How to Track Competitors in Tender Submissions: Practical Strategies and Tools

Knowing what competitors are doing in public and private tenders helps you sharpen proposals, anticipate pricing, and find gaps to win more often. This guide explains ethical, legal ways to monitor competitors in tender submissions, the data sources and tools to use, step-by-step workflows, KPIs to track, and a 30-day monitoring playbook you can start using today.

Why tracking competitors in tenders matters

Monitoring competitor behavior in tendering gives your bidding team strategic advantages:

• Spot competitor strengths and recurring partners (subcontractors or consortium members).
• Estimate realistic pricing ranges and margin pressure in specific procurement categories.
• Identify types of contracts you’re more likely to win versus those dominated by rivals.
• Adjust resource allocation and tailor differentiators in technical and commercial proposals.

Legal and ethical boundaries

Always stay on the right side of the law and procurement rules. Key principles:

• Do not engage in collusion, bid-rigging, or any activity that manipulates tender outcomes.
• Use only public, permitted sources: award notices, official buyer publications, company filings, and public APIs.
• Avoid deception to obtain confidential bid information (misrepresenting identity or intent).
• When in doubt, consult legal counsel or your compliance officer before pursuing competitive intelligence tactics.

Primary sources to monitor

Collecting reliable data starts with the right sources. Common, legitimate sources include:

• Official procurement portals: TED (EU), SAM.gov (US), Contracts Finder (UK), Merx (Canada), state and local e-procurement sites.
• Award notices and contract registers: Published winning bidders, contract values, and scope often appear in post-award notices.
• Company filings and registries: Companies House (UK), SEC EDGAR (US), corporate annual reports and financial statements for bidding behavior insights.
• Procurement APIs and data feeds: Many portals offer APIs or RSS feeds you can ingest into your monitoring system.
• Commercial tender intelligence platforms: GovWin, BidPrime, Onvia, Jaggaer, and others consolidate opportunities and historical awards.
• Local buyer websites and procurement plans: Many buyers publish pipeline procurement plans and supplier lists.
• Industry press, LinkedIn, and social media: Announcements of big wins, partnerships, staff moves, and consortiums.
• Subcontractor and supplier disclosures: Supplier pages and case studies often mention contract partners and roles.

Tools and platform suggestions

Select a mix of free and paid tools depending on scale:

• Free: Google Alerts, RSS readers, official e-procurement portals, government APIs (TED, SAM).
• Paid: Bid management and intelligence platforms (GovWin IQ, Onvia, BidPrime), CRM integration (Salesforce + custom fields), data scraping/ETL tools for ingesting APIs.
• Data enrichment: Crunchbase, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, company registration services for deeper profiles.
• Automation: Zapier or Make.com to push new award notices into Slack, email, or your CRM.

What to track for each competitor

Create a competitor profile template that your team populates and updates regularly. Key fields:

• Company name, registration number, HQ and regional offices
• Typical bid size (contract value ranges)
• Procurement categories/zones they target
• Win/loss record (historical awards & bid frequency)
• Common partners and subcontractors
• Pricing patterns or range estimates
• Technical strengths, certifications, and differentiators
• Recent news, leadership changes, and capacity signals

How to monitor: workflows and alert examples

Implement a structured monitoring workflow to ensure consistent intelligence:

1. Define target competitors and set up data sources (portals, company filings, press).
2. Configure alerts and feeds (Google Alerts, portal RSS/API, platform searches).
3. Route alerts to a central inbox or collaboration channel for triage (Slack, Teams).
4. Tag and enrich each alert in your CRM or bid tool with standardized fields (competitor name, tender ID, contract value, region).
5. Perform weekly reviews to update competitor profiles and monthly win/loss analysis.

Sample alert configuration

• Source: TED/Contracts Finder — Keywords: competitor name + "award" or "contract"
• Filter: contract value > $100,000 (or local currency equivalent)
• Delivery: email to bids@yourcompany.com and Slack #tender-alerts
• Auto-tag: competitor name, contract value, buyer name, deadline/award date

Analyzing trends and KPIs

Turn raw observations into actionable intelligence by tracking measurable KPIs:

• Win rate by contract category (your company vs competitors)
• Average contract value won by each competitor
• Bid frequency (number of tenders bid per quarter)
• Price gap analysis: your price vs. winning average (where available)
• Time-to-award and common procurement timelines
• Partner network density: how often a competitor appears with the same subcontractor

Using intelligence to shape bids

Once you have reliable competitor data, apply it directly to tender strategy:

• Adjust pricing strategy where margins are compressed by specific competitors.
• Emphasize differentiators (service, guarantees, local presence) where competitors win on price alone.
• Form strategic partnerships or subcontractor relationships to match competitor consortium strengths.
• Prioritize tenders where your historical win rate contrasts with competitor weak performance.

30-day monitoring playbook (practical)

Use this condensed action list to start quickly.

• Day 1–3: Identify top 5 competitors and gather baseline info (company filings, awards last 24 months).
• Day 4–7: Subscribe to official portals and set Google Alerts and RSS feeds for each competitor.
• Week 2: Build competitor profiles in your CRM; create tags and a central folder for alerts.
• Week 3: Automate routing of alerts to a central channel; assign a bid analyst to triage alerts.
• Week 4: Run a first monthly review — update KPIs and identify 2 tactical bidding changes based on findings.

Red flags and what to avoid

• Do not coordinate with competitors on bidding strategy — it’s illegal in most jurisdictions.
• Be skeptical of incomplete or unverified information; confirm via official award notices or buyer contacts.
• Avoid overfitting: one competitor’s win does not always represent the full market dynamic.

Templates and quick checklist

Copy these quick templates into your CRM or bid tool.

Competitor profile fields (short)

• Name | HQ | Region active
• Top procurement categories
• Typical contract value range
• Key partners/subcontractors
• Recent awards (links)
• Notes on strengths/weaknesses

Daily monitoring checklist

• Scan alert inbox and tag any award notices for competitor names.
• Log new awards to competitor profiles and flag tenders of strategic interest.
• Forward high-priority alerts to bid manager for immediate review.

Final tips

• Start small: monitor a handful of competitors well before expanding the list.
• Invest in data hygiene: consistent naming, tags, and fields prevent missed patterns.
• Combine quantitative data (award values, counts) with qualitative insights (news, people moves).
• Make competitive intelligence a repeatable process — weekly triage and monthly strategy reviews.

If you’d like, I can generate a ready-to-import CSV template for competitor profiles and alerts, or help craft alert keywords tailored to your industry and geography.