A tender can quietly soak up days of effort before anyone has formally decided it is worth pursuing - or committed the people needed to win it. Teams often treat a gate as a simple "go/no-go" tick box, but the real value of a gate is committing named resources to the next stage. Without gates, work happens by default and the right people are never locked in.
A gate is a checkpoint where the business decides whether to commit named resources to the next stage of a tender. Passing a gate is not just a go/no-go decision - it means specific, named people are committed to the work ahead.
There are four gates in the tender process.
Gate 0 is used to request approval before meaningful non-Sales work is undertaken on a sales opportunity, prior to - or without - a tender being released.
Gate 0 approval covers both:
Sales may determine that a Gate 0 meeting is required. Where required, the meeting is scheduled by the Bid Manager. Other than Sales, resources are not approved to conduct meaningful work on a sales opportunity unless Gate 0 has been passed. The Bid Manager records the outcome.
Gate 1 is used to request approval to commit resources to prepare an RFx response, or a major quote that requires non-Sales resources.
Gate 1 approval covers both:
Sales may determine that a Gate 1 meeting is required. Where required, the meeting is scheduled by the Bid Manager. A Bid Team cannot be formed unless Gate 1 has been passed. The Bid Manager records the outcome.
Gate 2 is used to approve finalisation and submission of the tender response by the required deadline. The target is to request Gate 2 approval at least two days before the submission deadline.
The approver may:
The Bid Manager records the outcome.
Gate 3 is used when the bid has been won, to approve contract signature and hand the engagement over to the business for delivery.
The Bid Team is responsible for ensuring the business is fully informed about the project that has been won, including the scope, commitments, assumptions, risks, obligations, commercial position, and any conditions agreed during the tender or contract process.