The bid decision

Should my company bid on this RFP?

The short answer

Bid only when three things are true at once: you can satisfy every mandatory requirement in the document, you can produce the evidence the evaluation actually awards points for, and the contract is still worth having after you price the delivery risk. If any one of those fails, the answer is no, and it costs far less to learn that today than on submission day.

The order matters. Most teams argue about win themes for a week and then discover on day six that they are not registered, not licensed for the classification, or cannot make a mandatory site visit. Run the disqualifiers first. Everything else is a waste of hours until they pass.

Last reviewed: September 1, 2026Sources checked September 1, 2026Review due December 1, 2026Revision 1.06 min readReviewed by John Arndt under the editorial policy

On this page

Run the disqualifiers before anything else Score fit against what is actually scored Price the pursuit, not just the contract Write the decision down and give it an owner Bid / no-bid scoring worksheet What this is called Official sources Related questions Where to go next

Run the disqualifiers before anything else

A disqualifier is any requirement that makes your response impossible or unacceptable no matter how good your writing is. These are not judgment calls, and they are not negotiable after the deadline. Find them in the first hour, not the first week.

Answer each one from the current official document, not from a bid-alert email, an aggregator summary, or your memory of a similar solicitation last year. A single unresolved date, license, or registration is enough to end the pursuit.

Can you actually meet the submission deadline, including any mandatory pre-bid conference or site visit already past?
Do you hold every required license, registration, certification, and insurance limit today — not after a 30-day application?
Can you legally and physically perform the whole scope, including any geographic or staffing requirement?
Can you produce the required references, financial statements, bonds, and signed forms in the format demanded?
Is there anything in the terms and conditions your company will not sign?

Score fit against what is actually scored

Once the gates pass, stop scoring your enthusiasm and start scoring the evaluation sheet. Public solicitations usually publish how points are allocated. If a category is worth 40 percent of the score, your evidence for that category is worth 40 percent of your attention.

Score evidence, not intent. “We could do this” is a zero. “We did this for a comparable public agency, here is the contract number and the reference who will answer the phone” is full marks. The gap between those two sentences is where most losses live.

Scope match to work you have already delivered and can name
Public-sector references the buyer will accept and can verify
Named, available staff who meet any stated minimum experience
A price position you can hold without eroding the margin
Time: enough calendar to write, review, price, and sign before the deadline

Price the pursuit, not just the contract

A response you can win can still be a bad business decision. Count the hours the response will consume across proposal, technical, pricing, executive, and partner time, then compare that number to the realistic margin on the work and to what those hours would earn on delivery for an existing client.

Small firms rarely lose money on a bad bid because they lost. They lose money because three profitable weeks disappeared into a response that was never competitive.

Write the decision down and give it an owner

Record the verdict, the date, the assumptions, the unresolved questions, and one named person accountable for the outcome. A written decision is what lets you review the call later and improve it. An unwritten decision becomes a story about bad luck.

Use three verdicts, not two. Bid and no-bid leave nowhere to put the honest answer, which is usually “not yet.” A verify verdict with a deadline and an owner keeps a live pursuit from drifting into an accidental submission.

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Bid / no-bid scoring worksheet

Answer from the current official solicitation. Any disqualifier marked “No” returns a no-bid regardless of the fit score, because a disqualifier is not something a strong response can outweigh.

OpportunityBuyerResponse dueDecision owner

Step 1 · Disqualifiers

Any “No” stops the pursuit

These are pass or fail. They are not scored, they cannot be offset by a strong narrative, and every one of them is findable on day one.

Every mandatory date is still reachableSubmission deadline, question deadline, and any mandatory conference or site visit that has not already passed.

You hold the required licenses, registrations, and certifications todayIncluding a public works contractor registration where the work is covered, and the license classification the buyer named.

You can legally and physically perform the entire scopeGeography, staffing, equipment, and any minimum experience stated as a requirement rather than a preference.

You can produce every required document in the required formatForms, signatures, references, financial statements, insurance certificates, and any bond or bid security.

Your company will sign the proposed contract termsIndemnity, insurance limits, termination, data, and payment terms. An unacceptable term is a disqualifier, not a negotiation.

You are working from the buyer's official documents and current addendaNot an aggregator summary, not a forwarded PDF. Confirm the addendum count in the buyer's own portal.

Step 2 · Weighted fit

100 points available

Score the evidence you can produce, not the intention you have. “Thin” means you could assert it but not document it.

Scope matches work you have already deliveredComparable in type, scale, and complexity — not adjacent work you believe would transfer.

Weight 20

You have references the buyer will accept and can verifyRight client type, right recency, right size, with a contact who will answer the phone.

Weight 18

Named, available staff meet any stated experience minimumsReal people you can name in the response, not roles you intend to hire.

Weight 15

You can produce evidence for each scored evaluation criterionRead the evaluation section and check each weighted factor against something you can actually document.

Weight 15

You have a credible competitive positionYou understand the buyer, the likely incumbent, and why a reasonable evaluator would pick you.

Weight 12

You have the capacity to write this and deliver itNamed owners for the response, plus delivery capacity if you win without dropping current clients.

Weight 10

The economics work after delivery risk and payment timingMargin at a competitive price, working capital for the payment cycle, and acceptable post-award overhead.

Weight 10

0of 100 fit pointsVerify

Answer every row before treating this as a decision.

Unknown disqualifiers are the most expensive rows on this page. Assign each one an owner and a cutoff before any writing starts.

Unresolved: Every mandatory date is still reachable
Unresolved: You hold the required licenses, registrations, and certifications today
Unresolved: You can legally and physically perform the entire scope
Unresolved: You can produce every required document in the required format
Unresolved: Your company will sign the proposed contract terms
Unresolved: You are working from the buyer's official documents and current addenda

Decision record

POSTEDLY BID / NO-BID WORKSHEET
Opportunity: —
Buyer: —
Response due: —
Decision owner: —

VERDICT: VERIFY   Fit score: 0/100

DISQUALIFIERS
  [----] Every mandatory date is still reachable
  [----] You hold the required licenses, registrations, and certifications today
  [----] You can legally and physically perform the entire scope
  [----] You can produce every required document in the required format
  [----] Your company will sign the proposed contract terms
  [----] You are working from the buyer's official documents and current addenda

WEIGHTED FIT
  ----    0/20  Scope matches work you have already delivered
  ----    0/18  You have references the buyer will accept and can verify
  ----    0/15  Named, available staff meet any stated experience minimums
  ----    0/15  You can produce evidence for each scored evaluation criterion
  ----    0/12  You have a credible competitive position
  ----    0/10  You have the capacity to write this and deliver it
  ----    0/10  The economics work after delivery risk and payment timing

OPEN ITEMS TO RESOLVE BEFORE ANY WRITING BEGINS
  OPEN  Every mandatory date is still reachable
  OPEN  You hold the required licenses, registrations, and certifications today
  OPEN  You can legally and physically perform the entire scope
  OPEN  You can produce every required document in the required format
  OPEN  Your company will sign the proposed contract terms
  OPEN  You are working from the buyer's official documents and current addenda

This worksheet records a decision. It does not verify eligibility,
predict an award, or replace the current official solicitation.

Your answers stay in this browser. When limited analytics is configured, only the aggregate Bid, Verify, or No-bid result is recorded with a random per-tab identifier — never your answers, the opportunity name, or any contact details. See the Privacy Policy. This worksheet does not verify eligibility, confirm responsiveness, or predict an award.

bid/no-bid decision

What procurement people call this

Procurement and proposal teams call this a bid/no-bid decision, and the formal version is often run as a gate review before any writing starts. If you search that phrase you will find capture-management material written for firms with a dedicated proposal desk.

The underlying logic is the same at two people or two hundred: eliminate on hard requirements, score on evidence, price the effort, and record who decided. The difference is only how much process you wrap around it.

Verified September 1, 2026

Check these before you act

Statutes, manuals, and portals change, and the current solicitation always controls over anything written here.

Public Contract Code section 1103 — “responsible bidder” definedCalifornia Legislative Information State Contracting Manual 1404.2 — responsive bid and responsible bidderCalifornia Department of General Services Public Contract Code section 10344 — state RFP procedureCalifornia Legislative Information Cal eProcure — California's bid opportunity portalCalifornia Department of General Services

FAQ

Where to go next

Go deeper

Government contract bid/no-bid checklist

The longer framework behind this worksheet: hard gates, evidence tests, and how to keep verify from becoming drift.

See the proof

Annotated sample decision memo

A fictional worked example showing how a Chase, Verify, or Pass call is written down and sourced.

If you want help

$199 Bid-Fit Audit

One identified California opportunity reviewed against its official documents.

Boundary

This page is general business information, not legal, procurement, certification, tax, or compliance advice. The current official solicitation, its addenda, and the buyer’s instructions control.

One opportunity, one written decision

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The $199 Bid-Fit Audit reviews one identified California state, local, utility, education, or special district opportunity against its official documents and returns a written Chase, Verify, or Pass recommendation with the open questions named.

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