Relevant experience in a tender: what buyers need to see

What does relevant experience mean in a tender?

Relevant experience is whatever the buyer’s stated criteria say it is. That could be work with a similar customer group, at a similar scale, or under similar risks and delivery conditions. The tender documents will tell you what evidence counts and whether you need a matching client or sector at all.

Your answer should identify the comparable work, explain your role and show what happened. Before you write a word, check whether the requirement is mandatory or scored, because that changes the evidence you need and how much is riding on it.

Contents

• Why relevant experience matters
• Where experience is assessed
• How to answer a relevant experience tender question
• Using experience from another sector
• Questions to check before submitting
• Common mistakes that cost marks
• FAQ

Why relevant experience matters

Your delivery team knows what you’ve achieved. The contracting authority only knows what’s written in your tender submission, so for small and medium-sized enterprises a good project with an unclear link to the requirement can end up scoring very little.

So before you pick an example, read the requirement and work out what the buyer is worried about.

Where experience is assessed

At the participation stage

Under the Procurement Act 2023, a buyer running a competitive tendering procedure can set conditions of participation that you must meet to be awarded the contract. These can cover your legal and financial capacity or your technical ability to deliver, which is where past experience usually comes in.

The selection questionnaire (you may still hear it called a pre-qualification questionnaire) is where you’ll usually be asked for contract examples, accounts or insurance details. Check the tender documents for any pass mark and whether you can rely on another organisation’s capacity. If you can’t meet a mandatory condition, a well-written case study won’t get you through.

In the scored tender response

At invitation to tender stage, the buyer may ask how your previous delivery supports the approach you’re proposing. Read the question alongside the evaluation criteria and scoring methodology, as experience sometimes informs your answer without being scored on its own.

In a competitive tendering procedure, the contract goes to the most advantageous tender, which the Act describes as the one that meets the buyer’s requirements and best satisfies the award criteria. Price is usually one of those criteria, so your experience evidence is competing for marks alongside it.

How to answer a relevant experience tender question

Start with the buyer’s concern and pick the example that answers it most closely, which may or may not be your biggest contract. For each requirement in the invitation to tender, ask where you’ve delivered something comparable and what proof you can show.

Give the evaluator a clear case study

Open with the client type, your role, the contract scope and the delivery period, as far as the tender documents allow. Then explain the challenge, what your team did and the controls you used.

Back each case study up with evidence the evaluator can trust. Verified performance data and client feedback work well, and references or completion certificates can help where the buyer asks for them. Give every figure a clear measure and time period, because a number without context is hard to score.

The strongest example is the one the evaluator can match to the requirement without filling in the gaps.

Show what your people achieved

CVs often list responsibilities: “managed stakeholders” or “oversaw delivery”. In bid writing, distinguish an individual’s contribution from the organisation’s past experience. Who resolved a delivery issue, and what did their decision change?

Where possible, show how their contribution led to measurable outcomes and explain whether they’ll work on this contract. That link between past work and the proposed team makes your answer more convincing. An evaluator-led bid review can test whether the evidence is visible where the marks are awarded.

Using experience from another sector

No direct public sector contract? Don’t rule yourself out before reading the requirement. A private sector project may be relevant if the tender permits it and the delivery challenge is comparable.

Look at what the two contracts have in common, such as scale, regulation, risk and the people you’re serving. Multi-site delivery, sensitive data or a demanding mobilisation may matter more to the buyer than which sector the client was in. Explain the overlap plainly in your case study, then deal with the differences and how you’ll manage them.

Be precise about whose past experience you’re relying on. If a subcontractor or consortium partner delivered the work, name their role and check whether the tender allows you to rely on it. A proposed team member’s experience can help, but don’t present their former employer’s contract as your organisation’s own.

Questions to check before submitting

A quick check can save your team hours spent polishing the wrong example:

• Is relevant experience a condition of participation, a scored question, or both?
• Does the selection questionnaire ask for this evidence?
• Does each example map to the tender’s stated criteria and scoring methodology?
• Have we stated our role and included any records the tender asks for, such as completion certificates?
• Are all dates and references accurate, and are the supporting documents ones the tender allows?
• Can we meet the mandatory requirements and evidence our case? Use this to inform the bid no-bid decision.
• Does the tender include social value, and have we addressed it?

Keep the answers with your case studies and delivery records. This supports tender management and gives you stronger material when the next deadline lands. Evaluator-led bid training can help your team turn that material into clearer responses.

Common mistakes that cost marks

Reusing a favourite case study without checking it fits the question can mean missing a scored requirement. So can spending half the word limit on company history before you get to the results.

Avoid claims such as “extensive experience” unless you name the project, your role and a result, such as reducing delivery times by 15%. Check dates and contract values, and remove anything you can’t verify. Don’t assume an attachment will be assessed unless the instructions say so.

Most of all, don’t make the evaluator hunt. Put the evidence beside the claim it supports.

Conclusion

That awkward experience question is easier when you focus on the buyer’s requirement. Choose the closest match, explain your role and provide evidence the buyer can verify.

If you’d like an evaluator’s eye on your bid writing, ask Bidsmithery™ about The Bid Win Rate Accelerator or its bid and tender support services.

FAQ

Key takeaways

Check the rules first. Choose comparable work, state exactly what your team did and give the evaluator measurable outcomes they can verify.