By Rob Atkins, Founder & Principal Consultant
Most manufacturing bids that lose never get a fair hearing on quality or price. They are filtered out first, on checks the buyer runs early and often automatically: your accounts against a turnover threshold, your insurance against a stated minimum, and whether you hold Cyber Essentials, a recognised health and safety accreditation and, on bigger government work, a Carbon Reduction Plan. The bids that survive those checks then lose on answers that don't match what was asked. None of it says your factory isn't good enough. It says the buyer couldn't see the proof. Here are the seven reasons I see most often, and what fixes each one.
Financial standing is usually the first check, and it is often automated. Buyers commonly set a minimum turnover of around twice the annual contract value, and a bid below it never reaches a human reader. If a contract is worth more than half your turnover, expect your accounts to be scrutinised closely. Financial standing
Bids get rejected over insurance for mechanical reasons, not because you're uninsured: cover below the minimum, an expired certificate, a policyholder name that doesn't match the bidding company, or an aggregate limit when the buyer asked for each and every claim. Easy to fix before submission, impossible after. Insurance and key person cover
Under PPN 014, central government departments, their agencies and NHS bodies require Cyber Essentials where a supplier handles personal data or official information. Health and safety is checked on almost every public tender, usually through an SSIP scheme or ISO 45001. Miss either and you can be excluded before price is considered. Cyber Essentials · Health and safety
Under PPN 006, suppliers bidding for central government contracts worth more than £5 million a year, advertised on or after 24 February 2025, must provide one. Many councils and prime contractors now ask smaller suppliers for a plan too, and evaluators check that it is published, measured and matches the bid. Carbon Reduction Plans and ESG
Central government gives social value at least a 10% weighting under PPN 002. On a close contest, that 10% is often the whole margin between first and second. Evaluators want specifics: Real Living Wage, apprenticeships, an equality plan with targets. Good practice that isn't written down scores the same as none. HR and social value
Evaluators mark quality and method statements against published criteria, in the order they're written. A generic answer about what you do well, rather than what was asked, loses marks even when the evidence exists somewhere in the business. You can be the best manufacturer on the list and still come fourth. Bid writing
Tender windows are short. If your certificates, insurance schedule, last two or three years of accounts, key policies, case studies and training matrix live in five different inboxes, the bid goes in thin or late. An evidence library you can draw on in minutes fixes this. Process automation · Training evidence
Most manufacturers react to a lost bid by hiring a bid writer for the next one, or asking one consultant to fix everything. A bid writer can't write around a missing certificate, and a generalist rarely knows Cyber Essentials, ISO, insurance and contract law equally well.
So the same gaps turn up on the next tender, and the one after that.
Diagnose first, then fix each gap with someone who does that one thing for manufacturers. That's the Cure Alliance: I find what a buyer would mark you down on, then bring in the vetted specialist for each gap, from ISO to insurance to bid writing, and coordinate them so nothing falls between two stools.
One relationship. Every specialist. You stop finding out what was missing from the feedback letter.
Usually because they are filtered out on a gateway check before the quality answers are read, or because the answer did not match the question that was scored. Financial standing, insurance levels, Cyber Essentials, health and safety accreditation and a Carbon Reduction Plan are all checked early, and often mechanically.
Yes. Under the Procurement Act 2023, a public buyer must send every supplier whose tender was assessed an assessment summary before it publishes the contract award notice. It shows your score and the reason for it on each criterion, and the winning bid's scores alongside. Read it as a checklist: every mark you lost points at a gap in evidence or in how the answer was written.
Months, not weeks. Cyber Essentials typically takes four to eight weeks, ISO 9001 three to six months, and accounts, insurance certificates and policies all need to be current on the day you submit. Build an evidence library before the tender lands, and review it every quarter.
Sources: PPN 014: Cyber Essentials Scheme (GOV.UK) · PPN 006: Carbon Reduction Plans (GOV.UK) · PPN 002: Social value (GOV.UK) · Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) · Procurement Act 2023: assessment summaries (GOV.WALES)
Written by Rob Atkins, Founder & Principal Consultant, Your Best Solution Limited. Last updated .