How to sell to the government as an SME

An SME sells to government by bidding a lot it can deliver and clearing the selection criteria on that notice. Of TED winners with a reported company size, 70.7% are small or medium firms. The set is the EU27 and Norway, published from October 2025 to September 2026.

Bulgaria is at 93.3%, 18,173 of 19,485. Lithuania is at 91.3%. Finland is at 75.6%, 8,251 of 10,920, rank 13 of 25. Spain is at 53.0%. France is at 51.9%. Belgium is at 47.0%, 4,471 of 9,503.

What "SME" means on an award notice

The EU definition, in the 2003 Commission recommendation, is an enterprise with fewer than 250 employees and either annual turnover of no more than EUR 50 million or a balance sheet of no more than EUR 43 million. TED records a company size on the award when the buyer fills in field BT-165. Winners with a blank size stay out of this chart. Austria, Hungary, and Italy stay out as well, because each reports a size for under half of its winners. A share built on those three would measure the form, not the market.

The 70.7% is a count of winning organisations, so a large contract and a small one weigh the same. That is why it sits above the value shares in the older studies. A 2014 study for the Commission, covering above-threshold awards from 2009 to 2011, estimated that SMEs, or groupings led by an SME, won 56% of contracts and 29% of contract value. Once joint bids and subcontracting were included, the value share rose to 45%. The same study found the SME value share falling once a contract passed about EUR 60,000, and a wide country range: about 84% of contracts in Greece, about 44% in Spain.

A later Commission study, published in 2019, found the share of above-threshold contracts won by SMEs, and the value of those contracts, rising between 2011 and 2017. Below the thresholds, SME success was falling. Success rates were still well below the SME share of the economy. The European Court of Auditors, looking across 2011 to 2021, concluded that SME participation had not significantly increased. The two findings can sit together: contract counts moved, and the participation problem the Court was auditing did not go away.

What actually changes an SME's chances

Directive 2014/24/EU gives buyers two tools that matter to a small bidder. Article 46 asks them to consider dividing a contract into lots, and to state the main reasons when they do not. Article 58(3) caps a minimum turnover requirement at twice the estimated contract value, except in justified cases. The cap exists because a turnover test is where a small firm drops out before anyone reads the offer.

Lots help, and the research is specific about how. Hoekman and Taş, in Small Business Economics (2020), found that splitting a contract into lots raises SME participation. The higher chance of winning showed up for lots of EUR 25,000 or less. A lot that is merely smaller than the whole contract is not automatically an SME lot. Read the value, the turnover test, and the reference period on that lot.

Framework agreements are the other place an SME loses the sale before the call-off. Arosa, Arribas, and Vila, in Public Money & Management (2024), found that introducing framework agreements in Spanish IT services cut the chance of an SME being awarded a contract by 34% against the wider market. That is one sector in one country. It matches the way a framework works: the supplier list is set at the start, and a firm that misses that competition is absent from the later purchases. How common that route is, by country, is in how to monitor framework agreements.

How to sell

1. Bid the company that can sign the contract and do the work. The chart says SMEs already win most of the awards that state a size. The notice still asks for turnover, references, insurance, and an admissible offer. Meet those, or bid with a partner who does. A startup can bid when the bidding company meets the conditions written in the documents.
2. Take the lot whose value, turnover test, and reference period you can meet. A smaller lot is often the contract an SME can price and deliver. Check the euro value. The research edge on winning is at the small end, around EUR 25,000, not at every lot that happens to be part of a larger procurement.
3. Use historic competition as context, then price and staff the actual tender. Software and medical equipment had a median of one bid in the measured awards; construction work had a median of four. Those figures do not predict the next notice's field or replace its award criteria. Budget for a compliant, competitive offer and every scored quality requirement. The benchmark and its limits are in how to read competition before you bid.
4. Sell at the framework entry when that is how the buyer buys. Miss the entry competition and the supplier list stays shut for the term. Use the framework agreement guide for the entry rules: you join at the start, and the term runs up to four years.
5. Read the buyer's country before you staff the bid. In Finland, 75.6% of sized winners are SMEs. In Belgium, France, and Spain, about half of sized winners are larger firms, so bring the references or a consortium to the larger lots. The 2014 study already had Spain at the low end of SME contract wins. The pattern is old.

Sources

• TED Search API v3, contract award notices (can-standard), EU27 and Norway, published October 2025 to September 2026. Winning organisations with a reported company size (BT-165). Unknown size is excluded. Austria, Hungary, and Italy are excluded because each reports a size for under half of its winners.
• European Commission, SMEs' access to public procurement markets and aggregation of demand in the EU (2014). Above-threshold awards, 2009 to 2011.
• European Commission, Analysis of the SMEs' participation in public procurement and the measures to support it (2019).
• European Court of Auditors, Special Report 28/2023, Public procurement in the EU.
• Bernard Hoekman and Bedri Kamil Onur Taş, Procurement policy and SME participation in public purchasing, Small Business Economics, 2020.
• Daniel Arosa, Iván Arribas, and José Vila, Negative effects on SMEs' success rates when framework agreements are used, Public Money & Management, 2024.
• Directive 2014/24/EU, Articles 46 and 58(3). Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC.