What you'll get
- 4 copy-ready blocks
- 6 min read
An RFP go no go decision is worth thirty structured minutes, because the average bid costs days of your best people's time and many are decided before writing begins: to the vendor who shaped the requirements, to an incumbent collecting quotes for procurement or to a budget that was never real. Ten questions, three vetoes, decided same week it lands.
The three veto questions
Any one of these scoring no can end the discussion on its own:
V1. Did we know this was coming before it published?
If the RFP is a surprise, somebody else helped write it.
V2. Can we talk to a human buyer during the process?
"All questions via the portal" plus no prior relationship means
you are bidding into a void.
V3. Is the work actually ours to do well?
Strip the revenue excitement: would we staff this with our A team
and be proud of it in a case study?Teams that adopt only the vetoes and skip the rest of the scorecard still kill their worst bids.
The ten questions (score 0, 1 or 2)
1. Relationship Do we know anyone on the buying side by name?
2. Origin Do we know who shaped the requirements? Is it us?
3. Incumbent Is there one, and is the RFP written in their accent?
4. Fit Does the work match what we are provably good at?
5. Reference Would winning this produce a case study we need?
6. Price shape Can we be competitive without pricing for regret?
7. Capacity Can we staff it with people we would send, not
people we can spare?
8. Process Are timelines, criteria and budget stated and sane?
9. Access Are questions answered openly, briefings offered?
10. Cost to bid Days of effort against realistic win odds: is the
expected value positive?16-20 Bid, properly resourced, with a named owner
11-15 Bid only if you can change the odds first: a conversation,
a briefing, a question that tests V2 for real
0-10 No-bid, send the letter below
Any veto at no: no-bid regardless of scoreScore it with three people: whoever found the RFP, whoever would deliver it and whoever owns the number. Solo scoring produces enthusiasm, not odds. The same discipline that picks target accounts picks bids, which is why this pairs with the target account selection scorecard.
The no-bid letter
A no-bid handled well is marketing. Silence or a limp withdrawal is a door closed; this is a door propped open:
Subject: [RFP name]: declining this round
[First name], thank you for including us. We will not bid this time:
[one honest line, e.g. "the timeline does not let us staff it with the
team it deserves"].
We would value being on the list next time, ideally early enough to
ask better questions. If it is useful meanwhile, we are happy to share
how we have approached [the problem area] elsewhere, no strings.
Good luck with the project.Buyers remember vendors who declined gracefully, partly because it is rare and partly because it signals you have enough work to choose.
If you bid: two rules
- Change the odds before writing. Use every legal channel: the briefing call, the site visit, the clarification questions that reveal whether V2 is real. A bid where you never spoke to a human is a lottery ticket priced in staff-days.
- Write the response as a proposal, not a form. Requirements get answered, but the document still opens with their problem and closes with a decision path, which is the software project proposal template's structure wearing RFP numbering.
Worked example (illustrative, not a real company)
Two RFPs land at Tessaro Analytics in one week. RFP one, a logistics group: V1 yes (the operations director flagged it months ago), V2 yes, score 16. Bid, with the director's known pain points shaping the response. RFP two, a bank, forwarded by a procurement portal: V1 no, V2 no (portal only), and question 3 notes requirements naming a rival's product features. No-bid letter sent in two days; the bank's project manager replies personally, and next year's RFP arrives with an invitation to the briefing. All names are invented.
Five mistakes to avoid
- Bidding because the revenue number is large. Big numbers attract big fields and incumbent wiring. The scorecard prices the odds; the revenue line prices only the prize.
- Letting hope score the sheet. The delivery lead and the finance owner score lower than the finder, and they are usually righter. Three scorers, every time.
- Treating the vetoes as negotiable. "We scored 17 but failed V2" is a lottery ticket with good handwriting. The vetoes exist because those three facts dominate everything else.
- No-bidding silently. The letter costs ten minutes and is the only marketing a buyer ever receives from a vendor who declined. Silence spends the invitation.
- Never auditing the decisions. Twice a year, list what you bid, what you won and what the scorecard said. If 11-point bids keep losing, your band is set too low; the sheet learns, if you let it.
Why this works on named accounts
Common questions
When should you not bid on an RFP?
When it surprised you (someone else shaped it), when no human buyer will talk to you during the process, or when the work is not genuinely yours to do well. Beyond those vetoes: weak fit, an incumbent's fingerprints on the requirements, vague budgets and a bid cost out of proportion to honest odds.
What win rate should you expect on RFPs?
Track your own rather than trusting folklore: what gets won are bids where a relationship, prior shaping or real access existed. The practical move is raising the average by refusing the lottery tickets, which the vetoes do mechanically, and investing the freed days in the accounts that produce shaped RFPs later.
How do you decline an RFP without burning the relationship?
Fast, honestly and with one line of reason plus an offer to engage earlier next time. A graceful no-bid letter signals selectivity rather than weakness, keeps you on the next list and sometimes triggers the direct conversation the portal was preventing.
More from the Academy
Software Project Proposal Template
For IT services firms whose proposals vanish into silence.
You leave with nine sections in the order a committee actually reads, the scope wording that prevents disputes and a decision ask with a date on it.
Target Account Selection Scorecard
For founders and sales leaders who have an ICP on a slide and need a ranked list of named accounts.
You leave with a one-page ICP, an 11-point weighted scorecard and three tiers.
Enterprise Sales One-Pager
For founders and sales leads at small firms chasing large accounts.
You leave with a single fill-in page: five named accounts, an entry problem and first project for each, the committee, a procurement pack check and five weekly counts.
Want this in your inbox?
Optional. We use your email only to send you this, nothing else.