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Selection Questionnaires (SQs): What Are They + Typical Qs

Here we are first blog post – welcome! 

It felt only right that the first blog post should be on selection questionnaires (SQs). They’re very common in the tendering world, so if you’ve ever thought about going for a tender and after downloading the documents saw the SQ and got overwhelmed, I’m here to shed a bit of light on this document. 

It’s the very first thing most tender processes require you to fill out, almost like a background check.

SQs are not as scary as they might appear at first glance, although they do ask a lot of questions and there is an awful lot of boxes. 

Although a time consuming task, once you’ve done one – you’ve pretty much done them all! 

Let’s get into it in a bit more detail then, shall we…

What is an SQ? 

An SQ (Selection Questionnaire) previously known as PQQ (Pre-Qualification Questionnaire) is a questionnaire to check whether you meet the minimum criteria and requirements of the buyer. The questionnaire usually asks for your financial/economic standing, experience and references, your accreditations and insurance levels. 

Think of it as a vetting exercise, a bit like an audit. 

If you check your suppliers before you sign a contract with them, you want to be sure that they follow regulations, legislations and operate to a high standard, while complying with industry standards – right?

You want to be sure that they’ll deliver as promised, and won’t let you down. 

SQs are a bit like that. 

It’s for the authority to select bidders who meet the criteria set, complying with their standards and legal obligations. 

SQs very often follow the same structure and same set of boxes, so once you’ve filled out your first SQ – here’s a tip: save it and use the information on the next SQ you fill out! 

The questionnaires will of course vary depending on their specific requirements, like insurance levels, or different accreditations, and depending on the nature of the contract, the references you use might also need to be different. 

It’s not a straight copy + paste job! Or at least not every single time…

Give yourself enough time to go through an SQ in detail, reading every question, every requirement, which boxes do you need to tick and which questions are applicable to you or need answering?

By having a good look and taking some time to analyse the SQ, the next time you look at one, you’ll feel much better about it and it won’t be as overwhelming. 

SQ or PQQ?

The SQ used to be referred to as the PQQ – Pre Qualification Questionnaire.

After a change and for consistency, the questionnaires are now called SQs. The contents haven’t changed, simply the name, but you may come across a PQQ from time to time on a very rare occasion.

If you do, don’t be put off – it’s still the same type of questionnaire of the tender process.

 

What Does an SQ Include?

SQs are very often structured, follow the same format and look similar, so it’s easy to spot what they usually cover. I’ve seen thousands of SQs, and trust me when I say – they’re very similar if not the same, in format. 

To give you an idea, if you’ve never seen an SQ before, the questions/areas that are typically asked are: 

The one thing the SQ does NOT include, is the pricing. That comes at the next stage, the ITT – Invitation to Tender. 

Some SQs are more extensive than others. This will usually depend on the value and size of the contract – the higher the value of the contract, the more work is involved during the tender. 

Think of it as them giving you a real test and assessment to complete, to truly present your company.

Naturally if they’re going to award you a multi-million contract, they want to ensure it’s going to a company that is reliable and fully capable of completing the works. 

Which actually reminds me of the time a contract for provision of ships was awarded to a company that didn’t even have one ship… 

I mean, which side was to blame there? The marking panel at the Department for Transport or the applying contractor? How convincing was their tender application?! 

The contract was worth £13.8m, with the tender process being complex and detailed no doubt, so there was some real work involved in this tender. 

You can read more about this hilarious yet slightly worrying contract award failure, (or if you don’t believe me…) here. 

How to Prepare for an SQ? 

The best thing you can do to prepare for an SQ, is to download a set of documents for a tender in your field of work. Open up the SQ document and go through it, highlighting every question that needs answering or a box that needs ticking. 

Spend 1 day reading through it. Open it up the next day, with fresh eyes and a rested mind, to have another look to really familiarise yourself with it. 

Honestly though, most of the questions and sections are pretty self-explanatory so you should be completely able to decipher every question and section. 

If any of the questions don’t make sense, my best advice would be to discuss this among your team to see if they have any ideas – nothing like a good brainstorm and getting someone else’s opinion. 

Next thing to do, would be to get a different highlighter/colour, and highlight questions or sections where you don’t meet the criteria. 

That could be an insurance level – do you have the required insurance level to fulfil the contract? After contract award, the authority/buyer will ask to see evidence of the insurance so it’s best to have it ready. 

For most industries, if one SQ asks for a certain insurance level, that will follow the standard on the other SQs and tenders, but not always. 

Perhaps they are asking for accreditations which you don’t have – if you’re working in the waste management industry for example, they might want you to have ISO14001.

Again, that will be a pretty standard requirement for all the other tenders too so you’ll want to get this sorted and ready for the next tender you want to go for. 

Analysing an SQ in this way, will help you create a list of actions you need to take and can start working on, to male sure that when the next tender comes out, and you want to bid for it – you’ll have all the required criteria ready to go. 

It may take a few weeks or months before you have everything in place, but like a wise person once said – anything worth having is worth the wait. 

You don’t want to be risking it, going for a tender, filling out the SQ for hours and then failing, because you haven’t met the pass/fail criteria or met minimum requirements. 

Or worse yet, you haven’t read the question properly. Ouch!

References

This is THE single most important part of your SQ. If this is the first stage of the tender, this is your main chance to shine, to showcase how you deliver and manage contracts. 

They usually don’t provide a word count or they give you 300 – 500 words max, so keep it to that. Include as much detail as you can in this section, you want to boast about the things you’ve done on that contract, don’t be shy. 

To read more about how to formulate your references, head over here. 

Quality Questions

If the SQ also includes a quality section, there might be a couple of questions asking you to demonstrate your experience and ability to deliver similar contracts. 

Here’s the key thing to remember when it comes to tenders: 

The SQ is all about your past experience, case studies, what you’ve done in the past and your approach to how you normally operate.

The authority will want to see examples of how/where you’ve delivered your service successfully. 

The ITT wants you to focus on how you’re going to deliver THIS particular contract.

What you’re going to deliver, how, and how it’s going to benefit the buyer/authority, in terms of their specification – essentially, are you ticking their boxes?

More on ITTs here.

Why Are Tenders Split Into 2 Stages?

At the SQ stage, the authority/buyer may receive 10, 20, 30 or more applications.

The SQ allows them to narrow it down to a few – they normally specify that for example, 5 bidders will be shortlisted through to the ITT stage. 

It’s like a screening process, to see who’s interested and who’s actually capable for delivering the works. It’s also usually for the bigger contracts, the high-value ones that involve quite a bit of work but are worth winning in the end.