Writing a bid
Answering the host's specification fields, pricing so the number can be trusted, proposing payment terms, and the mistakes that lose bids that should have won.
The host defined the fields. Your bid answers them, and that is what makes it comparable to everyone else's.
The temptation is to treat the structure as a formality and put the real substance in a covering document. Resist it. The fields are what gets compared; anything outside them is read last, if at all.
What a bid carries
| Subject | What you are bidding on, in your words |
| Amount | Your price |
| Rate and unit | What that resolves to per unit |
| Specifications | Your answers to the host's fields |
| Payment terms | What you propose |
| Description | Everything the fields cannot carry |
Answering the specification fields
Answer every one
A blank field reads as either "cannot" or "did not read". Both lose. If something does not apply, say so in the field rather than leaving it empty.
Answer in the field's own terms
If the field asks for days, give days. Converting to weeks because that is how you think about it makes your bid the one that has to be translated before it can be compared, and comparison is where you want to be easy.
Do not quietly redefine the scope
If you are pricing something different from what was asked — a substitute grade, a shorter warranty, delivery ex-works rather than delivered — say it in the field and again in the description.
A cheaper bid that turns out to be a smaller scope is not a win. It is a decline plus a reputation.
Put your real differentiator where it will be read
If your case is a lead time nobody else can meet, that belongs in the lead time field, not in paragraph four of a covering note.
Pricing
Price the scope as specified, then note variations separately. A host comparing six bids needs one number per bid against one scope.
Give the rate and unit honestly. They are what the host uses to sanity-check the total, and a rate that does not reconcile with the amount is the fastest way to look careless.
If a budget range was published, take it seriously. It tells you what the buyer can actually spend. Bidding well above it needs a reason stated in the bid, not left for the host to infer.
If no budget was published, price the work rather than guessing at the buyer.
Payment terms
You propose your own; you are not obliged to accept whatever the tender stated.
Be aware you are quoting two things at once. A price on ninety-day terms and the same price on advance are different offers, and the difference is finance cost you are carrying. If your number depends on the terms, say so — otherwise a host may take your price and their terms and consider that agreed.
The mistakes that lose winnable bids
After you submit
You wait, and the host decides. You cannot see competing bids and they cannot see yours.
If you are shortlisted, you are still in contention and nothing more. If you are declined, most of what you spent comes back — see Costs. If you are accepted, contact details are exchanged and the commercial conversation starts.
If you win, close the engagement when it is done and rate the host — that earns credits back into your wallet, and they earn for rating you. It is the fastest honest way to build the completed-engagement count and the rating that the next host's eligibility rules are checking. See Costs.
Whatever the outcome, it becomes part of your record here, which is what the next host's eligibility rules read.
Checking you qualify
The rules a host can set, how to read them before spending anything, and what to do when you nearly qualify but not quite.
How a tender progresses
A tender moves from draft to open to closed, and each bid on it has its own life — submitted, shortlisted, accepted, declined or withdrawn. What each state means for both sides.