No award? Understand feedback and improve deliberately
Review a rejection objectively, ask useful questions and distinguish legal deadlines from your internal learning review.
After this guide, you can …
- Separate rejection from lower scoring
- Request factual feedback
- Choose a concrete improvement for the next bid
1. Identify what kind of outcome occurred
Was the bid rejected for compliance reasons, was suitability missing, or did another admissible bid receive a better evaluation? Each calls for a different improvement. Read and retain the message, timestamp, identifier and reasons. A result notice on a search platform does not replace the communication governing your own position. Preserve the version actually submitted; do not evaluate a subsequently improved working copy.
2. Ask for feedback you can use
Use the information routes available in the procedure. Within its scope, VgV§ 62 governs communications and, on request, certain reasons and features of the successful tender. This is not unrestricted access to competitors’ confidential files. Ask objectively which requirements or evaluation points were decisive. Avoid unsupported accusations and focus on information you can understand and use to improve your own work.
3. Separate learning from potential legal remedies
If you suspect a procurement breach, obtain qualified advice promptly. Review rights depend on the applicable regime. Under German EU-level procurement law, complaint and application deadlines may matter before submission or shortly after a communication. A friendly feedback discussion or general complaint does not automatically satisfy a required deadline or form. Do not wait for the next internal review meeting if there is a serious concern.
4. Improve a specific part of your process
Compare feedback with your requirement matrix, costing and submitted version. Choose an achievable change: an earlier technical test, stronger quality evidence, better opportunity selection or a second price-sheet check. Record the action in the workspace and verify it at the next bid. Rejection does not prove small businesses have no chance, but it is not a reason to send more unfocused bids without changing anything.
Learning works when feedback becomes a concrete change you can verify.
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Go to the original source
Editorially checked on 27 October 2026. The current original documents of your procedure govern.
- VgV § 62 — Unterrichtung der Bewerber und BieterBundesamt für Justiz / Gesetze im Internet
- GWB — insbesondere § 134: Information vor VertragsschlussBundesamt für Justiz / Gesetze im Internet
- GWB § 160 — Nachprüfungsantrag und RügeBundesamt für Justiz / Gesetze im Internet
- VgV § 57 — Ausschluss von AngebotenBundesamt für Justiz / Gesetze im Internet