Engineering consultancies and contractors spend substantial unbilled time on proposals, and win rates vary far more than capability does. The difference is usually not technical ability — it is whether the submission answered the question that was asked.
How evaluation actually works
Most structured procurement, particularly public sector, uses weighted attribute evaluation. Non-price attributes — relevant experience, track record, key personnel, methodology, resources — are scored against published weightings, then combined with price.
Two things follow that change how you should write:
Evaluators score against the criteria, not against your overall impression. A brilliant document that does not address a stated criterion scores zero on it. Structure your response to mirror the criteria explicitly, in the same order and using the same headings, so the evaluator can find each answer.
The weightings tell you where to spend effort. If key personnel carries 30 percent and methodology 10 percent, a detailed methodology with thin personnel information is misallocated effort.
What separates strong submissions
- Specificity about this project. Generic capability statements score poorly. Demonstrating you have understood this site, this constraint, this client’s actual problem scores well.
- Named people with real availability. Evaluators discount CVs of senior staff who will not be on the job. Naming the people who will actually do the work, with their commitments, is more credible.
- Relevant rather than impressive experience. Three closely comparable projects beat ten large but unrelated ones.
- Evidence rather than assertion. “We deliver on time” is worthless. “These three projects, delivered on these dates against these programmes, referee contactable” is not.
- Risk identified honestly. Submissions that identify the real project risks and say how they will be managed read as competent. Those that imply there are no risks read as inexperienced.
- Answering the whole question. Multi-part questions frequently get partial answers, and the missing part costs marks.
Price
Underpricing to win is a strategy with a well-documented ending. A project priced below cost consumes the capacity you would have used on profitable work, and the pressure to recover margin through variations damages the client relationship you were trying to build.
Where price weighting is high and your cost base is not the lowest, the honest question is whether you should be bidding at all. A disciplined go/no-go decision is worth more than a strong proposal for work you cannot win profitably.
The go/no-go decision
Proposals cost real money in senior time. Assess before committing:
- Do we have directly relevant experience, or are we stretching?
- Do we know this client, and do they know us?
- Is the timeframe realistic for a quality submission?
- Can we resource it if we win, at the time it starts?
- How many bidders, and what is our realistic probability?
- Is the contract acceptable — liability caps, indemnities, payment terms, programme risk?
Declining unsuitable work frees effort for opportunities you can win. Bidding everything produces a low win rate and exhausted staff.
Read the contract before you price it
The conditions of contract materially affect what the work is worth. Uncapped liability, broad indemnities, onerous programme obligations and unfavourable payment terms all carry cost, and pricing them at zero is a decision to absorb them.
Where terms are unacceptable, raise it during the clarification period rather than after award. Clarification questions are also a legitimate way to demonstrate that you have read the documents carefully.
Public sector procurement
Government procurement operates under published rules covering process, fairness, conflicts and probity. Understanding them is a durable competitive advantage — particularly the all-of-government arrangements, panel appointments and marketplace mechanisms, which determine who is even eligible to bid for a lot of work.
Getting onto the relevant panel is often more valuable than any individual bid, and it is a separate process worth pursuing deliberately.
Debriefs
Ask for a debrief whether you win or lose. Public agencies generally provide them, and the information about how you scored against each attribute is the most direct feedback available on your submissions.
Businesses that request debriefs and act on them improve their win rate. Most do not ask.
New Zealand Government Procurement publishes the procurement rules and guidance free at procurement.govt.nz, and Engineering New Zealand publishes practice material for members.
