The German market for public contracts is huge. According to the procurement statistics of the Federal Statistical Office, around 195,000 contracts worth 125 billion euros were awarded in 2023 alone. These are only the reported procedures of 25,000 euros or more. Estimates by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs put total public procurement in Germany at around 250 billion euros per year.
Even so, many small and medium-sized enterprises do not take part in tenders. The most common reason: 21 percent of SMEs name the high effort of preparing a bid as a barrier (IfM study on bureaucratic burden). Yet current figures show a surprising reality: 40 percent of all EU-wide tenders receive only one bid or none at all. For SMEs, this is a huge opportunity that many competitors leave untapped.
This guide shows you seven proven strategies for winning public contracts: practical, step by step and with a complete checklist to tick off. Whether you are taking part in a tender for the first time or want to improve your win rate, you will find everything you need here.
Why SMEs can win public contracts
Many small businesses believe public tenders are only for large corporations. The opposite is true. Procurement law requires competition and equal treatment. Contracting authorities are even expected to award contracts in an SME-friendly way, for example by dividing them into lots.
The legal framework favors SMEs
The Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen (GWB, German Act against Restraints of Competition) and the Vergabeverordnung (VgV, Public Procurement Ordinance) contain explicit rules to protect the interests of SMEs. Section 97a GWB requires contracts to be divided into lots so that small and medium-sized enterprises can take part. Only if economic or technical reasons speak against it may the contract be awarded as a whole, and the contracting authority must justify that too.
In practice, this means a large contract worth 2 million euros is often split into five to ten trade lots. An electrical company then does not bid for the entire new building, only for the “electrical installation” lot, a volume that even a business with 15 employees can handle.
Procurement below the thresholds: The ideal entry point
Procurement below the thresholds in particular offers SMEs an ideal entry point. Since January 1, 2026, new EU thresholds apply:
- €140,000 for supplies and services of central government authorities (previously €143,000)
- €216,000 for supplies and services of other public contracting authorities (previously €221,000)
- €5,404,000 for works contracts (previously €5,538,000)
Below these thresholds, simplified procedures apply under the Unterschwellenvergabeordnung (UVgO, Sub-Threshold Procurement Regulation) or the VOB/A (German Construction Contract Procedures). There is less competition, the requirements are more manageable, and the procedures move faster. For SMEs taking part in public procurement for the first time, these procedures are the logical starting point.
The numbers favor SMEs
About two thirds of all public contracts in Germany go to SMEs, especially at the municipal level and in construction. The federal procurement statistics show that SMEs are especially successful in procurement below the EU thresholds. The reason is simple. Regional contracting authorities know the advantages of local providers: short distances, fast response times and personal contacts.
SMEs that approach the procurement process systematically often report win rates between 20 and 40 percent. By comparison, the average closing rate in private B2B sales is about 5 to 15 percent. So public procurement can be a much more efficient sales channel if you know how to go about it.
7 strategies to win public contracts
1. Find the right tenders
The most common mistake: SMEs invest time in tenders that do not fit their service profile. If you want to win public contracts, you first need a systematic way to identify fitting tenders.
Understand the fragmented procurement landscape
The German procurement landscape is spread across more than 300 portals. These include:
- TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) for EU-wide tenders
- bund.de for federal contracts
- 16 state portals (for example, Vergabemarktplatz NRW, eVergabe Bayern)
- Hundreds of municipal platforms and procurement portals of individual cities and districts
- Sector-specific portals for construction, IT or healthcare
Searching all platforms manually is hardly feasible, let alone every day. AI-assisted tools like the procuris search aggregate tenders from all relevant sources and filter them automatically by your range of services.
Create and refine a search profile
Define your service profile as precisely as possible. Take into account:
- CPV codes (Common Procurement Vocabulary): The Europe-wide classification of procurement items. Research which CPV codes match your services.
- Regional scope: Within what radius can you provide services economically?
- Contract volume: Which minimum and maximum values are realistic for your company?
- Procedure type: Open procedures, restricted invitations to tender or negotiated awards?
This way, you spend your time writing convincing bids instead of researching. Start for free with procuris to find fitting tenders automatically.
2. Make a go/no-go decision
Not every tender deserves a bid. According to a study by the Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (Institute for SME Research), preparing a qualified bid costs between 900 and 3,070 euros, depending on company size and complexity. At the median, bidders invest 30 to 64 hours per bid. These resources are too valuable to waste on tenders that do not fit.
The go/no-go framework
Assess each tender systematically along these four dimensions:
Professional fit: - Can you provide all the required services, or at least 90 percent of them? - Do you hold the required certifications (ISO 9001, ISO 27001, industry-specific licenses)? - Do you have comparable projects as references?
Economic fit: - Is the estimated contract value realistic for your company? - Can you price the contract with a reasonable margin? - Do the payment terms work for you (public contracting authorities often pay only after 30 days)?
Capacity and schedule: - Can you provide the service within the required period? - Do you have enough staff to carry it out? - Does the contract clash with existing commitments?
Suitability criteria: - Do you meet the minimum revenue requirements (often twice the annual contract value)? - Do you have enough references of the required size? - Do you meet the insurance requirements?
Rule of thumb: Better to work out three fitting bids carefully than to submit ten half-heartedly. procuris shows you the key facts of every tender right in the overview, so you can make this decision quickly and on solid ground.
3. Analyze the tender documents carefully
Read the complete tender documents at least twice before you start on the bid. That sounds obvious, but in practice it is neglected surprisingly often.
The three reading passes
First pass: Get an overview. Read all the documents once from start to finish without taking notes. The goal is to understand the overall scope and structure of the contract.
Second pass: Capture the details. Work systematically and mark: - Award criteria and their weighting (for example, price 40%, concept 40%, sustainability 20%) - All required proof and forms - Technical requirements and minimum standards - Deadlines: bid deadline, bid validity period, performance deadlines
Third pass: Identify gaps and questions. Note everything that is unclear or contradictory. Contracting authorities almost always let you ask bidder questions. Use this consistently.
Use bidder questions strategically
Bidder questions are more than just a way to clarify things. They offer strategic advantages:
- The answers go to all bidders and create the same information base for everyone
- Smart questions show the contracting authority that you have understood the contract
- Sometimes bidder questions lead to requirements being made more specific or errors in the documents being corrected. This improves the basis for your pricing
Ask your questions early. Many contracting authorities set their own deadline for bidder questions, well before the bid deadline.
4. Prepare references and proof of suitability
Preparing proof of suitability is one of the biggest time sinks in bid preparation. If you do the groundwork here, you save hours on every single tender.
The suitability folder: Create once, use every time
Create a digital folder with all common proof that you have at hand for every application:
- Commercial register extract (no older than 6 months)
- Business registration or change of business registration
- Certificates of good standing: tax office, health insurance fund, employers' liability insurance association
- Proof of liability insurance with coverage amounts
- Reference list with project descriptions and contact persons
- Self-declarations on grounds for exclusion under Sections 123 and 124 GWB
- Certificates: ISO standards, industry-specific licenses
- Annual financial statements or management accounts (BWA) for the last three years
Update this folder every quarter. Nothing is more annoying than finding out the day before submission that your commercial register extract has expired.
Prepare references properly
Good references are often the deciding factor in the suitability check. Structure each reference using this scheme:
- Client (name, industry, public or private)
- Description of services (What exactly did you deliver?)
- Contract volume (net contract value)
- Performance period (start and end)
- Contact person (name, phone, email, and ask for permission in advance)
- Special features (What was challenging about this project? What went especially well?)
Contracting authorities usually expect three to five comparable references from the last three to five years. “Comparable” refers to the type, scope and complexity of the service.
Prequalification: Less red tape for every tender
Prequalification through the official register (AVPQ) or the PQ-Verein (for works) saves considerable effort in the long run. Under Section 48 subsection 8 VgV and Section 35 subsection 6 UVgO, contracting authorities must accept the proof stored in the AVPQ. This means:
- You submit proof of suitability once, centrally, instead of again for every tender
- Contracting authorities get a signal that your company is vetted and reliable
- The processing time per bid drops by several hours
Prequalification costs about 200 to 500 euros per year, depending on the procedure. This investment pays for itself after just two or three tenders.
5. Submit a structured, complete bid
More than one third of all exclusions in public tenders are due to formal errors: missing signatures, incomplete forms or incorrectly filled-in declarations (ibau Akademie). These errors are 100 percent avoidable.
The most common formal errors and how to avoid them
Missing or wrong forms: Use only the forms provided by the contracting authority. Your own templates, even if identical in content, can lead to exclusion. Download all forms and check whether there are updated versions after a round of bidder questions.
Incomplete price sheets: Every item in the bill of quantities must be priced, including items you consider unnecessary. Empty fields can be treated as an incomplete bid. If necessary, enter 0.01 euros and explain your pricing in the cover letter.
Missing signatures: Electronic procurement often requires a qualified electronic signature. Check in good time whether your signature certificate is valid and whether the procurement platform accepts your signature format.
Late submission: Bids submitted late are excluded without exception, regardless of their quality. The procurement platform records receipt to the second. Plan at least two working days of buffer.
The four-eyes principle
Have a second person check every bid before submission. This person should check in particular:
- Are all required documents included?
- Do the figures in the price sheet match the pricing calculation?
- Are all form fields filled in?
- Is the information in the self-declarations correct?
- Has the bid been submitted on time on the right platform?
6. Work out your competitive advantages
The lowest price does not win automatically. In many tenders, quality, concept, sustainability or response times account for 50 to 70 percent of the evaluation. These non-price criteria are your opportunity as an SME.
Decode the award criteria
Do not just read the award criteria. Analyze them. If the contracting authority writes “Quality of the concept: 40%, price: 30%, sustainability: 20%, response time: 10%”, then invest 40 percent of your bid time in the concept.
Common award criteria and how SMEs score points:
Concept quality and implementation planning: Describe not only the “what” but also the “how”. A detailed project plan with milestones, staff assignments and escalation levels is more convincing than a generic description of services.
Regional proximity and response times: As a local provider, you can promise shorter response times than a corporation that has to send staff from another city. Quantify your advantage: “On-site response within 2 hours within a 30 km radius.”
Specialization and industry knowledge: SMEs with deep expertise in a niche regularly beat generalists. Show your specialization through detailed references, specialist certifications and industry-specific vocabulary.
Sustainability and social criteria: Since the reform of procurement law, environmental and social criteria have played an ever larger role. Document your sustainability efforts: carbon footprint, regional supply chains, fair working conditions, apprenticeship rate.
Flexibility and a personal contact: Name a dedicated project manager with contact details. Contracting authorities value having a direct contact instead of an anonymous hotline.
Practical example: How an IT service provider won through concept quality
An IT company with 12 employees bid for a framework agreement to support the IT infrastructure of a city administration. The competition consisted of two large IT system houses. The SME's price was 8 percent above the cheapest bid, but it won the contract. The reason: the concept included a detailed migration plan, named the project manager personally, promised a response time of 30 minutes and proposed proactive maintenance windows. The contracting authority gave the concept the top score and so more than made up for the price difference.
7. Meet deadlines and formal requirements
Bids submitted late are excluded without exception, regardless of their quality. You can eliminate this risk completely with structured planning.
The deadline plan
Create a backward schedule for each tender:
| Point in time | Task |
|---|---|
| Day 0 (publication) | Review the tender, go/no-go decision |
| Days 1-3 | Analyze the tender documents, draft bidder questions |
| Days 4-10 | Pricing and concept writing |
| Days 11-13 | Internal review (four-eyes principle) |
| Day 14 | Test upload to the procurement platform |
| Day 15 | Final submission (at least 24 hours before the deadline) |
Technical preparation
Electronic procurement comes with its own pitfalls:
- Registration on procurement platforms: Register early on all relevant platforms (Vergabemarktplatz, DTVP, subreport, AI Bietercockpit). Activation can take one to two working days.
- Signature certificate: Check whether your qualified electronic signature is valid. Certificates usually expire after three years.
- Test upload: Upload a test file to the relevant procurement platform at least once to make sure everything works.
- File formats: Stick to the required formats (usually PDF/A). Embedded fonts and file sizes can cause problems.
Special case: Bidding consortia and subcontractors
Not every contract can be handled alone. Procurement law gives SMEs two ways to access larger contracts too.
Form bidding consortia
In a bidding consortium, two or more companies join forces to submit a joint bid. Each member is jointly and severally liable. Advantages:
- You meet suitability requirements (revenue, references) that you could not meet alone
- You can cover a broader range of services
- You share the risk
Important: Settle the internal division of tasks in writing in advance. The contracting authority expects a bidding consortium declaration that names the authorized representative.
Bring in subcontractors
Alternatively, you can award parts of the contract to subcontractors. Unlike in a bidding consortium, you as the main contractor are solely liable. In return, you keep full control. Subcontractors usually have to be named in the bid, and their suitability must be proven as well.
Checklist: Bid for a public tender
Use this extended checklist before every submission. It covers all phases, from the first review to final submission.
Phase 1: Preparation
- [ ] Tender downloaded in full (including all annexes)
- [ ] Go/no-go decision documented using the framework
- [ ] Award criteria and their weighting identified
- [ ] Bidder questions drafted and submitted on time
- [ ] Answers to bidder questions checked and taken into account
- [ ] Updated tender documents downloaded (if any)
Phase 2: Bid preparation
- [ ] All required forms of the contracting authority used
- [ ] Proof of suitability compiled, current and complete
- [ ] References named with contact persons and contact details
- [ ] Price sheet filled in completely and arithmetically correct
- [ ] Concept section aligned with the award criteria and structured
- [ ] Self-declarations on Sections 123 and 124 GWB signed
- [ ] Subcontractors named (if applicable)
- [ ] Bidding consortium declaration attached (if applicable)
Phase 3: Quality assurance
- [ ] Bid proofread by a second person
- [ ] Price sheet arithmetic double-checked
- [ ] All annexes complete and correctly named
- [ ] Documents saved in the required file format (PDF/A)
- [ ] Electronic signature valid and applied
Phase 4: Submission
- [ ] Submission platform and upload function tested
- [ ] Test upload completed successfully
- [ ] Bid uploaded at least 24 hours before the deadline
- [ ] Platform's confirmation of receipt saved and archived
- [ ] Internal documentation of the bid submission completed
What to do after submitting the bid?
The work does not end with the upload. Use the time after submission to learn from the process.
Analyze rejections
If you do not win the contract, you have the right under Section 134 GWB to a notice about the rejection. You can also request bidder information from the contracting authority under Section 62 VgV. It contains:
- The name of the successful bidder
- The award price (in open procedures)
- The reasons why your bid was not selected
This information is worth its weight in gold. It shows you whether you failed on price, on the concept or on formal defects. Document these insights and use them for the next tender.
Make the follow-up systematic
After every tender, whether successful or not, do a short follow-up:
- What went well? What can you reuse?
- Where were the biggest time sinks?
- Which text blocks and templates can you save for future bids?
- Are there new references you can add to your suitability folder?
Frequently asked questions
Can SMEs really win public contracts?
Yes. About two thirds of all public contracts in Germany go to SMEs. Procurement law explicitly promotes the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises through division into lots under Section 97a GWB, simplified procedures below the thresholds and the option of bidding consortia. SMEs that approach the process systematically achieve win rates of 20 to 40 percent.
What does it cost to take part in a public tender?
Taking part is generally free of charge. According to the IfM study, the internal costs of preparing a bid are between 900 and 3,070 euros per tender, depending on company size and complexity. At the median, bidders invest 30 to 64 working hours. Good preparation, reusable templates and prequalification can cut this effort considerably.
How do I find tenders that fit my company?
Most efficiently through a tender aggregator like procuris, which bundles all relevant portals and filters them by your service profile with the help of AI. This way, you do not miss a fitting tender, even at the municipal level. Try the search for free and set up daily notifications.
Is prequalification worth it for SMEs?
In most cases, yes. Prequalification through the AVPQ (for supplies and services) or the PQ-Verein (for works) saves you from compiling proof of suitability over and over. It costs 200 to 500 euros per year and pays for itself after just two or three tenders. Prequalification also signals to contracting authorities that your company is vetted and reliable.
Which new procurement thresholds apply since 2026?
Since January 1, 2026, new EU thresholds apply: €140,000 for supplies and services of central government authorities, €216,000 for other public contracting authorities and €5,404,000 for works contracts. Below these values, simplified national procurement rules apply (UVgO, VOB/A), which offer SMEs an ideal entry point.
Take the first step now
Winning public contracts takes care, preparation and the right tools. The numbers show that the market is huge, competition is often low and SMEs have structural advantages they can use.
Start with the most important step: find tenders that really fit your company. Try the procuris search and discover fitting tenders from all over Germany. Getting started is free. Also take a look at our pricing and features for teams.