06 Jan Why Bidding for Tenders Feels Like a Nightmare for SMEs
For many SMEs, public sector bidding feels unnecessarily hard.
Not just time-consuming or complex, but draining, disruptive, and high risk. Directors talk about tenders taking over evenings and weekends, pulling senior people away from delivery, and ending in a rejection that feels arbitrary or unexplained.
This reaction is common. But it isn’t inevitable, and it isn’t because public sector procurement is designed to exclude SMEs.
In reality, bidding feels like a nightmare because most SMEs are trying to do something strategic and evaluative using an approach that is operational and reactive.
Winning SMEs fix this by changing how they approach bidding, not by working harder.
The Reasons Tendering Feels So Difficult
When SMEs describe bidding as a nightmare, they usually point to surface-level problems: too many questions, tight deadlines, confusing language, or excessive documentation.
Those are symptoms, not causes.
The underlying issues tend to fall into five predictable patterns:
1. Treating Bids as Admin, Not as Competitive Submissions
Many SMEs approach tenders as a form-filling exercise. The goal becomes “answer everything” rather than “score highly”.
But public sector bids are not assessed on effort or completeness alone. They are scored against specific criteria, with defined expectations for evidence, structure, and assurance.
When bids are treated as admin tasks:
- Answers become descriptive rather than persuasive
- Evidence is implied instead of demonstrated
- Strengths are mentioned but not scored
This leads to compliant bids that feel strong internally, but underperform when evaluated.
2. Writing From the Business’s Perspective, Not the Evaluator’s
SMEs know their business well. The problem is that evaluators don’t.
Evaluators are not looking to understand everything about you. They are looking to confirm, quickly and confidently, that:
- You understand the requirement
- You can deliver it safely and consistently
- You present minimal risk
- You offer value aligned to the scoring criteria
When bids are written from the supplier’s point of view, evaluators are forced to “join the dots” themselves. That rarely works in your favour.
Winning bids do the opposite: they make scoring easy.
3. Leaving Interpretation Too Late
One of the biggest causes of stress in bidding is discovering, late in the process, that different people have interpreted the questions differently.
This leads to:
- Rewriting at the last minute
- Inconsistent answers
- Gaps in evidence
- Missed scoring opportunities
Strong bids are built on early interpretation of:
- What each question is really asking
- What “good” looks like at high score levels
- How answers link together across the submission
Without this foundation, the process feels chaotic and out of control.
4. Trying to Say Everything Instead of the Right Things
SMEs often believe that more detail equals a better bid. In reality, excess content often reduces scores.
Evaluators are trained to assess relevance. They score:
- Specific evidence
- Clear methodology
- Demonstrated outcomes
- Risk awareness and controls
Long, unfocused answers make it harder to find those elements, and harder to justify high marks.
This is why many SMEs receive feedback saying their response was “unclear” or “lacked sufficient detail”, even when they wrote thousands of words.
5. Carrying All the Risk Internally
SMEs often believe that more detail equals a better bid. In reality, excess content often reduces scores.
Evaluators are trained to assess relevance. They score:
- Specific evidence
- Clear methodology
- Demonstrated outcomes
- Risk awareness and controls
Long, unfocused answers make it harder to find those elements, and harder to justify high marks.
This is why many SMEs receive feedback saying their response was “unclear” or “lacked sufficient detail”, even when they wrote thousands of words.
How Winning SMEs Fix the Problem
SMEs that consistently win public sector work don’t feel less pressure because tenders are easier. They feel less pressure because their approach is better controlled.
Here’s what they do differently:
They Start With Strategy, Not Questions
Before writing begins, winning SMEs are clear on:
- Whether the opportunity is right
- Where they can realistically score well
- Where they need to manage risk
- What their core win themes are
This turns the bid from a reaction into a plan.
They Write for the Score, Not the Page Limit
High-scoring bids:
- Address the evaluation criteria explicitly
- Use structure that mirrors how evaluators assess
- Present evidence clearly and concisely
- Focus on outcomes, not just activity
This makes evaluation straightforward, and reduces ambiguity.
They Use External Challenge and Expertise
Whether through professional review, structured support, or full bid delivery, successful SMEs don’t try to do everything alone.
An external perspective:
- Spots gaps internal teams miss
- Challenges assumptions
- Brings evaluator insight into the process
- Improves consistency across the submission
Most importantly, it removes the feeling that the outcome is out of your control.
Tendering Doesn’t Have to Feel Like a Nightmare
Public sector bidding is demanding, but it shouldn’t feel chaotic, demoralising, or impossible.
When SMEs shift from:
- effort → effectiveness
- description → evidence
- compliance → scoring
the entire experience changes.
At Bid & Tender Support, we work with SMEs to remove uncertainty from the bidding process and replace it with structure, clarity, and control, whether that’s through strategic input, bid reviews, or full bid support.
If bidding currently feels like a nightmare, it’s usually not because you’re doing too little, but because the process needs sharper focus.
The difference between stress and success is rarely effort. It’s approach.
Want our experts to help you win more work through better bid writing? Get in touch!
