Tender pricing is not quoting. The document usually prescribes the format, the evaluation applies a formula you can read in advance, and the lowest price does not automatically win.
Read the evaluation method first
Before pricing anything, find the section that says how bids are scored. It will set out how price is weighted against preference and, frequently, against functionality or technical capability.
That tells you what you are actually competing on. A tender weighted heavily on functionality rewards a stronger technical submission more than shaving your margin, and businesses that price first and read second get this backwards.
Price to deliver
The most expensive mistake in tendering is winning at a price you cannot perform at. There is no renegotiation afterwards — the contract is the bid — and a contractor who cannot deliver at the tendered price ends up either absorbing the loss or failing publicly.
Cost it honestly: materials, labour, plant, transport, supervision, insurance, bonds and guarantees where required, and the cost of the money itself while you wait to be paid.
Cost the payment terms
This is the item small bidders omit and it is frequently decisive. Public and corporate payment can take considerable time, and you will be funding the work in the meantime.
Work out what carrying that costs you, and include it. A bid priced as though payment arrives promptly is a bid that turns a profitable contract into a cash crisis.
Follow the pricing format exactly
Complete the schedule as printed. Do not restructure it, do not combine line items, do not add qualifications unless the document permits them.
Non-conforming pricing is a common ground for disqualification, and it is nearly always accidental — a bidder trying to be helpful or clearer. Check the arithmetic twice; a rate and a total that do not agree is another routine cause of rejection.
Do not bid to be busy
Each bid costs real time. Bidding at prices that only work if nothing goes wrong, in order to keep people occupied, is how contractors end up with a full order book and no margin.
Decide before pricing whether you actually want this work at a price you can deliver at. If the honest answer is no, not bidding is a decision rather than a failure.
Learn from the outcome
Where a bid is unsuccessful, you can usually ask for feedback on the scoring. Do it every time.
Over a few tenders that tells you whether you are losing on price, on functionality, or on preference — and each of those has a completely different remedy.
General guidance on commercial practice, not legal or procurement advice. Evaluation frameworks change; read the tender document itself.