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Last-minute decisions to bid can feel exciting. They are also expensive, risky and draining if the opportunity was never a good fit. Bid readiness is what stands between a confident yes and a hopeful guess, and it often shows up in your win rate long before you notice it in your pipeline.
This 15-point self-assessment is designed to give you a clear, honest view of your current bid readiness. In a few minutes you will be able to see where you are strong, where you are exposed and what needs to improve so you are genuinely tender-ready before the next opportunity lands in your inbox.
What Bid Readiness Really Means
Bid readiness is your ability to spot the right opportunity, qualify it quickly and submit a compelling, compliant tender without scrambling. It is the difference between a considered bid decision and a rushed response built around whoever has time.
Being truly bid ready means you can answer three simple questions with confidence:
Are we eligible, credible and strategically aligned for this contract?
Can we mobilise the right people, content and evidence in time?
Will our response clearly outperform realistic competitors?
In practical terms, bid readiness shows up in how early you engage with opportunities. When you are genuinely tender-ready, you are tracking pipelines, shaping opportunities where you can and making go or no-go calls before the clock starts ticking.
It also shows up in how closely your bids mirror what evaluators need to see. Public buyers are under pressure to demonstrate transparency, value for money and effective risk management. Strong bid readiness means your processes, evidence and narratives are already built around those expectations, not bolted on at the last minute.
Finally, bid readiness is repeatable. It is not one strong bid, achieved through heroic effort. It is a way of working that makes high quality, high scoring responses the norm rather than the exception.
Our 15-Point Bid Readiness Checklist: How to Use
This self-assessment is designed to be quick, honest and practical. You are not aiming for a perfect score. You are aiming for a clear picture of where you stand today and what needs to change before your next tender.
The simplest approach is to complete it twice. First individually, then together as a team. Comparing answers is often where the most useful conversations start.
Use this simple scoring system for each of the 15 points:
Score 2 if this is consistently in place, understood and evidenced.
Score 1 if it is partially in place, informal or inconsistent.
Score 0 if it is not in place, unclear, or depends on ad hoc effort.
Add up your scores as you go. You will end up with:
A total bid readiness score out of 30.
A score for each area of the checklist: strategy and opportunity fit, capability and capacity, evidence and submission quality.
Once you have your scores, do not stop at the number. Look for patterns. A relatively high overall score with weak evidence or pricing will still struggle in competition. A lower total score with strong qualification discipline might tell you that you are already good at saying no, but need support to raise the quality of the bids you do submit.
If you use a scorecard version of this checklist, keep it with your pipeline. The aim is to turn bid readiness into a habit, not a one-off exercise.
Download the self-assessment