The promise
Most firms decide whether to bid on a feeling about how big the document looks. We will tell you exactly how many separate binding requirements are inside it, counted from your own copy, and what a full response costs. That answer is free.
A binding requirement is any sentence the solicitation obliges you to answer: a shall, a submission instruction, a format rule, a certification to attach. They are scattered through the document rather than gathered into a list, and an evaluator scores against every one of them whether you found it or not.
Counting them is the only part of a bid decision that can be done exactly. Whether you can win it, whether it is worth the week, whether the incumbent is beatable: all judgement. The size of the job is not judgement, it is arithmetic, and almost nobody does it, because doing it by hand means reading a hundred pages before you have decided to bid at all.
The count is machine produced and reproducible. Run the extractor on the same file again and it returns the same number. It is not an estimate, and it is not adjusted to move a solicitation into a more expensive tier.
The two solicitations in Article Three came back at 101 requirements and 356. The second number is the one that surprises people.
Whether to send us a document at all
- The document runs long enough that nobody in the building has counted what is actually inside it.
- Someone senior is writing the response in the evenings.
- You have lost a bid on compliance rather than on price or on capability.
- You have not decided whether to bid, and you want the count before you commit anyone’s week to it.
- It carries export controlled or classified markings. That is a firm line. We screen for it first and decline the same day.
- You want a win rate moved. We produce the response. The evaluation is not ours to move, and we do not quote a number for it.
- You want your price set for you. Rates, margins and totals stay yours, and the grid comes back blank.
- You need a claim your own fact pack cannot support. Anything missing comes back flagged as a gap instead.
Scoping is free either way. If the answer is the right hand column, you will hear it the same day and that is the end of it.
What you receive
You can audit the whole submission in a few minutes without reading all of it. That is the point of the last three items.
- 01
The full response
Your submission, drafted against the solicitation's own requirements and assembled to the format the portal or the instructions demand.
- 02
The compliance matrix
Every requirement placed against the section of your response that answers it, in the order the evaluator will read them.
- 03
The coverage report
Every requirement in the solicitation, enumerated by machine rather than by reading, listed against the sentence that answers it or recorded as unmapped, and scored for adequacy.
- 04
The provenance ledger
Every factual claim in the response and the line of your own fact pack it came from. A claim with no source does not ship. It comes back to you flagged as a gap.
- 05
The pricing grid, left blank for you
Every line item the solicitation asks you to price, laid out ready to fill. We do not set your rates, your margins or your totals.
Five documents. The same five every time.
The proof
Both exhibits were built against real public solicitations for a fictional firm, and neither was submitted anywhere.
No deliverable is certified by the pass that produced it. Before anything reaches you, a separate verification pass re-reads the source solicitation from scratch, re-counts the requirements, and re-checks every citation against the ledger. On both exhibits below it returned zero defects.
Compliance Coverage Report
Solicitation W9123826QA023 · US Army Corps of Engineers · Englebright Lake
| Export control screen | Clear |
|---|---|
| Requirements enumerated | 101 |
| Mapped to an answering sentence | 101 |
| Adequacy, OK | 91 |
| Adequacy, partial | 3 |
| Claims traced to the fact pack | 41 |
| Gaps declared rather than filled | 7 |
| Unsourced claims in the draft | 0 |
| Orphan citations | 0 |
101 of 101 enumerated requirements mapped. 91 answered, 3 partial, 7 declared as gaps.
| Ref | Requirement | Cover |
|---|---|---|
| R-PRC-001 | The Contractor shall be responsible for all costs related to performing this contract. | OK |
| R-PRC-008 | The Contractor shall provide janitorial services for one (1) year from the date of award of this requirement. | OK |
| R-GEN-041 | The window cleaning service shall include the thorough cleaning of both interior and exterior glass surfaces. | OK |
| R-PER-042 | Any remaining residue or moisture shall be wiped away from the edges and corners to prevent streaks or watermarks. | OK |
| R-SCH-023 | Hours of Operation: Work completed under this Performance Work Statement shall start no earlier than 8:00 a.m. | PARTIAL |
| and 96 further rows | ||
53 distinct source anchors · 106 response sentencesIndependently re-verified before delivery
Exhibit A · Janitorial servicesCompliance Coverage Report
Solicitation 2031ZA26R00023 · US Treasury, Bureau of Engraving and Printing
| Export control screen | Clear |
|---|---|
| Requirements enumerated | 356 |
| Mapped to an answering sentence | 354 |
| Adequacy, OK | 223 |
| Adequacy, partial | 124 |
| Claims traced to the fact pack | 38 |
| Gaps declared rather than filled | 7 |
| Unsourced claims in the draft | 0 |
| Orphan citations | 0 |
354 of 356 enumerated requirements mapped. 223 answered, 124 partial, 7 declared as gaps, and 2 the count did not reach.
| Ref | Requirement | Cover |
|---|---|---|
| R-018 | The supporting documentation must be for the period that the invoice covers. | OK |
| R-024 | 3.1.3 Odor Control: The Contractor shall ensure that no malodorous odors escape from the plant. | PARTIAL |
| R-036 | The evaluation shall be on an annual basis and be documented. | OK |
| R-038 | The evaluations shall be sent to the COR for review within 30 days of the completion of the evaluations. | OK |
| R-083 | 3.17 Vendor Warranties: The contractor shall maintain a list and record of all active warranties. | OK |
| and 351 further rows | ||
120 distinct source anchors · 203 response sentencesIndependently re-verified before delivery
Two of Exhibit B's 356 requirements are recorded as unmapped, and that number is printed rather than rounded away. The coverage report names them. A report that always reads perfectly is not telling you anything.
We will not quote you a win rate. We do not have one to show you, and we are not going to make one up. What is above is complete requirement coverage, counted and reproducible, and zero claims that cannot be traced to something you told us.
Every binding requirement is lifted out, given a reference, and set against the sentence that answers it. Nothing is summarised. Nothing is left implied. What comes back is the whole schedule, in order, with the gaps still visible as gaps.
Specimen · a solicitation of 101 binding requirements
Counted from your own copy, the same day you send it.
Pricing
Not on page count and not on a guess about difficulty. You know your tier before you commit to anything, because the count comes first.
| Tier | Requirements | How the fee is set |
|---|---|---|
| Tier One Standard | 120 or fewer | Quoted with your free scoping, the same day |
| Tier Two Complex | 121 to 250 | Quoted with your free scoping, the same day |
| Tier Three Major | 251 and above | Quoted individually |
| Tier Three is never quoted on the spot. A solicitation of that size is not a larger version of a small one, it is a different job. It gets read properly first, and the answer may be that we are not the right firm for it. You will hear that within a day. | ||
Priced on requirement count, the only scoping input that is measured rather than estimated.
How it works
- 01
Forward
Send the solicitation you are weighing up. Download it from the portal yourself and email it across, because we cannot reach behind a portal you are registered for.
- 02
Scope
The same day, you receive the exact requirement count and the tier it falls in. For Tiers One and Two, the price band comes with it. No report attached and no charge.
- 03
Approve
You say go, or you do not. If this is your first bid with us you fill the fact pack once, which takes about twenty minutes and carries across every future bid.
- 04
Receive
The five documents arrive together, after the independent verification pass has run. Pricing cells are blank and waiting for your numbers.
- 05
Walkthrough
A call where we go through the coverage report line by line, including every gap we flagged and could not close. Then you price it, sign it, and submit it. The submission is yours.
Steps one and two cost nothing and commit you to nothing.
The terms
- Pay per delivered bidNot per month and not per seat, unless a monthly arrangement is what you actually want.
- No prepaymentYou pay on delivery. If the first package is not useful there is no second invoice.
- Cancel at any timeNo notice period, no minimum term, and no exit conversation.
- One revision round includedAfter the walkthrough, one full pass of changes is part of the price. Anything beyond that is quoted before it is started, never after.
- A named human answersYou deal with one person, by name. Not a queue, not an account manager, and not a ticket number.
Written here so that none of it has to be asked for.
And two things that will not happen
- We will not invent a fact about your firmAnything missing comes back flagged as a gap for you to fill. That is the entire reason the provenance ledger exists.
- We will not set your priceRates, margins and totals are your decision. Drafts come back with the pricing grid blank.
What we do not take on. Work carrying export controlled or classified material, or requiring a security clearance to read. That is a firm line, and it is about who is permitted to handle the material rather than about capability. If a solicitation carries those markings we will tell you the same day and decline it.
Every solicitation is screened for those markings before anything else happens, and the screen result is printed in the coverage report you receive.
What we need from you
You are not writing your bid here. You are giving us the facts we are permitted to use. Anything not on this form does not appear in your submission, and if a solicitation asks for something you have not given us, it comes back marked as a gap rather than filled in with a guess. About twenty minutes, once. Updates after that are a line or two.
- 01
Who you are
Legal entity, state and year of formation, UEI and SAM status with expiry, the NAICS codes you bid under, and every set aside certification you actually hold.
- 02
Past performance
Three to five, most relevant first. Client, scope, period, approximate value, and a contactable reference. This is the section evaluators score hardest.
- 03
Licences and insurance
Trade licences with state and number, company certifications, the cover you carry, and bonding capacity if you have it.
- 04
Key staff
For everyone you would put on a bid: role, years, licences held, and anything an evaluator would want to see.
- 05
How you actually operate
Coverage or shift pattern, call out response you will commit to, the systems you run on, your safety record, and the equipment you own.
- 06
Things you will not say
Clients you cannot name, figures you will not disclose, claims you are not comfortable making. This list is treated as binding.
- 07
What you do not have
The most useful box on the form. Certifications you lack, a category you have no past performance in, staff you would have to hire on award. This is not a weakness audit. It is how a gap gets flagged in week one rather than surfacing the night before a deadline.
Rough is fine. Approximate, about 2019 and I will check the exact number are all fine answers. What is not fine is a figure neither of us can stand behind, because it ends up in a document that you sign.
What people ask before they send a file to a stranger
“We already have someone who writes our bids.”
Then give them the coverage report. It is a machine count of every requirement in the document against the sentence that answers it, and it reads the same whether we drafted the response or you did. What is missing from a losing bid is usually missing from the checking, not from the prose.
“Is this generated?”
The requirement extraction is, and that is the point of it. A machine counts 101 the same way twice. A person reading the same document at eleven at night does not. The response is drafted against those requirements, and every factual claim in it traces to a line of your own fact pack or it does not ship.
“What happens if we lose?”
Then you lose. We do not control the evaluators, the incumbent, or your price, and we are not going to pretend otherwise by quoting you a number. What you will have is a record of how much of the document you actually answered, which was the part that was in your hands.
“What does it cost to find out?”
Nothing, and no report is attached to the free answer. You get the exact requirement count and the tier it falls in, the same day. For Tiers One and Two the price band comes with it.
“How much of our time does this take?”
The fact pack once, about twenty minutes, and it carries across every bid after that. Then forwarding a file, and a walkthrough call where we go through the coverage report line by line, including the gaps we flagged and could not close.
“And if we want to stop?”
You stop. No notice period, no minimum term, and no exit conversation. You pay on delivery, so stopping costs nothing and there is nothing to cancel.
Start a scoping request
Four lines is enough. Attach the solicitation to the email that opens, or send it on afterwards.
business@sterlingproposals.com
Send a solicitation, or send a question. A reply comes from a person.