KnowledgeEuropean public tender
After the award decision: learn from losing, and from winning
After weeks of work, the award decision arrives. If you win, you move on to delivery. If you lose, you move on to the next tender. Either way, you leave something valuable behind: the information about why.
Written by the Atvalio editorial team: people who spent years bidding on tenders themselves. About us
What the award decision should contain
In a European public tender, the buyer must give reasons for its decision. That means more than just the winner’s scores. You should be able to understand what the winner did better than you. In the Netherlands, courts consider it reasonable for a buyer to share the scores of the bids and show where you stand relative to the rest.
In the Netherlands, the decision is followed by a standstill period of 20 days. Only after that may the buyer sign the contract. That period is your window to ask questions, and to act if something is genuinely wrong.
Get everything out of a loss
Losing is information. It can tell you exactly how to win next time.
- Put the scores side by sidePer criterion: your score, the winner’s and the difference. You see at once where the points were lost.
- Read the reasoning per criterionWhat does the panel call strong in the winner, and weak in you? Pay attention to every word: that is often where the lesson is.
- Hold it against your own textWhat should have been there to score a step higher? Was it the content, the proof, or the way it was written?
- Ask for a meetingWherever possible, always. In a conversation you hear what is not on paper, and you show you genuinely want to learn.
Ask why you won, too
Winning feels like confirmation, and that is often where learning stops. A pity, because there is information there too. Why did you win? What tipped the balance, and where was it close? What you did well, you want to do again on purpose next time.
In a private tender there is usually no written reasoning. Ask the client yourself what made the difference, and if you can, ask more people in the decision-making unit than just your contact.
When should you object?
Only when something is fundamentally wrong. For example, when the contract goes to a company that you can prove does not hold a required certificate. Do check first that the requirement was not dropped or changed in the clarification round. Otherwise you are left empty-handed.
If you really want to challenge the award, watch the deadline closely. The instructions usually state the period within which you must respond, and in the Netherlands that often means starting summary court proceedings. A letter alone is then not enough. Miss the deadline and you lose the right to challenge the decision.
- DoA fundamental error you can prove, such as a winner that does not meet a hard requirement.
- Don’tA score you disagree with. You learn more from a conversation than from a procedure.
Record the lessons
A lesson that only lives in your head is gone by the next bid. Write down what you learned, and adjust your texts, references and approach accordingly. That way every bid becomes the foundation for a better next one.
Try to do better with every proposal than the time before.
HOW ATVALIO HELPS
In Atvalio you add the award decision to your bid. Atvalio holds the scores and the reasoning per criterion against what you wrote, and shows where the points were lost and what, according to the panel, the winner did better. It also checks whether a requirement you want to challenge was changed in the clarification round. The lessons go into your company profile, so your next bid benefits straight away, whether you won or lost. You decide what to do with them.
Atvalio Tenders is coming soon. On the waiting list, you can be the first to start a 14-day trial on a real tender.
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