Quick answer: Pre-market engagement works when it genuinely informs what you procure and how you procure it. Most public sector pre-market engagement doesn't do that — it announces a forthcoming procurement and calls it consultation. The result is a market that feels unheard, and a specification that reflects internal assumptions rather than commercial reality.
The announcement disguised as engagement
I've reviewed a lot of pre-market engagement strategies over the years. A significant proportion of them follow the same pattern: publish a Prior Information Notice, post a questionnaire on Contracts Finder, hold a single supplier briefing event, close the responses, and proceed with the specification you had already drafted.
That's not engagement. That's notification with extra steps.
The distinction matters because the Procurement Act 2023 places a much stronger emphasis on pre-market engagement than its predecessor. Section 15 of the Act explicitly permits contracting authorities to conduct market research and engage with suppliers before a procurement begins. What the Act cannot do — and doesn't try to do — is force you to actually use what you learn.
That part requires intent.
What genuine pre-market engagement looks like
The test I apply is simple: could the pre-market engagement process change what you buy, how you structure the contract, or how you go to market? If the honest answer is no — because the specification is already written and the approval has already been sought — then you're not engaging, you're communicating.
Genuine pre-market engagement has a few characteristics that distinguish it from the performative version.
It happens early enough to matter. Not two weeks before the ITT goes live, but three to six months before, when the specification is still malleable and the contract structure is still being decided.
It asks open questions. Not "does our draft specification make sense to you?" but "what would make this contract undeliverable for a business of your size?" or "where does our current approach create unnecessary cost that we both end up absorbing?"
It reaches beyond your existing suppliers. If your pre-market engagement only surfaces the views of the incumbents and the large contractors who monitor Contracts Finder obsessively, you're hearing from the market segment least likely to tell you something genuinely new.
And critically — it feeds back. Suppliers who participate in pre-market engagement should be told what you heard, what you changed as a result, and what you didn't change and why. That closes the loop and builds the credibility that makes your next engagement actually work.
The specification problem it creates
When pre-market engagement is a monologue, specifications end up encoding internal assumptions that nobody has tested. I see this regularly in a few specific areas.
Lot structure. Authorities assume a single large contract is more efficient to manage. Suppliers — particularly SMEs — know that the lot structure is often the single biggest barrier to participation. A conversation with the market would surface this. An announcement doesn't.
Mobilisation timelines. Procurement teams set mobilisation periods based on internal convenience rather than operational reality. Suppliers, if asked, will tell you quickly whether eight weeks is workable or whether you're inadvertently selecting for the incumbent who doesn't need to mobilise.
Social value and carbon requirements. I've seen specifications that require Carbon Reduction Plans aligned to PPN 06/21 from all suppliers above £5 million, with no sense of whether the target market actually has them. Pre-market engagement would have identified that gap — and given you time to do something about it before the procurement launched, rather than discovering it when half your shortlist can't comply.
The market development dimension
This is where pre-market engagement connects directly to supplier development. If you want to grow the number of capable suppliers in a particular market — and under most supplier development frameworks, you should — pre-market engagement is one of your primary tools.
It signals genuine intent to smaller suppliers who assume the outcome is predetermined. It gives you the intelligence to design procurement routes that don't inadvertently exclude capable businesses. And it creates relationships that sit outside the formal procurement process, which is where supplier development actually happens.
Done well, pre-market engagement also surfaces the gaps: the capability that doesn't exist yet in your supplier market, the commercial terms that are suppressing participation, the accreditation requirements that are screening out businesses you'd actually want. You cannot close those gaps if you don't know they're there.
A practical starting point
Before your next significant procurement, run a structured pre-market conversation — not a briefing — with at least eight to ten suppliers, including at least four you haven't contracted with before. Ask them what would make the contract undeliverable, what would make it attractive, and what you should stop requiring that doesn't add value. Document what you heard. Publish a summary. Then let it visibly change something in your approach.
That's pre-market engagement. Everything else is just advance notice.