Every GovCon team has a bid/no-bid process. Almost none of them have a consistent one. The result is decisions made by whoever speaks loudest in the room, gut-feel calls that are impossible to defend, and win rates that stay stuck below 25% no matter how good the proposal team is.
A bid/no-bid scorecard solves all three of those problems. It standardizes the inputs, weights the criteria consistently across every opportunity, and produces a numeric recommendation that your leadership can actually debate — instead of just reacting to whoever presented the opportunity most enthusiastically.
This article gives you a complete, ready-to-use scorecard. Copy it into a spreadsheet, use our free interactive version, or adapt it for your team's process. The format matters less than the consistency.
🛠 Rather do it interactively? Use our free Bid/No-Bid Decision Tool — answer 15 questions, get a go/no-go recommendation in 2 minutes.
Use the Tool →How the scorecard works
The scorecard has 15 criteria across three gates. Each criterion is scored 0, 5, or 10 — no partial credit, no guessing. The total score out of 150 determines your recommendation. Gate 1 has two criteria that are instant kills: a score of 0 on either one means automatic no-go, regardless of total score.
The three gates are structured in order of importance:
- Gate 1 — Eligibility: Binary hard stops. These should take 30 seconds to score. Any zero here ends the review.
- Gate 2 — Strategic Fit: Judgment-based scoring of whether this opportunity aligns with your company's strengths and BD strategy.
- Gate 3 — Competitiveness: Honest assessment of your probability of winning in this specific competitive environment.
The scorecard
Score each criterion 0 (weak/no), 5 (partial/maybe), or 10 (strong/yes). Note the two criteria marked ★ — a score of 0 on either is an automatic no-go.
Are you eligible for the required set-aside?
Do you hold the required vehicle?
Can you meet FCL and individual clearance requirements?
Are you the right size under the NAICS code?
Do you know this agency / office / PM?
Is this work central to your expertise?
Can you cite 2+ relevant, recent contracts?
Is this in your target contract range?
Were you engaged before the solicitation dropped?
What is the incumbent's competitive strength?
Can you be competitive on price without sacrificing margin?
Do you have qualified candidates for all positions?
Is your teaming situation confirmed?
How much time to proposal due date?
Is your BD/proposal team resourced for this pursuit?
Interpreting your score
Use these thresholds as your starting point. Adjust them based on your company's risk tolerance and pipeline health — a team with a strong pipeline can afford to be more selective; a team that needs revenue may lower the Go threshold temporarily (though this usually ends badly).
What "Conditional Go" means in practice
A Conditional Go is not a free pass to commit resources. It means: identify the specific gaps, assign an owner, and set a deadline to resolve them before the proposal clock really starts running. Common conditional go situations include: teaming partner not yet committed, key personnel not yet identified, pricing approach not validated. If those conditions can't be resolved within the first week of the solicitation period, revisit the decision.
What to do with your score
The number is a tool for structured conversation, not a replacement for judgment. A score of 110 with a zero on customer relationship means something different than a 110 with strong scores across all 15 criteria. Walk through the zeros and fives in your gate review — they're the most important part of the discussion.
For a deeper discussion of the most common scoring mistakes — and the cognitive biases that push teams toward bad go decisions — see our post on Bid/No-Bid Mistakes That Kill Win Rates.
Getting the data you need to score accurately
The biggest problem with most scorecard implementations isn't the framework — it's the data. Teams try to score criteria like "incumbent position" and "agency past performance" without having actually pulled that data from USASpending or GovWin. The result is gut-feel scores masquerading as structured analysis.
The way to fix this is to have a standardized opportunity summary in hand before you start the scorecard. That summary should include the set-aside, vehicle access status, key personnel requirements, evaluation criteria, and any notable requirements that affect competitiveness — so your gate review is working from facts, not impressions of a 200-page document someone skimmed at 11pm.
That's exactly what an Opportunity Snapshot provides. Upload the solicitation, get the structured data, and score the criteria in 2 minutes instead of 2 hours.