The Tender Was Lost Long Before the Supplier Hit “Submit”

A few months ago, a European supplier asked me to look at a bid they were preparing for an Iraqi private-sector client.

Big project. Multi-million dollar order.

They were confident — good pricing, strong product, good reputation.

When I opened their documents, I knew instantly they’d already lost.

Not because their product was bad.

Not because their price was high.

Not because the client preferred someone else.

They lost it in the most boring way possible: the way foreign suppliers always lose tenders in Iraq — before the bid even reaches the buyer.

Here’s what happened.

They sent:

• a generic company profile

• a compliance table copied from an EU tender

• a technical offer that didn’t match the buyer’s vocabulary

• a delivery schedule based on EU port speeds

• and a price sheet that looked clean in Excel but meaningless in the Iraqi market

Then the real killer:

their documentation didn’t match Iraq’s customs and regulatory reality.

The COO wording wouldn’t pass legalisation.

The HS codes were wrong.

The conformity requirements weren’t checked.

The delivery definition was unrealistic.

The warranty terms had no local service angle.

The acceptance process wasn’t defined at all.

This isn’t “bad admin.”

In Iraq, this is a deal-breaker.

The client they were bidding to isn’t stupid.

They’ve worked with foreign suppliers for 15 years.

They know exactly who will deliver smoothly — and who will spend three months fighting customs while blaming everyone except themselves.

The tender wasn’t a beauty contest.

It was a filter.

And this supplier filtered themselves out without realising.

I asked them two questions:

1. Who did you write this bid for — your market or Iraq’s?

2. What part of this tender actually protects you during delivery?

They couldn’t answer either.

This is the gap foreign suppliers never see:

They treat Iraqi tenders like Gulf tenders.

They assume the scoring is based on price and specs.

They ignore delivery structure, documentation compliance, and local acceptance.

By the time they hit “submit,” the decision is already made.

The tender is won by the company whose documents match the reality of Iraq, not the reality of Europe.

In the end, the client didn’t even shortlist them.

Not because of price.

Not because of quality.

Because the buyer knew — just from reading the bid — that the supplier would struggle from day one.

The irony?

Their product was excellent.

They could have won.

They just didn’t understand that in Iraq, tenders are won in the small print, not the headline.