What is my chance of winning a tender?  This question gets ask many times – should it be by people who want to start a company or business owners making use of our tender consulting services.  The problem with the question is that there is no straight forward answer.  People expect us to say your chances are 50% or 60% or whatever the case might be.

The answer is much more complex than a simple percentage.

Let us start by looking at briefing session and/or site meeting attendance.  We have been to many briefing sessions/site meetings where the average attendance by businesses was more than 300 businesses at a time.  We have also been to briefing sessions/site meetings where there were as little as 3 to 5 businesses attending.  Then there are briefing sessions/site meetings that have anything from 2000 to 8000 attendees!  The more the businesses are that attend briefing sessions/site meetings the less your chance will be of winning that tender.  In our experience only 50% of businesses that attended the briefing sessions/site meetings will eventually respond to that tender.

Another factor that will either count in your favour or against you is the type of goods or services that you supply.  If you are in the cleaning industry your chances of winning a cleaning tender is going to be much less than a business which is the only supplier of pharmaceutical products in the pharmaceutical industry.  The fact is – the more scarce your product is, the better your chances are in winning a tender.

Many business owners think that because their business has a Level one B-BBEE Score that they will have the best chance in winning a tender.  A Level one B-BBEE Score is exceptionally good but there are many businesses out there with the same B-BBEE Score.  In the end the price of the goods or services are going to determine which business will win the tender.

To ensure that your tender response has the best chance of winning you must ensure that it is first 100% compliant.  Furthermore, make sure that you past the functionality test.  If your tender response makes it through to the final phase of evaluating, then your B-BBEE Score and Price will determine if you are going to win or not.  Ensure that your price is right – that way your chance of winning a tender will increase.