To Bid or Not to Bid? Build a Smarter Bid Strategy for 2026
As organisations plan growth for the new year, many Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are facing a familar challenge. There are a growing volume of grants and tenders to apply for, but businesses have restricted people and resource to submit applications.
The initial instinct is often to submit many applications to secure a strong pipeline. Yet in practice, submitting a large number of bids without a structured decision-making process leads to low win rates, rushed submissions and team burnout. Over time, this approach distracts time and attention away from focusing on opportunities that genuinely support long-term growth.
At Pointer, we support SMEs to make confident, evidence-based decisions about where to invest their bid effort. Below we have outlined three considerations that sit at the core of a strong bid/no bid framework and explain how you can apply them.
1. Confirm Compliance to Mandatory Requirements
Before assessing the bid quality or competitiveness, organisations must confirm whether they are compliant to all the mandatory criteria. Many tenders include pass/fail criteria that can rule out a bid before it is scored. This could include:
- Mandatory technical and commercial requirements
- Minimum financial thresholds
- Certifications such as ISO 9001
- Alignment to specific policies and governance structures
How can you do this?
Create a short compliance checklist at the outset of every opportunity. Map each mandatory requirement and discuss with relevant stakeholders whether your product or service is fully, partially or non-compliant. Where any gaps exist, assess whether any changes could lead to compliance within the bid time frame.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Are there any pass/fail requirements that cannot be met?
- Is evidence of compliance readily available, or does it need development?
2. Assess Relevant Experience and Evidence
Strong bids are underpinned by credible, relevant experience. Buyers want reassurance that suppliers understand their challenge and have delivered similar work successfully before.
Experience should align with:
- Sector and client type
- Scale and complexity of the project or programme
- Outlined outcomes and impact
How can you do this?
Maintain a live case study library that maps previous work to common buyer requirements. During the triage stage, ensure that the case studies you have align with the opportunity, rather that trying to adopt unsuitable examples.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Do our case studies demonstrate relevant experience?
- Are our case studies from the last 2 years?
- Can we evidence long term benefits of the previous work, not just short term impact?
3. Ensure Strategic Alignment
Once you know that your organisation can be compliant and has the appropriate evidence to submit an application, senior stakeholders should assess whether the opportunity aligns with long-term strategic objectives. Even if it is a high-value contract, pursuing misaligned work can dilute reputation, focus and capability to deliver successfully elsewhere.
How can you do this?
Anchor bid decisions to strategic priorities, such as target sectors, services or growth goals. If an opportunity lies outside of these areas, it requires further discussion on whether it is worth the investment of resource to submit an application.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Does this opportunity support our strategic direction?
- Is this the type of work we actually want to commit significant resource to?
Moving From Reactive to Strategic Bidding
Effective bid/no bid decision-making is not about bidding less, it is about bidding better. By applying a structured triage process, organisations can focus effort where it will have the greatest impact, improving both bid quality and win rates.
At Pointer we are bid experts who support SMEs to build sustainable, strategic pipelines of work. From opportunity assessment to submisssion, we can help you make more confident, informed decisions about where to invest time and resource.
If you would like some guidance and/or wider bid support about a potential opportunity, get in touch: info@pointer-cg.co.uk.
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