How to write a tender notice that attracts good bids

A tender that attracts two bids, both expensive, is usually blamed on the market. More often it was caused by the notice: it was unclear, it was published where the right suppliers do not look, it allowed ten days over a public holiday, or it quietly described one manufacturer’s product. Competition is something a buyer designs, and the notice is where most of that design happens.

1. Publish enough for a supplier to decide

Before writing anything, be clear that a bidder reads a notice to answer one question: is this worth two weeks of my time? They cannot answer it without:

• What you are buying, in the words a supplier would use — not an internal reference or a budget-line name.
• Scale. Quantity, duration, or an estimated value or range. A notice with no size is the single biggest reason good suppliers skip it: they cannot tell whether it is worth ₹5 lakh or ₹5 crore.
• The deadline, with the time and time zone, and where and how to submit.
• Eligibility, stated once and unambiguously — turnover, experience, registrations, certifications.
• How you will decide. Lowest price, or quality and cost with weights.
• A named contact and a clarification deadline.

A notice missing scale and evaluation method is not a competition, it is a lottery — and experienced bidders opt out of lotteries first, leaving you the least discriminating suppliers in the market.

2. Write a specification, not a product description

The most common self-inflicted wound is a specification copied from one vendor’s datasheet. It feels efficient and it is usually fatal to competition: rival suppliers read the model numbers, conclude the outcome is decided, and do not bid. In many jurisdictions it is also a procurement irregularity.

• Specify by outcome and performance — throughput, uptime, response time, accuracy — not by brand, model, or a proprietary interface.
• Where a standard is genuinely required, cite the standard rather than the product that meets it, and allow equivalents.
• Separate mandatory from desirable. Every mandatory requirement excludes suppliers; make sure each one earns that.
• Ask for what you will actually evaluate. Requesting documents nobody scores wastes the bidder’s time and yours, and shrinks your field.

3. Set eligibility to the risk, not to the maximum

Turnover thresholds and experience requirements are risk controls, and each one is also a filter on competition. A three-times-contract-value turnover rule on a small contract does not reduce risk much; it removes every capable smaller supplier, including the ones who would have bid keenly. Set the bar to the delivery risk you actually carry, and be prepared to justify each threshold — see tender eligibility criteria explained.

4. Give people time — and count it properly

Short deadlines do not speed up delivery; they change who bids. A supplier who must assemble a consortium, get a bank guarantee issued or price a site visit needs weeks. Practical rules:

1. Count working days, and check the window against public holidays and festival periods.
2. Close the clarification window well before the submission deadline, and publish answers to everyone.
3. If you materially change the requirement, extend the deadline — see handling corrigenda.
4. Complex or high-value work needs longer, not the same template as a stationery order.

5. Advertise where the right bidders look

A notice on your own website reaches suppliers who already know you — which is precisely the group you do not need to reach. If you want new entrants, the notice has to appear where suppliers search: your national e-procurement portal, the relevant funder’s channel if the work is donor-financed, and aggregators that index across sources.

Publishing on FreeTender is free and takes a few minutes — see publish a tender. Notices are indexed by country, sector and deadline, and appear in the alerts we send to subscribers working in that sector.

6. Make the documents easy to use

• Searchable PDFs or documents, not photographs of paper. A scanned, rotated notice is one a supplier skips.
• Provide the pricing schedule as a spreadsheet you can compare mechanically. It removes ambiguity for the bidder and arithmetic errors for you.
• Number your requirements. Bidders can then respond point by point, and your evaluators can score consistently.
• Keep one version. Republishing a corrected document without a version marker guarantees somebody bids against the wrong one.

7. Close the loop

Publish the award — who won, and the value. It costs nothing, it is required of many public bodies, and it is what persuades suppliers that your next tender is worth entering. Debrief unsuccessful bidders honestly; a supplier who learns why they lost usually comes back stronger, and one who hears nothing does not come back at all.

The test for any notice: could a competent supplier who has never heard of you decide, in five minutes, whether to bid — and know exactly what to do next? If not, the missing piece is what will cost you the competition.