Drupal powers a huge share of government, university, nonprofit, and international organisation websites, so public tenders should be natural wins for Drupal agencies. Yet technically strong proposals lose all the time, and often they never reach scoring at all.
Over the past few months, I’ve qualified and submitted bids to Canadian and US municipalities, UK public bodies, and UN agencies. One pattern kept repeating: the technical approach rarely decided the outcome.
We lost a municipal bid with a strong technical proposal because the city required three municipal references and we couldn’t show them. Another buyer told us plainly that we lacked local government experience in their country. Some opportunities were closed to us before we started writing. They required security clearance for offshore staff, data processing only within a specific region, fluency in a local language, third-party penetration testing, or insurance levels above ours. One UN tender required that all three of its technologies appear together in every reference project, and it would not count experience from partners or affiliates. And small councils with tight budgets often preferred a local agency they could meet in person, however good our proposal was.
In this talk, I’ll walk through these real examples. I’ll explain what each one taught us about qualifying earlier, building references deliberately, and knowing when the most profitable decision is not to bid.
Key takeaways
- Treat mandatory criteria as pass/fail gates. Check references, insurance, clearance, residency, and language requirements before writing anything.
- Build references deliberately. Know which client types you’ll need, keep contacts current, and track gaps the way you track pipeline.
- Use the clarification window. Asking good questions reveals budget and priorities, and shows the buyer you’re serious.
- Saying no is a strategy. The bids you decline give your team time to win the ones that fit.
Why this session matters to the community
Most Drupal conference talks focus on building great sites. Very few cover how agencies actually win the right to build them, especially in the public sector, where Drupal is strongest. This session shares practical, bid-side lessons that aren’t readily available online, for agencies of any size competing for public work.