How to run an effective post tender interview process?

If you’re a project manager, quantity surveyor or client representative involved in office fit-outs, you’re probably familiar with the post-tender interview process. And if you’re being honest, you probably know it’s broken.

Over the past 16 years working as a cost consultant in the London office market, I’ve sat through hundreds of these interviews, from fast-paced £500k refurbishments to major £30m relocations. I’ve seen the good, the bad and the downright embarrassing.

The problem? The process is outdated, inconsistent and often biased. It doesn’t do justice to the importance of the decision being made and who gets awarded a multi-million-pound contract.

In this article, I’m going to show you:

• How to run a fair, structured and effective tender interview

• Why the current scoring methods are flawed

• How to create transparency, remove bias, and improve outcomes for everyone involved

• And finally, how new software (BidScore.io) is going to change the way we do this - for good!

If you’ve ever left an interview day frustrated, confused or unsure how a decision was made, read on.

Step 1: Prepare Properly, Before Interview Day

A successful tender interview starts long before the contractors walk into the room. Here’s what needs to happen upfront

1. Prime your Team

Make it clear that this is not a tick-box exercise. Encourage everyone on the client and professional team to come prepared with meaningful questions. That means sending the right people, not a junior who doesn’t contribute.

2. Review Submissions and Create Interview Queries

The team should review each tenderer’s technical submission in advance. Anything unclear, concerning or worth exploring should be captured and issued back to the tenderers before the interview. Give them a chance to prepare. You’re not trying to catch them out, you’re trying to choose the right contractor.

3. Issue an Agenda

Agree on the critical touchpoints you need to explore (e.g. methodology, team fit, risk management, programming). Create a structured agenda from these points and share it with the tenderers. This levels the playing field and allows each one to prepare properly.

4. Design the Score Sheets to Match the Agenda

Too many teams use the same tired Excel sheet across every project, with generic 1–10 scores and no link to what matters. Your score sheet should reflect the interview agenda and be weighted according to the client’s priorities.

Step 2: Appoint a Proper Facilitator

The facilitator is the most underrated role in the whole process. They’re not just a timekeeper. A great facilitator will:

• Create a calm and professional atmosphere

• Introduce the session and explain the structure

• Encourage nervous contractors

• Manage time

• Ensure every team member scores

• Ask helpful follow-up questions

• Maintain energy levels and morale throughout the day

Without a strong facilitator, interviews often drift, feel disjointed and fail to generate the insight you need to make a good decision. This role is typically undertaken by the PM or QS, but the decision to ‘chair’ the interviews should not be taken lightly.

Step 3: Fix Your Scoring & Weighting System

Let’s be honest. Most scoring systems are a mess, typically a collection of offline excel-based scoresheets that have been copied from project to project with the names being changed. They are typically generic, un-weighted and often only serve to provide a tool to support a bias/decision that the team have already made.

A fair, effective scoring system should:

• Be tailored to the project and client priorities

• Be clearly weighted

• Encourage detailed, written feedback

• Allow for live scoring with full transparency highlighting large scoring discrepancies

Step 4: What a Good Interview Process Looks Like on the day

Set the Tone

This is your first formal meeting with your potential delivery team. Be professional but warm. The best interview outcomes happen when everyone is calm, engaged and feels like they’re working toward the same goal.

Be Empathetic

Aggressive or combative questioning doesn’t work. It drains the energy, stresses everyone out and doesn’t reflect well on your team. Challenge contractors, yes - but do it with empathy.

Seating Plan

Avoid the classic “us vs them” setup. Mix up the seating. Remove the physical divide. Make it feel collaborative.

Ask Questions

Don’t just sit there and nod through a 45-minute slide deck. Engage. Probe. Explore. That’s where the real insight comes from. If you see that a contractor hasn’t hit a touch point on your scoring agenda, rather than waiting for them to miss it, ask a question around that topic and pull the answers from them.

Score Live

After each interview, give the team 10–15 minutes to score. Bullet-point what worked well and what didn’t. If you’re not using cloud-based scoring tools (you should be), collect and collate the scores during your wrap-up session at the end of the day.

Step 5: Decision Time. Get It Right

At the end of the day, you should:

• Have all scores collected

• Review anomalies (why did one team member give an 8 and another a 3?)

• Have a structured discussion about the outcome

• Agree who the winning contractor is - while it’s still fresh

And just as importantly, you should:

• Make a point of writing down some detailed feedback for each of the unsuccessful tenderers. This feedback loop builds respect and helps improve the market - and your future projects.

Key Things to avoid on the day

1. No appointed facilitator: It leads to a really unproductive day in a meeting room

2. No lunch: Low energy, means low engagement.

3. Confrontational behaviour: It sucks the energy in the room

4. Zero engagement: Ask questions, probe and dig deeper

5. Offline score sheets: There’s no excuse for this anymore

6. Not being in the room: Try and have everyone in the room, no Zoom/Teams

7. Missing key decision maker: Ensure the key client decision makers attend all interviews

Want to improve you scoring process a little…

You need to revolutionise the way you manage and score the entire post tender interview process.

I’m part of the team building BidScore.io. A powerful new AI-supported tender scoring platform, built specifically for project managers, QSs and client teams who want to transform how they assess and select contractors.

• Replace your spreadsheets with a clean, easy-to-use interface

• Allow live scoring during interviews (on mobile, tablet, or laptop)

• Let you define what’s important to your client and weight scoring accordingly

• Highlight scoring anomalies in real-time

• Generate instant feedback reports for each tenderer

• Reduce unconscious bias

• Track scoring trends across your projects

• Create a transparent scoring process that enables you to select the ‘right’ contractor for a project, not the cheapest.

It’s a game changer - not just for the scoring process, but for transparency, fairness and quality outcomes across the board.

Want to turn more interviews into wins?

An effective post-tender interview process can be the difference between a near-miss and a signed contract.
Get in touch to sharpen your team's approach and secure more successful outcomes.

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