What is different from a private RFP?
The pack is longer, the rules are published, and the evaluators cannot save you. A missed mandatory voids the bid. Late is fatal. A conversation after the ATM opened is a probity event. Private invitations can be a relationship dressed as a competition. Public processes are not allowed to be.
The letters on the cover tell you what decision you are in. An RFT is conformance first. Treat it as one. The one-day read is mandatories, liability, roster, weights. Then stop or start.
What should you do on day one?
Log the ATM. Close date, lodgement method, every mandatory, held today. If a licence, locality, or panel seat is missing, the letter can go that afternoon. Do not “have a look” for two weeks. A look becomes a draft. A draft becomes a late night on a bid that was void on Tuesday.
Probity: no-contact except through the published channel. Conflicts on the page before you price. See probity in public tenders. Filename rules have excluded better firms than yours.
What should you not do?
Do not bid to learn. The lesson is cheaper as a no-bid with a debrief you ask for later, on a process you actually fitted. Do not invent a partnership on Thursday for a Friday SME mandatory. Do not assume the buyer will waive a rule because your private clients liked you.
Do not write a methodology before the gates are ticked. Starting is bidding. Public evaluators will still score a conforming bid you should not have written. Fit and winnability are different questions.
When is the first one a yes?
When mandatories are held, the weights sit on work you can evidence, the roster is named, and the deed is one you can carry. Then write. The sector page is conforming first, compelling second. This spoke is how a private-sector firm avoids paying tuition in pursuit cost.
Ask for the debrief if you lose. One sentence for the next gate. Debriefs are instruments, not a rerun of the fight.