or SME-accessible contract lots — that build your evidence base before you pursue higher-value opportunities. Attempting to win significant public sector contracts without relevant case studies is almost never competitive, regardless of writing quality.
5. Price intelligently, not instinctively
Pricing a tender response is a strategic exercise, not an accounting one. Two errors recur consistently among organisations going out to tender for the first time: pricing too low in the hope that cheapness wins, and pricing without reference to the evaluation weighting that determines how much your price actually matters.
Pricing too low raises credibility concerns. A price the buyer assesses as insufficient to deliver the specified service signals either that the supplier has not understood the scope or that they cannot sustain the quality they are promising. Either conclusion damages your overall evaluation score.
More important is understanding the evaluation weighting before you set any price. If quality is weighted at 70% of the total score and price at 30%, your written responses determine the majority of the outcome. A price that is 10% above the lowest bidder costs you approximately three percentage points of total weighted score — which may be entirely recoverable through superior quality responses. Pricing aggressively at the expense of delivery quality to save those three points is almost never the right strategic choice.
Model the scoring impact of different price positions before committing. Understand what the evaluation weighting means for where your effort should be concentrated. And ensure your price is consistent with the delivery model your quality responses describe — inconsistencies between the two undermine both scores. Our guide to tender pricing strategy gives you the complete framework.
Where to Find Tender Opportunities
Once you are confident in your readiness to tender, finding the right opportunities is the next challenge. The UK’s primary public procurement platforms are:
Find a Tender Service — mandatory publication platform for above-threshold public sector contracts. Register, set up keyword and category alerts, and monitor regularly. Free to access.
Contracts Finder — covers a broader range including below-threshold contracts and historical award notices that give you intelligence on re-procurement timelines. Our Contracts Finder guide explains how to use it effectively.
Local authority portals — most councils and combined authorities publish their own procurement pipelines. Our guide to local government tenders covers how to monitor these efficiently.
For a complete breakdown of every UK procurement channel — from national platforms and framework exercises to sector-specific procurement bodies — see our guide to how to find tender opportunities.
Building Your Readiness to Tender
Going out to tender successfully for the first time requires more preparation than most organisations expect. The businesses that hit the ground running are those that have invested in their foundations before a specific opportunity appears — not those scrambling to produce policies, CVs, and case studies in the two weeks before a submission deadline.
The foundations you need in place before your first tender are: at least two to three strong, relevant case studies from the past three to five years; current policies covering health and safety, equality and diversity, environmental management, and data protection; up-to-date CVs for your senior management and key delivery team; and the required insurance levels for the contracts you are targeting.
For organisations approaching tendering for the first time, our Tender Ready guide covers the complete preparation framework — including what social value commitments to develop, how to structure your bid library, and how to identify the right first opportunities to pursue.
Frequently Asked Questions About Going Out to Tender
What does going out to tender actually mean?
Going out to tender means formally submitting a competitive bid to a buyer who has published a contract opportunity and invited eligible suppliers to respond. The buyer evaluates all compliant submissions against defined criteria and awards the contract to the highest-scoring bid. In public sector procurement, the process is governed by the Procurement Act 2023 and must be transparent, consistent, and open to any eligible supplier. In the private sector, the process is less regulated but follows the same basic structure. Our guide to what is a tender covers the definition in full.
How long does a tender process take?
It varies considerably by contract size and procurement procedure. A relatively straightforward open procedure may run from publication to award in six to eight weeks. A two-stage process with a pre-qualification questionnaire followed by an ITT can take three to six months or longer. The submission preparation period — the time between the ITT being issued and the submission deadline — is typically two to six weeks for most public sector tenders. Build your internal timeline from the submission deadline backwards, ensuring you have adequate time for planning, information gathering, writing, review, and submission management.
How much does it cost to tender for a contract?
Accessing and submitting a tender is free. The cost is the internal resource you invest — management time, writing time, and any external support you engage. For organisations going out to tender for the first time without dedicated internal bid writing capability, professional support is typically the most cost-effective route to a competitive first submission. Our guide to bid writing cost gives you the complete picture of what professional support involves and how to assess the return on investment.
Do I need to be registered anywhere before I can tender?
For UK public sector tenders, you should register on Find a Tender Service and Contracts Finder. For contracts above certain thresholds, the Procurement Act 2023 also introduced a Supplier Registration Service — a central platform where suppliers can maintain their organisation information for use across multiple public sector procurement exercises. Some framework appointment exercises require registration on specific portals before you can access the documents. Check the specific requirements in the tender notice before attempting to download anything.
What is the most common reason first-time tenderers fail to win?
In our experience, the most common reason is submitting without adequate evidence. Buyers cannot award marks for claims — they award marks for verifiable, specific proof of comparable delivery. First-time tenderers often have strong delivery capability but insufficient documented evidence of it: weak case studies, generic policy documents, or CVs that do not reflect the relevant experience of the specific individuals named. Building that evidence base before going out to tender — not in response to a specific opportunity — is the single most impactful preparation investment any organisation can make.
Should I use a professional bid writer when going out to tender for the first time?
For mid-to-high-value first submissions, professional support almost always improves the outcome — and the learning transfer from working with an experienced bid writer accelerates your internal capability development significantly. The first submission your team produces independently will almost certainly be weaker than the standard required to win competitive public sector contracts. Professional support for the first submission sets a quality benchmark your team can then build toward. Our guide to outsourced versus in-house bid writing helps you decide the right model for your situation.
Ready to Start Tendering? We Are Ready to Help You Win.
Together: The Hudson Collective has supported organisations taking their first steps into tendering — and those competing for their hundredth contract — for over a decade. Our team holds an 87% win rate across all sectors and works with businesses of every size, from sole traders approaching their first public sector opportunity to enterprises managing complex, multi-lot procurement programmes.
If you are considering going out to tender and want an honest assessment of your readiness — or if you have identified an opportunity and want an expert team to help you win it — get in touch. There is no obligation and no charge for the initial conversation.
Talk to our team today about your first tender — or send us the documents and we will provide a quote within four working hours.
About the author: Written by Joshua Smith, a seasoned bid-writing expert with experience across the UK, Middle East and US, helping organisations secure the contracts they deserve through high-quality, competitive tender responses.