How to know when not to bid an opportunity

Most companies bid a lot of stuff they shouldn’t. So to help you find a reason to “no bid” here’s a list of reasons not to:

1. You find out about the opportunity when the RFP is released
2. The customer has no budget or can’t afford what is actually required
3. Your competition is cheaper
4. There are too many competitors
5. A key subcontractor backed out
6. There is a requirement in the RFP that you can’t live with
7. The price risk is too high
8. The performance risk is too high
9. You have negative past performance
10. The customer doesn’t like you
11. You don’t like the customer
12. Customer won’t answer critical questions
13. You have no advanced awareness
14. The opportunity doesn’t fit corporate strategies
15. The RFP is too vague
16. The RFP is too specific
17. There’s not enough profit in it
18. You don’t have enough staff available to write the proposal
19. You have a conflict with certification requirements
20. The customer is unrealistic
21. The schedule is unrealistic
22. You don’t have the staff to do the work
23. You can’t promise delivery of the key personnel
24. You don’t know who the competition is
25. You don’t know who the evaluators are
26. The customer likes someone else
27. You think the customer is trying to justify a selection already made
28. The customer is just fishing/not serious
29. Location, location, location
30. You have a conflict with the delivery requirements
31. There are intellectual property issues
32. The contract type is not appropriate for the type of work
33. Your awareness is limited to what’s in the RFP
34. There is no potential for follow-on work
35. Pursuing it would distract you from other opportunities
36. You are not investing in the proposal effort
37. You started working on the proposal after the RFP hit the street
38. You can’t articulate why you should be the one to win
39. The customer doesn’t know you
40. You don’t know how the customer is organized
41. You don’t know how the procurement fits into the customer’s strategic plans
42. You can’t adequately perform at the price you plan to bid
43. The technology requested is already obsolete

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