Answer:
Depends what you tender for, but they should all be similar I guess. Construction tendering Example.
1. What happens is that the Client (person who wants somthing built) publishes an Invitation to Tender in the paper or on a website.
2. Companies who would like the job (it is really vital to decide whether you would like to tender before you start getting into it) show interest and get the Tender Documentation. It includes, designs, drawings...
3. Then they hire specialists to test the site (soil, water, etc), QSurveyor to build up the costs of the project.
4. When testing, costing... is done, the company submits the tender price.
5. All the tenders are reviewed one by one, pros and cons of each tenderer are counted and weighted.
6. All of the reputable tenderers are shortlisted and invited for an interview. There can be a number of the interviews where a client gets more and more info on the tenderer, which at some stage allows the client to make a decision on who is going to be building the project.
I think:D