When a construction RFP (Request for Proposal) lands on your desk, the initial excitement can quickly turn to uncertainty. Do you have the right team and resources to deliver the project successfully? Is this project aligned with your firm's strategy? And perhaps most importantly—will your firm stand a chance of winning the bid?
This is where the go/no-go decision comes into play. This decision-making process is vital to ensuring that your firm spends time and energy on opportunities that will yield the best outcomes, and avoids those that might drain resources or harm your reputation.
In this blog we’ll explain why the go/no-go decision is so important, the key factors to consider when making your decision, and we’ll provide a simple scoring framework to help you make your decision. Let’s dive into it.
Why is a Go/No-Go Decision So Important?
Responding to a construction RFP is no small task. It requires time, resources, and energy—often from multiple departments within your firm. When you consider the complex nature of construction projects, it's clear that rushing into an RFP without careful consideration is a recipe for failure. If it doesn't align with your capabilities, strategic goals, or resources, it could lead to hours of wasted time for a bid that was never going to land. Or, maybe worse, a winning proposal that your firm can’t fully deliver on.
Additionally, each RFP comes with an opportunity cost. Time spent on one proposal means time not spent on others. That means that not only is time wasted on an RFP you were always unlikely to win, but that more suitable bids have also passed you by.
To make sure you're pursuing the right projects, it's crucial to have a set of criteria that allows you to evaluate each RFP thoroughly. This structured approach helps you assess all critical factors—from financial viability to client relationships, competition, and resource availability. By taking the time to carefully assess each RFP, you can ensure your firm focuses on the opportunities that are most likely to succeed and align with your business objectives.
Without this core understanding of whether you have the right expertise, capacity, and alignment, you’re essentially gambling with your firm's time, resources, and potential reputation.
Let’s cover these key considerations:
Consideration: Strategic Alignment
Before diving into the nitty-gritty details of a project, it's crucial to assess whether the construction RFP aligns with your firm's long-term strategic goals. The decisions you make today about which projects to pursue should support where you want your firm to be in the next 3, 5, or even 10 years.
Strategic alignment is about understanding your firm's vision, growth trajectory, and market positioning. Does the project help you build a stronger portfolio in a key sector? Does it help expand your reputation in a region or specialty where you want to grow? Or is it a distraction that will stretch your team too thin?
Firms that pursue projects that don’t align with their broader strategy may find themselves overextended or missing the chance to focus on the right opportunities that could bring them closer to their desired goals.
Questions to ask yourself :
- Does this project align with our firm's long-term strategic goals?
- Will this project help us build our portfolio in a key sector or region?
- Will winning this project open new doors for future opportunities, or is it a one-off job?
Consideration: Capability and Capacity
When evaluating whether to move forward with an RFP, assessing your firm’s capability and capacity is crucial. This isn’t just about whether you can win the project—it’s about ensuring you have the right skills, experience, and resources to deliver it successfully. Often, construction RFPs will require specific experiences, qualifications, accreditations, or certifications, some of which are mandatory while others may be optional. One of the first things to do when evaluating an RFP is to check off these requirements. If your firm doesn’t meet a prerequisite, you can quickly rule out the opportunity and avoid wasting time and resources on an unsuccessful bid.
Internal Expertise
As mentioned earlier, the first step is to ensure that you have the right person or team to meet the RFP’s prerequisites. For instance, if the RFP requires a Project Manager with 10+ years of experience, it’s essential that your firm can fulfill this requirement—or at least partner with another firm to ensure this expertise is covered.
Once you’ve confirmed that your firm meets the mandatory qualifications, it’s time to dive deeper into your internal expertise. The goal now is to assemble a team with the experience and skill set necessary to impress the RFP evaluator.
Take a closer look at your team’s abilities—do they possess the right mix of expertise for this particular project? Has your team worked on similar project types, such as large-scale builds, complex construction methods, or specific regulatory compliance issues? Beyond just the technical skills, consider whether your team has experience managing projects of similar size and complexity. This is key when demonstrating your firm’s capability to handle the scope of work and meet client expectations.
In a competitive bid process, it’s not enough to simply meet the personnel requirements outlined in the RFP. You should aim to exceed them. Highlight your subject matter experts who can tackle the most challenging aspects of the project and offer innovative solutions that set your firm apart from the competition. This approach will help differentiate you and make your construction proposal stand out.
Resource Availability
In tandem with the above, you also need to ensure that your team is available to complete the project if you were to win the bid.
Resource availability isn’t just about whether you have the manpower to take on additional work—it’s about ensuring that your team can deliver without compromising the quality of your ongoing projects. Even if you have the necessary skills and experience, spreading your resources too thin could result in delays, poor performance, or dissatisfaction with the client.
Past Performance
Past performance is another critical aspect of evaluating capability and capacity. RFPs often require evidence of previous success in completing projects of a similar scope or complexity. This might include demonstrating experience on projects with a specific budget (e.g., $10 million+), expertise in green building standards such as LEED-certified projects, or any other key factors that are relevant to the upcoming build.
To meet these requirements, you’ll need to have a record of delivering similar projects successfully—on time, within budget, and with high-quality outcomes. Again, this isn’t just about meeting the RFP’s minimum performance requirements; it’s also about showcasing how your firm has gone above and beyond on past projects.
Additionally, it’s one thing to claim that your firm has completed relevant projects successfully, but it’s a different thing to prove it. As much as possible, you should be able to back up claims with in-depth testimonials and case studies.
Questions to Ask Yourself
- Have we met all the mandatory qualifications required for this RFP?
- Does our team have the right mix of skills and experience to exceed the RFP evaluator’s expectations?
- Can we prove our success on similar projects with a strong track record of timely, on-budget delivery?
- Do we have the resources (personnel, equipment, time) available to take on this project without compromising quality or timelines?
- Are there any resource gaps that need to be filled before we can commit to this bid?
Tip: Use Proposal Software to Streamline Capability Matching
Proposal software can be a game-changer when it comes to assessing your firm’s capabilities. Flowcase allows you to search across your entire firm’s resumes and case studies, making it easy to identify whether you have the right experts and past projects to fulfill the RFP’s requirements.
In addition to resource finding, Flowcase also streamlines the process of tailoring your content for the RFP submission. Once you’ve identified the right team and relevant past projects, you can easily customize their content so that it speaks directly to the client’s needs. Then you can export it into your branded template, or bid-specified layout in seconds!
Consideration: Financial Viability
Evaluating a project’s financial viability is a critical part of the go/no-go decision—especially in construction RFPs, where cost overruns and unforeseen challenges are common and can quickly erode profitability.
Start by comparing the project’s budget with your firm’s cost estimates for labor, materials, overhead, and any other expenses. Does the proposed budget allow for a reasonable profit margin once all costs are accounted for? If not, are there ways to reduce costs without sacrificing quality? A project that appears to be profitable on the surface may, in fact, turn out to be a financial strain if hidden costs emerge during the project’s lifecycle.
Next, consider the payment terms and schedule. Will the payment structure align with your firm’s cash flow needs, especially if there are long payment delays? A delayed payment schedule can create significant strain on your firm’s finances, particularly if the project involves large upfront costs.
Finally, assess any potential financial risks—such as the likelihood of scope changes or unforeseen expenses—that could impact your profitability. Have you accounted for contingency costs, and do you have mechanisms in place to manage risk throughout the project?
Questions to ask yourself:
- Does the project budget align with our cost estimates and desired profit margin?
- Are the payment terms and schedule favorable to our firm’s cash flow?
- Have we identified any potential financial risks, and are we prepared to manage them?
Consideration: Existing Client Relationship
Understanding your existing relationship with the client or project owner is another factor to consider when deciding whether to pursue a construction RFP. It goes without saying that an established, strong relationship can lead to smoother communication, clearer expectations, and an overall more successful project. On the other hand, a strained or problematic relationship could introduce unnecessary risks.
If your firm has worked with the client before, assess the history of those engagements. Were previous projects completed on time, within budget, and to the client’s satisfaction? If you’ve had positive experiences with the client in the past, that’s a good sign that the relationship will continue to be mutually beneficial.
Another consideration is whether the client has contracted companies of similar size, location, expertise, and so on, to your own. For example, if they typically work with larger firms or those outside your geographic region, they may have internal reasons for that, and you may face challenges in securing the project.
Additionally, think about whether your firm has relationships with the client’s sister companies, or maybe if other companies they’ve worked with can vouch for your firm’s work. If so, these connections could be valuable when evaluating the strength of the client relationship.
If there’s a mutual connection, or any kind of opportunity to establish rapport or lay the groundwork before submitting your proposal, then this is a big plus. Even an informal connection can provide a competitive advantage during the evaluation process.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Do we have a strong, positive relationship with the client?
- Has the client previously contracted firms of similar size or expertise to ours?
- Do we have connections with sister/brother companies or firms that can vouch for us?
- Is there an opportunity to establish rapport or lay groundwork before submitting the proposal?
Consideration: Competition
Understanding the competitive landscape is the next step when deciding whether to pursue an RFP. In many cases, you’ll be bidding against other firms with similar expertise, so it’s important to assess how you compare to them. It’s not always clear who your competitors will be, so this exercise isn’t always possible. But for bids where you do have insight into other bidders, you might want to think about the following. Are the other firms more established or better known in the specific market or sector? Do they have a stronger track record, or perhaps deeper financial resources? Or to frame it another way, do you have a unique value proposition that they can’t match?
Knowing who your competitors are and what they bring to the table allows you to gauge your own position. If you’re competing against firms with more experience or higher-profile projects, it may be a tougher battle. However, don’t discount your firm’s unique strengths. If you can clearly differentiate your firm by showcasing niche expertise, specialized services, or innovative solutions, you can carve out an edge. Clients often value unique approaches, particularly when they feel a specific need that other firms can’t address.
Additionally, consider whether the incumbent contractor—if there is one—has a strong hold on the project. If the client has a long-standing relationship with the current contractor, it could be a challenge to convince them to switch. But if there are signs that the incumbent is underperforming or the client is looking for fresh ideas, it could be an opportunity to step in.
It’s also helpful to think about how the competition may approach the RFP. Do they seem to be focusing on different aspects of the project? Are there areas where your firm’s approach or expertise may be more appealing? Understanding these dynamics allows you to refine your proposal to better meet the client's needs and stand out from the competition.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Who are our competitors, and how do we compare in terms of experience, resources, and reputation?
- How can we differentiate our firm to make our proposal stand out?
Is the incumbent contractor likely to retain the contract, or is there an opportunity for us to step in?
Consideration: Project Risk
Assessing the risks associated with a project is the final part of the go/no-go decision. Every construction project comes with its own set of risks—some obvious, some hidden—that could potentially derail the timeline, affect costs, or lead to reputational damage. Understanding these risks upfront allows your firm to make an informed decision about whether to proceed with the bid.
Start by considering the technical risks. Are there aspects of the project that are particularly complex or unfamiliar? For instance, does it involve cutting-edge construction methods, a challenging site, or new regulatory requirements? If the project presents technical challenges that your firm has little experience with, that could add risk. The ability to accurately estimate these risks and have mitigation strategies in place is key.
Next, evaluate the logistical risks. Are there significant supply chain concerns or potential delays due to the availability of materials, labor, or equipment? This is especially important for large-scale projects where timely delivery of materials and resources is essential. Delays in the supply chain or equipment breakdowns can lead to project delays and increased costs, which can negatively impact your bottom line.
You should also consider external factors such as political risks or changes in local regulations that might impact the project. For example, new zoning laws or environmental regulations could increase project complexity or costs, and political instability could lead to unpredictable disruptions. If you’re working in a region with unstable political conditions or complex regulatory frameworks, it’s crucial to assess whether the project is still viable.
Finally, underlining all of the above, there’s the risk of cost overruns. Even with detailed planning, unforeseen issues can arise that increase the cost of a project. These could be due to changes in scope, design issues, or site conditions. It’s important to assess whether the project budget includes enough contingency to cover these potential overruns, and whether your firm has the capacity to absorb them without damaging profitability.
By carefully evaluating these risks, you can determine whether they are manageable or if they outweigh the potential benefits of pursuing the project. If the risks seem too great, it might be best to pass on the opportunity.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Are there any technical challenges in this project that could increase the risk of delays or cost overruns?
- Are there logistical or supply chain issues that could disrupt the project timeline?
- Are there any external risks, such as regulatory changes or political instability, that could impact the project’s success?
- Is there enough contingency in the budget to handle unforeseen risks and cost overruns?
Construction RFP Go/No-Go Framework
A clear, structured framework is essential for making informed go/no-go decisions. While experience and intuition play a role in the process, having a set of defined criteria ensures consistency and objectivity in your evaluations. A framework allows you to assess each RFP against the same standards, which helps you prioritize what matters most for your firm and avoid making impulsive decisions based on incomplete information.
We’ve created a rudimentary framework based on the key considerations we've discussed throughout this blog. This framework is intended as a starting point to help guide your decision-making. However, it’s important to remember that each firm is unique. The framework should be tailored to your specific needs and goals. For instance, some firms may prioritize financial viability or client relationships more than others, depending on their strategic objectives.
While there’s no specific score to aim for, you should practice using the criteria until you’re confident in your firm’s decision-making process. Eventually you should be able to establish a go/no-go threshold that works for you.
Here is a link to the framework.
Summary
A go/no-go decision is a critical part of your proposal process. By taking the time to carefully evaluate each RFP, your firm can focus on the projects that are best suited to your expertise, resources, and long-term objectives. With a structured framework in place, you’ll be able to make informed, confident decisions that lead to more successful bids and stronger project deliveries. To put this all in one place for you…
Questions to ask yourself when decision to Go/No-Go on a Construction RFP:
- Does this project align with our firm's long-term strategic goals?
- Will this project help us build our portfolio in a key sector or region?
- Will winning this project open new doors for future opportunities, or is it a one-off job?
- Have we met all the mandatory qualifications required for this RFP?
- Does our team have the right mix of skills and experience to exceed the RFP evaluator’s expectations?
- Can we prove our success on similar projects with a strong track record of timely, on-budget delivery?
- Do we have the resources (personnel, equipment, time) available to take on this project without compromising quality or timelines?
- Are there any resource gaps that need to be filled before we can commit to this bid?
- Does the project budget align with our cost estimates and desired profit margin?
- Are the payment terms and schedule favorable to our firm’s cash flow?
- Have we identified any potential financial risks, and are we prepared to manage them?
- Do we have a strong, positive relationship with the client?
- Has the client previously contracted firms of similar size or expertise to ours?
- Do we have connections with sister/brother companies or firms that can vouch for us?
- Is there an opportunity to establish rapport or lay groundwork before submitting the proposal?
- Who are our competitors, and how do we compare in terms of experience, resources, and reputation?
- How can we differentiate our firm to make our proposal stand out?
Is the incumbent contractor likely to retain the contract, or is there an opportunity for us to step in? - Are there any technical challenges in this project that could increase the risk of delays or cost overruns?
- Are there logistical or supply chain issues that could disrupt the project timeline?
- Are there any external risks, such as regulatory changes or political instability, that could impact the project’s success?
- Is there enough contingency in the budget to handle unforeseen risks and cost overruns?
To learn how Flowcase can streamline your go/no-go process, book a personalized demo today.
