For private & invited tenders

You were invited. That doesn’t make it worth winning.


An invitation feels like a warm lead. Half of them aren’t. In private tenders the terms are negotiable, the scope is bespoke, and the real question is whether this client advances your strategy — or just fills your team’s calendar with the wrong work.

What makes private tenders expensive

The costliest bids are the ones you felt flattered into.

Flattery bias

An invitation reads as endorsement, so it skips the scrutiny an open tender gets. The pursuit is approved before anyone asks whether it fits.

Bespoke terms

Nothing is standard. Payment schedules, indemnities and IP clauses are all written for this deal — and the unfavourable ones are easy to miss.

Relationship cost

Declining late looks like rejection. Declining early, with a clear reason, protects the client relationships you actually want to keep.

The three axes, tuned for invited work

Fit first. Flattery last.

selrob reads the invitation and the draft contract together, then tests them against your firm.

Strategy

Does this client and scope advance the sectors and accounts you have chosen to grow?

Capacity

Can you deliver it without starving the accounts you already value?

Risk

What has been written into the bespoke terms that a standard RFT would never contain?

Invitation
Fit
Capacity
Risk
Call
Tier-1 builder — panel invitation
88%
Relationship warm
Bespoke indemnity
Bid
Repeat client — scope-creep RFP
39%
Delivery clash
Margin erosion
No-bid
New logo — strategic account
71%
Needs partner confirm
Non-standard payment
Review

One invitation, in full

A recommendation you can take to the client — and the partner meeting.

Not just a score. selrob names the bespoke clause to renegotiate, the delivery lead you are short, and the strategic case for saying yes. You walk in ready to defend either answer.

Fit assessment
Invited bid · private client
Strategy
Anchors target sector
79
Capacity
One delivery lead short until Q3
1 gap
Risk
Bespoke payment terms, net-90
1 clause
Recommend: pursue, renegotiate terms.
Half
Of invitations that never fit
Every clause
Bespoke terms, all read
Week one
When the polite no gets made

Bring the last invitation you regretted accepting.

A 30-minute call. We’ll run it through selrob and show you the call it would have made.