So, you want to know how to win cleaning contracts? It's about more than just being good with a mop and bucket. Winning the big, profitable government and commercial jobs comes down to a clear, repeatable process: getting your business ready, finding the right tenders, writing a killer tender response, pricing it for profit, and using the right tech to make it all easier.

Once you nail these steps, you stop being just another cleaning company and start becoming a trusted supplier that wins government contracts time and time again.

An Overview of Winning Cleaning Contracts

Landing lucrative cleaning contracts, especially with government bodies or large facilities, requires a proper strategy. It’s not just about your cleaning skills; it’s about proving you're a reliable, compliant, and professional business partner they can count on. To win, you have to get inside the procurement officer's head and understand exactly what they're looking for when vetting commercial cleaning services.

Too many good cleaning businesses fall short because they skip the foundational work or just don't know how to sell their strengths on paper. The journey from spotting a government tender to getting your team on-site follows a very specific path.

This flowchart maps out the entire game plan, from the initial prep work right through to using technology to your advantage.

Each stage really does build on the one before it. Get this system down, and you'll find your chances of success improve with every single tender response you submit. Think of the table below as your roadmap.

Five Key Actions to Win Cleaning Contracts

Here’s a quick breakdown of the critical actions you need to take to secure cleaning tenders. It outlines what each step involves and what you're aiming to achieve.

Action

What It Means

Expected Outcome

Preparation

Get your ABN, insurance, and WHS systems in place.

Be tender-ready and credible from the start.

Opportunity Discovery

Use AusTender, state government portals, and private leads to find work.

Shortlist realistic contracts that fit your capacity.

Tender Response Crafting

Write a compliant, value-focused tender response.

Stand out from competitors based on quality and reliability.

Strategic Pricing

Calculate your costs, add a healthy margin, and justify your value.

Win profitable contracts that support business growth.

Technology Leverage

Use AI platforms and audit software to improve efficiency.

Save significant time and improve your overall win rates.

Mastering these five areas will transform your business from one that just bids for work into one that consistently wins it.

Getting Your Cleaning Business Tender Ready

Before you can even think about winning those big, lucrative cleaning contracts, you’ve got to get your house in order. Government agencies and large commercial clients are sticklers for detail—they won’t even look at your tender response unless you meet a baseline of compliance and professionalism.

Think of it as your ticket to the game. Without it, you can’t even get on the field.

Nailing the Essentials: Insurance and Systems

First things first, let's talk about the non-negotiables. Every single tender document will spell out mandatory insurance requirements. You absolutely must have current certificates for:

Public Liability Insurance: This is a big one. It covers you if your work causes injury to a third party or damages their property. Most government contracts will ask for a minimum of $10 million, but don't be surprised to see requests for $20 million.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance: If you have staff, this isn't optional—it's the law. It protects your team (and your business) if there's an injury on the job.

Beyond insurance, you need to prove you operate a safe, responsible business. This doesn’t mean you need to write a hundred-page manual overnight. You just need simple, clear, documented systems for your Work Health and Safety (WHS) and environmental management policies.

A crucial part of getting ready is a deep-dive into the relevant Australian Workplace Safety Standards. Really understanding and implementing these shows a procurement panel you’re serious about safety, which they value highly.

Having these documents ready to go—things like safety data sheets for your cleaning chemicals and records of staff training—means you can move fast when a Request for Tender (RFT) drops. We break down exactly how to pull these documents apart in our guide to understanding a Request for Tender.

Proving You’re the Right Choice

With the compliance boxes ticked, it’s time to show them what you can do. You need a sharp, concise capability statement. This is basically your business resume. It needs to lay out your services, your experience, who your key people are, and what makes you different from the next cleaning company.

It doesn't have to be complicated to be effective.

For example, a Melbourne-based cleaning SME we know recently won a regional council contract. They didn't have any fancy ISO certifications. What they did have was a simple quality control checklist and a solid WHS policy template. They showed the council they had a professional, systematic approach to their work.

That’s what evaluators are looking for: a reliable supplier who has thought through their processes. By getting all your ducks in a row before you even find a tender, you position your company as a low-risk, high-value partner who’s ready to deliver from day one.

Finding Cleaning Contract Opportunities

Alright, you’ve got your compliance sorted and your business is officially tender-ready. Now for the real work: finding the contracts worth chasing.

Knowing where to look is half the battle. You could spend all day sifting through irrelevant listings, but that’s time you should be spending on writing a winning tender response. A targeted approach is always going to win out.

Start with Government: Your Biggest Potential Client

The Australian government is a massive buyer of cleaning services, which makes it the perfect place for SMEs to start. Your first stop, without question, should be AusTender. Think of it as the central station for all Commonwealth Government tenders. If you’re serious about government work, spending time here is non-negotiable.

But don't just stop at the federal level. Every state and territory has its own procurement portal, and these are often goldmines for local cleaning businesses. We're talking contracts for schools, council buildings, local hospitals, and public facilities right in your backyard.

Key Government Tender Portals to Bookmark

Federal: AusTender is the mothership for all Commonwealth opportunities.

State-Level: Get familiar with your local portal. For example, NSW has tenders.nsw.gov.au, Victoria uses buyingfor.vic.gov.au, and Queensland has qtenders.epw.qld.gov.au.

Don't Forget the Private Sector

While government tenders offer fantastic stability, the private sector is a massive landscape of opportunity. Think about the big facility management firms like JLL, CBRE, and Cushman & Wakefield. They manage huge portfolios of corporate buildings and are constantly on the lookout for reliable cleaning subcontractors.

Even better, building direct relationships with corporate real estate managers and property developers can help you bypass the competitive tender process altogether. It’s old-school networking, but getting in front of the right people to showcase what you do can lead straight to a contract offer.

The scale here is huge. Government contracts provide a steady revenue stream, but they sit within a commercial cleaning market that was projected to hit $20.1 billion by 2025. And with SMEs winning approximately 25% of Commonwealth contracts by value, it’s clear there’s plenty of room for you to grow.

The biggest challenge isn’t a lack of opportunities—it’s the sheer volume. Manually checking a dozen different portals every single day is a full-time job in itself. It is incredibly easy to miss that one perfect contract that’s tailor-made for your business.

Use Technology to Get Ahead of the Pack

This is where you need to work smarter, not harder. Instead of burning hours every day manually trawling websites, you can automate the whole discovery process.

This is exactly what platforms like GovBid were built for. Our system uses AI to scan AusTender and all the other key sources, filtering out the noise and dropping only the most relevant cleaning opportunities right into your inbox. The tech can match tenders to your business profile, looking at things like your team size, service specialities, and where you operate.

For a deeper look at streamlining this process, check out our guide on how to find cleaning contracts more efficiently. It’s about shifting from reactive searching to proactive, strategic bidding.

One of our clients, a Brisbane-based cleaning company, was spending over eight hours a week just looking for tenders. By automating their search, they freed up that time to focus purely on crafting winning responses. That's the difference between drowning in listings and winning contracts.

Crafting a Standout Cleaning Tender Response

Finding a good tender is only half the battle. The real work starts now, because writing a tender response that ticks every single box is what actually wins you the contract. A winning response is never just a price list; it's a persuasive document that proves you're the most reliable, capable, and best value-for-money supplier in the running.

Make no mistake, your approach to writing the response says a lot about your business. A sloppy, rushed submission hints at a sloppy, rushed cleaning service. But a clear, compliant, and value-focused tender response? That positions you as a serious professional contender.

Deconstructing the Request for Tender

Before you type a single word, you have to pull the Request for Tender (RFT) apart, piece by piece. The most important section to find is always the evaluation criteria. Think of this as the evaluation panel's scorecard—they are literally telling you exactly how they plan to judge your response.

Pay close attention to the weighting of each criterion. If “demonstrated experience” is worth 40% and “price” is only 20%, that’s your cue to pour your effort into detailing past projects, not just sharpening your pencil to be the absolute cheapest.

Building a compliance matrix is completely non-negotiable for us, and it should be for you too. It's just a simple spreadsheet that lists every mandatory requirement from the RFT in one column and notes where in your response you've addressed it in the next. It is the single best tool to stop you from missing a critical detail that could get you disqualified on a technicality.

Understanding the Tender Document Pack

When you download the tender files, you'll find a bundle of documents. Getting your head around what each one is for is crucial. It saves you from wasting time and helps you focus on what really matters.

Here’s a breakdown of the typical documents you’ll find in a cleaning tender pack and what to look for in each.

Key Tender Documents for Cleaning Contracts

Document Type

What It Is

What to Look For

Request for Tender (RFT)

The main document outlining the entire procurement process, rules, and requirements.

Evaluation criteria, submission deadline, conditions of participation (mandatory requirements), and contact person for questions.

Scope of Works / Specification

The detailed description of the cleaning services required.

Cleaning frequencies (daily, weekly), specific areas to be cleaned (offices, amenities, windows), required standards (e.g., hospital-grade), and any special requirements like waste removal or consumable restocking.

Draft Contract

The proposed legal agreement you will be expected to sign if you win.

Payment terms (e.g., 30 days), liability clauses, insurance requirements, and termination conditions. Don't just skim this!

Response Schedules / Forms

The templates you must fill out with your company details, pricing, and responses to criteria.

Make sure you complete every single field. These are often mandatory pass/fail forms. Pay attention to pricing instructions (e.g., GST exclusive).

Site Visit Details

Information about any mandatory or optional site inspections.

Date, time, location, and contact person. Attending is almost always a good idea, even if it’s optional.

Once you’ve got a handle on these documents, especially the Scope of Works and the Response Schedules, you’re in a much better position to write a tender response that actually answers the client’s needs.

Building Your Narrative of Value

With your criteria mapped out, you can start building your response. This isn't just about answering questions line by line; it's about telling a compelling story of your competence and reliability. Your capability statement is the centrepiece of this story. It needs to be a powerful, punchy summary of your services, experience, and what makes you different from the next cleaner.

Don't just say you offer "hospital-grade cleaning." Give them a concrete example that proves it. Talk about the time you managed a bio-decontamination clean at a regional medical centre, finishing ahead of schedule and under budget. That kind of tangible proof is infinitely more convincing.

The numbers game for these contracts is massive. Securing cleaning tenders in Australia is big business, especially in government where in 2022-23 alone, over 80,000 contracts worth over $70 billion were awarded via AusTender. You can dig into more data on the commercial cleaning services industry to get a sense of the market.

Presentation and Clarity Matter

How you present your information is just as important as the information itself. Government evaluators are almost always overworked and drowning in paperwork. Make their job easy.

Use Clear Headings: Structure your response so it mirrors the RFT's sections. This makes it simple for them to find and score what they need.

Keep Language Simple: Ditch the jargon. Write in short, direct sentences that get straight to the point.

Leverage Visuals: Break up dense walls of text with bullet points and numbered lists. They're easier to scan and digest.

Include Evidence: Photos can be incredibly powerful. A Perth-based cleaner recently won a major airport contract partly because they included photos of their high-tech, low-noise floor scrubbers in action.

Finally, remember your executive summary. It's your first and, sometimes, last chance to make a strong impression. It has to be sharp, compelling, and speak directly to the client's biggest pain points. For more guidance, our detailed article explains exactly how to write an executive summary for a government tender that grabs attention and sets you up for the win.

Pricing Your Cleaning Services for Profit

Getting your pricing right is often where a cleaning contract is won or lost. Let's be blunt: price too low, and you're essentially working for free. Price too high, and you can bet a competitor will swoop in and undercut you.

The sweet spot is a detailed, justifiable quote that covers every single one of your costs while still showing the client they're getting clear value for money.

This isn't guesswork. It all starts with a rock-solid understanding of the job, which is why attending a site visit or poring over the floor plans is non-negotiable. You have to be able to accurately estimate the real-world labour hours needed for every task laid out in the scope of works.

Building Your Price from the Ground Up

For any cleaning business, your biggest line item will always be labour. But when you’re calculating this, you have to look far beyond just the base hourly wage. To build a price that’s both accurate and sustainable, you need to account for everything.

Your core cost components must include:

Wages and On-Costs: This means factoring in modern award rates, superannuation, all leave entitlements (annual and sick), and payroll tax if it applies to your business. Don't get caught out here.

Supplies and Consumables: Do the maths on your usage of cleaning chemicals, microfibre cloths, bin liners, and any bathroom consumables you're contracted to provide, like paper towels or soap.

Equipment Depreciation: Your gear isn't free. You need to account for the wear and tear on your major equipment—think floor polishers, commercial vacuums, and work vehicles.

Insurance and Overheads: Add a percentage to cover public liability insurance, vehicle registrations, office rent, and all the other administrative costs that keep the lights on.

Once you have that total base cost, you can finally add your profit margin. A healthy margin in this industry is typically between 15% and 25%, though this can shift depending on the contract's size and complexity. This detailed breakdown ensures you're building a profitable price, not just plucking a number from thin air. For a different perspective, understanding the buyer's focus on cost reduction strategies in procurement can give you an edge.

Justifying Your Value Beyond the Bottom Line

Here's a secret many operators miss: winning a cleaning contract isn't always about being the cheapest. It's often about justifying a higher price with superior value. Don't ever be afraid to charge a premium if you can clearly articulate the benefits to the client.

Think about the Adelaide-based cleaning operator who won a mid-sized office contract despite not being the lowest bidder. They proposed a slightly higher rate but committed to doing all work exclusively after-hours. In their bid, they clearly explained how this would minimise disruption to the client's staff, boost workplace productivity, and even offer better security outcomes for the building.

This simple move shifted the entire conversation from cost to value.

By linking their price to tangible business benefits for the client, they proved they understood what really mattered. They didn't just win a contract; they secured a profitable, long-term partnership. It’s powerful proof that a well-justified price is often far more persuasive than the lowest number on a page.

Work Smarter, Not Harder: Using Tech to Win More Tenders

In the Australian cleaning game, being great at what you do is the entry ticket, not the grand prize. If you really want to lock down those big, profitable government contracts, you have to work smarter. That means ditching the old-school manual slog and embracing technology to make your bidding process faster and more effective.

Let's be real: preparing a tender response manually is a soul-crushing time sink. The average tender response can easily chew up 40-80 hours. For a small business owner, that’s time you just don't have. This is where the right platform stops being a "nice-to-have" and becomes your secret weapon, letting you punch well above your weight and compete with the big guys.

The Big Shift: From Manual Grind to Automated Wins

The old way of finding and writing tender responses—endless scrolling through portals, digging up old documents to copy and paste, and manually ticking off compliance boxes on a spreadsheet—is slow, tedious, and begging for mistakes.

AI-powered platforms completely flip that script. They automate the boring, repetitive stuff, so you can spend your valuable time on what actually matters: strategy, relationships, and showcasing your value.

The Australian cleaning services market is massive, projected to hit AUD 18.97 billion by 2025, and commercial cleaning contracts are a huge slice of that pie for SMEs targeting government work. Tools like GovBid are purpose-built for this environment. They pull all the opportunities from AusTender into one place, use AI to pinpoint the ones that fit your business perfectly, and help you get your response together in a fraction of the time. We're talking about cutting your response prep time by up to 70%, which naturally leads to more responses submitted and a much higher win rate. For a closer look at the market size, check out these insights into the Australian cleaning services market.

This isn’t just about speed; it’s about bidding on more of the right opportunities with a better chance of winning each one.

How Technology Gives You a Real Competitive Edge

Investing in the right tools does more than save you a few hours. It sends a powerful signal to clients and government agencies that you're a modern, efficient, and professional operation—exactly the kind of partner they want.

The real magic of technology is that it helps you build a repeatable, scalable system for winning contracts. You’re not just writing one tender response; you’re building a powerful library of your best answers and automating your compliance checks. It’s a growth engine that gets smarter and faster every single time you use it.

Think about how a smart, tech-driven approach completely changes the game compared to the old manual process.

Here’s a look at how technology transforms the traditional, time-consuming slog of bidding for cleaning contracts into a streamlined, winning process.

Manual Tendering vs AI-Powered Bidding with GovBid

Tendering Stage

Manual Approach (The Old Way)

AI-Powered Approach (The GovBid Way)

Discovery

Manually checking multiple government portals every day, hoping you don't miss the perfect job.

Getting automated, AI-driven alerts for tenders that are a perfect match for your business profile. No more searching.

Response Writing

Rummaging through old folders, copying and pasting content that might be outdated or irrelevant.

Instantly building high-quality responses from a smart, reusable knowledge library for total consistency and speed.

Compliance

Painstakingly ticking off requirements on a spreadsheet, praying you didn't accidentally forget something critical.

Relying on automated checks that flag any missed mandatory requirements before you even think about submitting.

By moving away from outdated manual methods, you free up your team to focus on high-value tasks, significantly reduce the risk of human error, and position your business as a modern, efficient provider.

And it doesn't stop with the tender response itself. Operational tech like job management software and quality audit apps give you cold, hard data on your performance. You can then take that data—like your 99% on-time start rate or your average audit score—and plug it straight into your next tender to prove you don't just talk the talk. When you invest in technology, you’re not just buying software; you’re building a rock-solid case for why you deserve to win.

Your Top Questions About Cleaning Contracts, Answered

Jumping into the world of government and commercial cleaning tenders can feel a bit overwhelming. There's a whole new language and set of rules to get your head around. Most cleaning business owners I talk to have the same handful of questions when they're starting out.

Let's clear up the confusion and tackle the most common queries right now. Getting these answers straight will help you dodge the usual mistakes and give you a much better shot at winning your next contract.

How Much Insurance Do I Really Need for a Government Cleaning Contract?

This is a big one, and getting it wrong is a fast track to disqualification. You can have the best tender response in the world, but if your insurance doesn't stack up, it won't even get read.

While the exact figure can change from one tender to the next, most government contracts will ask for a minimum of $10 million in Public Liability insurance.

If you're bidding on a higher-risk site—think airports, train stations, or major public venues—don't be surprised to see that number jump to $20 million. On top of that, you'll absolutely need a current Workers’ Compensation policy that covers every single one of your staff. That’s non-negotiable.

Pro Tip: Always, always go straight to the "mandatory requirements" section of the tender documents. The exact insurance figures you need will be spelled out there. Check it before you write a single word.

Can My Small Cleaning Business Actually Compete Against the Big National Companies?

Yes, you absolutely can. In fact, you might be surprised to learn that the system is set up to help you.

Australian governments are actively pushing to give small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) a fair go. The Commonwealth Procurement Rules are designed to level the playing field, and it’s working—SMEs consistently win a significant portion of the Commonwealth Government's annual $70+ billion spend.

Your size is your advantage. Use it. The big guys can't compete with your local knowledge, your ability to provide personalised service, or how quickly you can adapt. Lean into these strengths in your tender response. Focus on quality and reliability, not just being the cheapest quote. Show them you're the safe, local choice with case studies from right there in your community.

What Is a Capability Statement and Why Do I Need One?

Think of it as your company’s resume. It’s a short, sharp document—usually two to four pages long—that gives a complete snapshot of your business. It needs to quickly tell a procurement manager who you are, what you do, and why they should trust you.

For a cleaning business, your capability statement should highlight your specialities (e.g., office, medical, industrial cleaning), showcase your most impressive projects, and list your safety and quality accreditations like ISO certifications. It’s also where you introduce your key team members.

Having a polished, professional capability statement ready to go is a game-changer. It makes writing tender responses so much faster and instantly makes you look like a credible, organised supplier.

Do I Need Special Certifications to Win Government Cleaning Contracts?

While they aren't always a mandatory "pass/fail" requirement, having the right certifications gives you a massive edge. They can often be the deciding factor between you and a competitor.

Accreditations like ISO 9001 (Quality Management), ISO 14001 (Environmental Management), and ISO 45011 (Occupational Health & Safety) are the big ones. They prove you’re not just making things up as you go—you have professional, documented systems in place.

To an evaluation panel, these certifications scream reliability and low risk. It shows them you have a structured, repeatable process for delivering quality work safely. Being a member of an industry body like the Building Service Contractors Association of Australia (BSCAA) also adds another layer of credibility to your tender response.

Ready to stop searching and start winning? GovBid uses AI to match your cleaning business with the perfect government tenders and helps you write winning responses faster.

Start your free 7-day trial at GovBid.com.au