How to Bid on Government Contracts: Step-by-Step Guide

Before registering on any portal, determine which government contracts your business is eligible to pursue. In the US, identify your NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) codes—these six-digit codes classify your business by industry and determine which contracts you can bid on, as well as your small business size standard. The SBA sets size standards by NAICS code: most manufacturing companies with 500 employees or fewer qualify as small businesses, while most service companies qualify with average annual receipts under $7.5–$16.5 million depending on the specific NAICS code.

In the EU, identify your CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) codes—these eight-digit codes classify procurement by category of goods, services, or works. Familiarise yourself with the EU procurement thresholds (currently €143,000 for central government supplies and services, €221,000 for sub-central authorities, and €5,538,000 for works contracts) as these determine whether opportunities are published on TED or only on national portals.

Check whether you hold certifications that government buyers commonly require: ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 27001 (information security), ISO 14001 (environmental management), Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus (UK), or sector-specific accreditations. Many solicitations list these as mandatory eligibility criteria—if you don’t have them, your bid is excluded regardless of quality. Start the certification process early, as it typically takes 3–6 months.

Registration is free on every major government procurement portal, but it takes time—complete this step before you find an opportunity you want to bid on.

United States: Register your entity at SAM.gov (System for Award Management). You’ll need a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), which replaced the DUNS number in April 2022. SAM.gov registration is mandatory for all federal contracts over $25,000 and takes 7–10 business days to process. You must renew your registration annually. While registering, also complete your representations and certifications—these self-certifications cover your small business status, ownership, and compliance with federal regulations. If you qualify as a small disadvantaged business, woman-owned small business, HUBZone business, or service-disabled veteran-owned business, ensure your SAM.gov profile reflects these designations, as they unlock set-aside opportunities reserved exclusively for your category.

European Union: Register on TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) at ted.europa.eu. You’ll also need to register on national portals for each country where you want to bid: BOAMP and PLACE for France, DTVP and service.bund.de for Germany, TenderNed for the Netherlands, and so on. Prepare your ESPD (European Single Procurement Document)—this standardised self-declaration replaces the need to provide full documentary evidence at submission stage, significantly reducing bid preparation time.

United Kingdom: Register on Find a Tender (the UK’s post-Brexit replacement for TED) and Contracts Finder. For NHS-related opportunities, also register on relevant NHS trust portals and Supply Chain frameworks. For technology contracts, register on the Digital Marketplace for G-Cloud and Digital Outcomes and Specialists frameworks.

Other key portals include GeBIZ (Singapore), MERX (Canada), AusTender (Australia), CompraNet (Mexico), and KONEPS (South Korea). If you plan to bid internationally, register on each target country’s primary procurement portal well in advance.

Government procurement portals publish thousands of new opportunities daily, but finding the ones that match your capabilities requires a systematic approach.

Manual search involves logging into each portal individually and applying keyword, classification code, geographic, and contract-value filters. This works when you’re targeting a single portal, but becomes unsustainable when monitoring multiple countries or procurement levels. The average competitive solicitation receives only 4.5 bids—many companies miss opportunities simply because they aren’t monitoring the right portals at the right time.

Automated monitoring eliminates the daily search routine entirely. Services like Jorpex continuously scan 50+ procurement sources worldwide and deliver matching tenders to Slack, email, or Microsoft Teams within minutes of publication. You define your keywords, regions, classification codes, and contract-value ranges once, then receive only the opportunities that match your criteria. This is particularly valuable when deadlines are tight—early awareness gives your team more preparation time, and some competitive procurements allow as few as 15 days from publication to submission deadline.

Whichever method you use, search strategies that improve results include: using multiple keyword variations (e.g., “cybersecurity” AND “cyber security” AND “information security”), combining keywords with CPV or NAICS codes for precision, setting contract-value ranges that match your capacity, monitoring prior information notices (PINs) and sources sought notices for early intelligence on upcoming procurements, and checking framework agreement notices separately since these operate on different timelines.

Disciplined bid/no-bid evaluation is the single highest-leverage activity in government contracting. Companies with formal bid/no-bid processes achieve significantly higher win rates than those that pursue everything. The average win rate on competitive government proposals is approximately 30%—selective bidders regularly exceed 40–50%.

Use a structured bid/no-bid checklist for every opportunity:

Mandatory eligibility (any “no” means walk away): Do you meet 100% of mandatory requirements—certifications, financial capacity thresholds, required experience, geographic presence, and security clearances? Is your SAM.gov/ESPD registration current and your business classifications accurate? Do you hold all required certifications (ISO, Cyber Essentials, sector-specific accreditations)?

Competitive position: Do you have directly relevant past performance in similar contract types and values? Can you identify the incumbent, and do you have a credible strategy to displace them—or is this a new requirement with no incumbent? Does your technical approach offer a genuine differentiator, or are you submitting a “me too” proposal? Do you have existing relationships with the contracting authority through industry days, RFI responses, or prior contracts?

Resource assessment: Is your proposal team available to write a competitive response within the submission timeline? Is the contract value large enough to justify the proposal investment—as a rule of thumb, proposal preparation costs 1–3% of contract value for competitive procurements? Do you have subcontracting partners identified and committed if the scope exceeds your standalone capacity?

Strategic fit: Does this contract align with your growth strategy and target market? Will winning this contract strengthen your past performance for future, larger opportunities? Are the payment terms and contract structure acceptable for your cash flow?

If the answer to any mandatory eligibility criterion is no, move on immediately. For competitive and strategic criteria, assign scores and set a minimum threshold. This discipline ensures you invest proposal resources where they’ll produce the highest return.

Government solicitations contain detailed instructions that must be followed exactly. Spend time thoroughly reading every section before writing a single word of your proposal.

Key documents in a typical solicitation package include: the Statement of Work (SOW) or Performance Work Statement (PWS) describing what the government needs; evaluation criteria and their relative weights; instructions to offerors covering formatting, page limits, and submission requirements; the contract terms and conditions (including FAR clauses in US federal procurement); any mandatory forms or certifications required at submission; and amendments or clarification responses issued after the initial publication.

In US federal procurement, the evaluation factors are stated in Section M of the solicitation. These typically include Technical Approach (how you’ll do the work), Management Approach (your team and processes), Past Performance (evidence you’ve done similar work successfully), and Price/Cost (your financial proposal). The relative importance of these factors is stated explicitly—if technical approach is “significantly more important than price,” invest your effort accordingly.

In EU procurement, evaluation criteria must be published in the contract notice or procurement documents. The two award methods are Lowest Price (rare for complex procurements) and Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT), which considers quality alongside price. MEAT criteria may include technical merit, quality, social value, environmental considerations, innovation, and lifecycle cost.

Always attend pre-bid conferences and submit clarification questions before the deadline. These interactions provide insight into the buyer’s priorities and often reveal information not available in the written solicitation. All questions and answers are typically shared with all bidders, so frame your questions carefully to avoid revealing your competitive strategy.

Compliance is table stakes—a brilliant proposal that violates formatting requirements gets eliminated before evaluation. Start by creating a compliance matrix that maps every solicitation requirement to your proposal response, ensuring nothing is missed.

Structure your proposal according to the solicitation’s instructions. In US federal procurement, a typical proposal contains four volumes: (1) Technical Approach—describe your methodology, tools, processes, and how you’ll meet each requirement; (2) Management Approach—present your team, organizational structure, key personnel qualifications, and quality assurance; (3) Past Performance—provide references for similar contracts including contract values, period of performance, and client contact details; (4) Cost/Price—present your pricing in the format specified, with supporting detail for each cost element.

Writing strategies that improve scores: Address every evaluation criterion explicitly using the buyer’s own language from the solicitation. Use their terminology, not yours. Provide concrete evidence—metrics, case studies, certifications, and specific examples—rather than marketing claims. Quantify results wherever possible: “reduced processing time by 40%” is stronger than “significantly improved efficiency.” Include a clear understanding of the problem that demonstrates you’ve done your homework, not just parroted the SOW. Propose innovations or value-adds where the evaluation criteria reward them, but never at the expense of compliance with mandatory requirements.

Common rejection reasons to avoid at all costs: non-compliance with mandatory eligibility requirements (the single most frequent cause of elimination); missing or incomplete documents (ESPD forms in the EU, representations and certifications in the US); exceeding page limits (evaluators may discard excess pages without reading them); failing to address every evaluation criterion explicitly (evaluators score only what’s written—they do not infer capabilities); and late submission (most procurement regulations prohibit acceptance of late bids with very narrow exceptions for system failures).

Pricing strategy in government contracting differs fundamentally from commercial pricing. Government buyers evaluate price in the context of overall value, not just lowest cost.

In US federal procurement, most contracts above the simplified acquisition threshold use “best value” evaluation, meaning price is balanced against technical factors. A higher-priced proposal with superior technical merit can win over a lower-priced competitor. However, if the solicitation states “Lowest Price Technically Acceptable” (LPTA), the award goes to the lowest-priced bid that meets all technical requirements—and spending extra on a gold-plated technical proposal is wasted effort.

For fixed-price contracts, your price must cover all costs plus a reasonable profit margin. Government contracting profit margins typically range from 7–15% depending on contract type and risk. For cost-reimbursement contracts, price your proposal based on estimated labour hours, rates, materials, and other direct costs—the government will reimburse actual costs plus a negotiated fee.

In EU procurement, be cautious about pricing too low. EU regulations include provisions for “abnormally low tenders”—if your price is significantly below other bidders, the contracting authority is required to request a justification before rejecting or accepting your bid. Pricing that can’t be justified risks rejection.

Research comparable contract awards to benchmark your pricing. In the US, USAspending.gov and FPDS.gov provide historical award data. In the EU, TED publishes contract award notices with final values. Use this data to calibrate your pricing against market rates.

Late submissions are almost universally rejected in government procurement—there is no grace period. Plan to submit at least 24–48 hours before the deadline to avoid last-minute portal issues.

Electronic submission is now standard for most government procurement worldwide. The EU mandates electronic submission for all above-threshold contracts. SAM.gov accepts proposals electronically for most solicitations. UK’s Find a Tender and Contracts Finder require electronic submission. Each portal has its own submission interface, file format requirements, and size limits—test the upload process well before the deadline.

Submission checklist: Verify every required document is included and in the correct format. Confirm your submission was received by the portal (save confirmation receipts). Ensure all required signatures are present. Double-check that pricing documents are in the correct volume and not accidentally included in the technical proposal (which could result in disqualification in some jurisdictions). If the solicitation requires physical copies alongside electronic submission, ship these with enough lead time to arrive before the deadline.

After submission, do not contact the contracting officer about your bid unless requested. Communications during the evaluation period are restricted to formal channels. Mark your calendar for the expected evaluation timeline and any scheduled oral presentations or demonstrations.

After the submission deadline, the contracting authority evaluates all proposals against the stated criteria. This process varies by jurisdiction and procurement type but typically takes 30–90 days for standard contracts and 3–12 months for major procurements or framework agreements.

During evaluation, you may receive clarification requests asking for additional information or explanation. Respond promptly, precisely, and without introducing new information not in your original proposal (in most jurisdictions, you cannot materially change your offer during clarification). Some procurements include an oral presentation or demonstration phase—prepare for this as rigorously as you prepared the written proposal.

In the EU, the standstill period (10–15 days between contract award decision and contract signing) gives unsuccessful bidders time to challenge the decision. Use this period to request a debrief if you weren’t selected. In the US, debriefings are available for both pre-award and post-award decisions and provide invaluable feedback on how your proposal was scored.

If you win: negotiate final contract terms and prepare for kickoff. Document everything from day one—contract deliverables, communications, and performance metrics. In the US, your CPARS (Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System) rating from this contract will directly influence your competitiveness for future bids.

If you lose: always request a debrief. Understanding specifically where your proposal scored lower than the winner transforms a loss into a learning investment. Track your debrief findings in a lessons-learned database and apply them to your next bid. The most successful government contractors treat every debrief as a competitive intelligence opportunity.

Governments worldwide reserve a significant portion of procurement spending for small businesses, providing a substantial advantage for eligible companies.

In the US, the federal government’s goal is to award at least 23% of prime contract dollars to small businesses, with sub-goals for specific categories: 5% to small disadvantaged businesses (SDB), 5% to women-owned small businesses (WOSB), 3% to HUBZone businesses, and 3% to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB). In FY2023, the government exceeded these goals, awarding a record $178 billion to small businesses. Set-aside contracts restrict competition to businesses in the designated category, dramatically improving your odds of winning.

The 8(a) Business Development Program (for socially and economically disadvantaged individuals) provides additional benefits including sole-source contracts up to $4.5 million for goods and services and $7.5 million for manufacturing. The Mentor-Protégé Program pairs small businesses with experienced government contractors for guidance and joint venture opportunities.

In the EU, while there is no formal set-aside system, procurement directives encourage dividing large contracts into lots to increase SME access, and member states have individual SME-friendly policies. The UK’s Procurement Act 2023 strengthens SME access provisions, requiring contracting authorities to consider lot strategies and proportionate financial requirements.

The GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) is another pathway for smaller companies. Once on a GSA Schedule, your company is pre-approved to sell to government agencies, and buyers can place orders directly without running a full competitive procurement—significantly shortening the sales cycle.

Understanding why bids fail is as important as knowing how to write them. These are the most common mistakes that lead to rejection, ranked by frequency:

Non-compliance with mandatory requirements: This is the number-one cause of elimination. If the solicitation requires ISO 27001 certification, five years of experience in the specific domain, or financial turnover above a stated threshold—and you don’t meet it—your bid is excluded regardless of quality. Always verify every mandatory requirement before investing in proposal writing.

Missing or incomplete documents: Every solicitation has a required document list. In the EU, this includes the ESPD, financial statements, insurance certificates, and technical references. In the US, it includes representations and certifications, small business subcontracting plans (for large businesses), and any forms specified in the solicitation. A single missing document can disqualify an otherwise strong proposal.

Failing to address all evaluation criteria: Government evaluators use scoring rubrics tied directly to the published evaluation criteria. They score only what’s written—they will not infer your capabilities. If a criterion asks for “demonstrated experience in cloud migration” and your proposal doesn’t explicitly describe your cloud migration experience with specific examples, you will score zero on that criterion even if you have extensive experience.

Exceeding page limits or formatting requirements: Evaluators may discard excess pages without reading them. If the solicitation says “50 pages, 12-point font, single-spaced,” those are hard limits. Using 11.5-point font or 0.9-inch margins can result in disqualification.

Late submission: Most procurement regulations prohibit acceptance of late bids, with very narrow exceptions for documented system failures. Submit 24–48 hours early.

Abnormally low pricing: In EU procurement, prices significantly below the mean trigger a mandatory clarification procedure. If you cannot justify your pricing, the bid may be rejected. In the US, unrealistically low pricing raises concerns about your understanding of the requirement and ability to perform.

Timelines vary significantly by procurement type, jurisdiction, and contract complexity.

From tender publication to submission deadline: In the EU, the minimum periods are 30 days for open procedures and 30 days for the initial response in restricted procedures (reducible to 15 days if a prior information notice was published). In the US, there is no statutory minimum for most procurements, but 30 days is common for competitive solicitations. The UK’s Procurement Act 2023 sets minimum standstill periods and notice periods that generally align with EU timelines.

From submission deadline to contract award: Evaluation typically takes 30–90 days for standard contracts. Complex procurements, competitive dialogues, and framework agreements may take 6–12 months or longer. Multi-phase procurements (e.g., pre-qualification followed by invitation to tender) add additional months.

From award to contract start: In the EU, the 10–15 day standstill period must pass before the contract is signed. In the US, contract negotiation and finalization typically take 2–4 weeks after award notification.

Overall, expect a minimum of 2–3 months from first seeing a tender to contract start for straightforward procurements, and 6–18 months for major contracts or frameworks. Building a pipeline of opportunities at different stages ensures continuous workflow—this is where automated tender monitoring becomes essential for maintaining a steady flow of opportunities to evaluate.