Preliminary market engagement is not simply a webinar held before a tender. Under the Procurement Act 2023 guidance, the purpose of the engagement matters: it can support requirement development, procedure design, supplier identification, contractual thinking and market capacity. It must also avoid unfair advantage and distortion of competition.
Begin with a decision, not an event format
The first question should be: what decision will this evidence inform? A buyer may need to understand whether the market can meet a delivery model, which conditions create cost, how many credible routes exist, whether a pilot is possible or which evidence can be requested proportionately.
Once that decision is clear, the engagement format can be selected. A written questionnaire may create comparable evidence. A workshop may expose trade-offs. One-to-one discussions may be necessary for commercially sensitive detail. Recorded digital sessions can reduce participation cost. More than one method may be needed to avoid hearing only from the best-resourced suppliers.
Eight design controls
- Procurement status: state whether a procurement is planned, live, uncertain or unrelated to a specific competition.
- Purpose: publish the questions the buyer needs to answer.
- Participation burden: ask only for information that can influence the decision.
- Market reach: consider new entrants, SMEs, social enterprises and alternative delivery models.
- Confidentiality: distinguish genuinely confidential material from information that may need to be shared.
- Records: retain what was asked, received, considered and changed.
- Fairness: plan how relevant learning will be made available to the wider market.
- Closure: tell participants what happened, even where the buyer decides not to proceed.
How to stop engagement becoming a sequence of sales pitches
Broad invitations such as “tell us about your solution” favour polished presenters and produce evidence that is difficult to compare. A neutral challenge statement and structured question set create a better basis for analysis.
For example, ask suppliers to identify the cost and performance effect of a specified response time, the minimum data dependency for implementation, or the point at which geographic coverage changes the delivery model. Request the reasoning and assumptions, not confidential pricing or a premature bid.
Capacity building without preference
Official guidance recognises that market engagement can help build supplier capacity. That does not mean coaching selected suppliers on a future response. Capacity building should focus on information, market understanding and transferable capability, with relevant information shared fairly and conflicts controlled.
Market Accord's Buyer Challenge Lab therefore separates buyer research from live bid work, records connected parties and publishes a non-confidential engagement record wherever appropriate.