Step 1: How a Tender Gets Published (the Contract Notice)
A buyer publishes a contract notice on a procurement portal: Find a Tender and Contracts Finder in the UK, TED in the EU. The notice summarises the opportunity: scope, value, deadlines and how to express interest. This is step one of discovery, covered in depth in how to find government tenders. From here, the process is about what happens after you have found it.
Step 2: Pre-Qualification, the Selection Questionnaire (SQ)
For larger contracts the buyer first runs a Selection Questionnaire (formerly PQQ) to check you are eligible: financial standing, insurance levels, relevant past contracts and any mandatory exclusions. Pass and you are shortlisted to receive the full tender. Smaller contracts skip this and go straight to a single-stage ITT.
The SQ decides whether you can bid. Treat a fail here as useful data: it tells you which contracts you are not yet ready for.
Step 3: The Invitation to Tender, Reading the Bid Pack
Now you receive the ITT: the full pack with specification, pricing schedule, conditions of contract and the scored quality questions. Your first job is not to write; it is to read. Map the evaluation criteria, the pass/fail gates and the deadlines before anything else.
New to these documents? See what an Invitation to Tender is and what’s inside a tender document.
Step 4: The Bid/No-Bid Decision, and When to Walk Away
Not every tender is worth pursuing. Before committing days of effort, ask the hard questions:
Do we meet every mandatory requirement?
Certifications, insurance, turnover thresholds. One miss is a wasted bid.
Can we realistically win?
Incumbent advantage, your track record, the competitive field.
Is it profitable after bid costs?
Contract value against the cost to bid and to deliver.
Step 5: Submission, Evaluation and MAT Scoring
You complete the pricing schedule, answer the quality questions and submit before the deadline. The buyer then scores each compliant bid against the published criteria. The Most Advantageous Tender (MAT) basis under the Procurement Act 2023 replaces the older MEAT terminology. Quality, price and social value are weighted as stated in the ITT.
For how to actually answer the quality questions well, see how to write a tender response.
Step 6: Standstill Period, Award and Debriefing
The buyer notifies all bidders of the intended award and observes a mandatory standstill period before signing the contract. During this window, decisions can be challenged. Win or lose, you are entitled to a debrief explaining how your bid scored. Use it: a good debrief is the cheapest bid training you will ever get.
A Worked Example: One Tender, Start to Finish
Follow a £180,000 IT support contract published by a mid-sized English council, from the perspective of an SME bidder:
Discovery
The notice is surfaced and scored for relevance against the supplier’s profile, with written reasoning for the score.
SQ stage
The minimum turnover requirement turns out to be roughly twice the contract value, so checking the eligibility criteria early is a smart go/no-go test.
ITT reading
The pack reveals 10% of the score is on social value, a weighting a first read would have missed.
Bid/no-bid
With requirements met and a credible win route, it’s a bid. Effort is steered toward the high-weighted quality questions, not the price.
Submission & award
Submitted before the deadline. After the standstill period, request a debrief and use the feedback to sharpen the next bid.
TenderStria handles the find-score-analyse parts of this journey: surfacing the notice, scoring fit, and flagging the gates and weights in the pack. Your effort goes only into tenders you can win. The writing stays yours.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does the UK tender process take from publication to award?
For most public sector contracts the open procedure typically runs 25–40 working days from publication to the submission deadline, with evaluation and standstill adding another 6–12 weeks. Large or complex contracts can take 6–12 months end to end. Under the Procurement Act 2023, buyers must give suppliers a minimum response window for open procedures.
What is the difference between a Selection Questionnaire (SQ) and an Invitation to Tender (ITT)?
An SQ (formerly PQQ) is the first gate: it tests whether your organisation is eligible and capable of delivering the contract (financial standing, insurance, track record). An ITT is sent only to suppliers who pass the SQ; it is the full tender pack asking you to price the work and demonstrate your technical approach. Some smaller contracts use a single-stage ITT with no prior SQ.
Can an SME win a public sector tender against larger companies?
Yes. Under the Procurement Act 2023, contracting authorities must consider SME access and break larger contracts into lots where possible. Evaluation is based on the Most Advantageous Tender (MAT) criteria: price, quality and social value, not company size alone. Many SMEs win on specialist expertise, local knowledge or agility, supported by a disciplined bid/no-bid filter.