Analyzing the competition in a public tender in Morocco

Winning a public tender is not only about the quality of your offer. It depends just as much on two questions many SMEs overlook: who am I competing against? and how is this contract actually scored? Analyzing the competition means cross-checking the buyer’s award history, reading the exact weight of each criterion in the tender rules, and deducing whether the contract favors price or quality, large firms or SMEs.

That reading changes everything. It lets you price right, position on quality when quality is what pays, and above all stop wasting effort on bids you cannot win. Here’s how to do it, step by step.

Who your competitors are

Before you write a single line of your offer, map the field. On a public tender, you rarely face “the whole market” — you face a few clearly identifiable profiles.

• The incumbent. The firm that already holds the contract — the one whose deal is up for renewal — is almost always present, and it is your most formidable rival. It knows the buyer, masters the real scope, and can price tightly because it has already absorbed the learning curve.
• Large firms versus other SMEs. A large operator has the financial surface to carry the guarantees and payment delays, plus a deep stock of references. An SME, by contrast, is more agile on small lots and on proximity. Knowing which of the two you face shapes your whole pricing strategy.
• Specialists versus generalists. On a highly technical contract, a sharp specialist crushes a generalist on the memorandum. On a commoditized contract, the generalist is the one able to absorb the volume at the best cost.

The buyer’s history shapes this landscape. A buyer who always renews the same providers is hard ground. A buyer who regularly rotates suppliers is an open door.

Reading the signals in a tender

Tender rules aren’t just a list of constraints: they’re an ID card for the contract. Read carefully, they tell you who the buyer really wants to win.

• The award criteria and their weighting. This is signal number one. A contract scored 70 % on price is a cost battle; one that gives heavy weight to technical value rewards know-how. Read these percentages before anything else.
• The estimated budget. When it’s disclosed, it bounds the playing field and reveals the expected price level. A tight budget signals head-on competition on cost.
• The technical requirements. High prerequisites (certifications, staffing, minimum references) mechanically filter candidates and tell you whether the contract is within your reach — or cut for players bigger than you.
• The lots. A contract split into small lots opens the door to SMEs; a single, indivisible global contract favors large firms able to carry it all.

Taken together, these signals tell you whether the contract leans toward price or quality, toward the big or the small. That’s your compass.

Reading the past to anticipate the future

Award notices are public and published on the public procurement portal. This is probably the most under-used source for SMEs. Read well, it spares you from flying blind.

A buyer’s history reveals three valuable things:

• The recurring winners. If the last three similar contracts went to the same firm, you know who you’re up against — and how steep the climb is.
• The typical price levels. By comparing awarded amounts to estimates, you reconstruct the range in which this buyer’s contracts are really decided.
• The genuine openness to new entrants. Some buyers systematically rotate their providers; others never do. The past tells you which ones are worth the effort.

This analysis turns a vague hunch into a grounded decision: this one, I have a real chance; that other one, I’m arriving too late.

Differentiating rather than aligning

The temptation, once you’ve read the competition, is to align: to aim for the lowest price every time. That’s the costliest trap in public procurement. An underpriced bid is paid for during execution — zero margins, degraded quality, disputes — and an abnormally low bid can even be rejected by the commission.

The best answer to competition isn’t to go lower, it’s to stand out where the buyer is looking:

• The technical memorandum. This is your main lever for differentiation when technical value is scored. A precise, contextualized memorandum that shows you understood the real need is worth more than a few points of price.
• References. Similar contracts well executed reassure the buyer about your ability to deliver.
• Delivery and service guarantees. Committing to firm deadlines, a dedicated contact, responsive after-sales support — all arguments the lowest bidder doesn’t offer.
• Local presence. On many contracts, geographic proximity is a concrete asset — responsiveness, knowledge of the terrain, regional roots.

Pricing right rather than low, and investing where quality is rewarded: that’s how an SME wins without bleeding itself dry.

Choosing your battles

All this analysis converges on a single discipline: the go/no-go. You have neither the time nor the resources to bid on everything, and every file built has a real cost in internal hours.

Before you commit, ask yourself a few cold questions:

• Does the contract match my core business and my references?
• Do the criteria play in my favor, or against me?
• Is the incumbent unbeatable, or is the buyer open to change?
• Do I have a real edge — technical, price, or proximity — on this specific contract?

If the answer is yes, commit fully. If not, pass without regret. Walking away from an unwinnable contract isn’t a failure: it’s what protects your time and margins for the files where you really have a chance.

In summary

Analyzing the competition means knowing who you’re playing against, reading what the buyer truly values, mining the award history, and differentiating instead of aligning. That’s what separates an SME that spends its energy at random from one that bids only on contracts it can win.

The problem is that this competitive intelligence is nearly impossible to do by hand: you’d have to comb through hundreds of notices, cross-check past awards, and reconstruct each buyer’s profile one by one. That’s exactly where Ogerant comes in: by surfacing the right opportunities and their context — who the buyer is, what they’ve awarded in the past, at what price level, and how well the contract fits your profile. You stop wasting time qualifying noise, and concentrate your effort where you can actually win.