How to Write Past Performance When You Have Little to Show

Past performance sections stop more new contractors than pricing does. You open the RFP, see "provide three relevant contract references from the last three years," and conclude you cannot bid because you have never held a federal contract. Most of the time that conclusion is wrong. This is a playbook for writing a credible past performance volume when your government track record is thin or nonexistent.

What evaluators actually do with past performance

Before writing anything, understand the audience. A past performance evaluator is trying to answer one question: how likely is this offeror to perform this specific work successfully? They typically do three things with your volume:

1. Check each reference against the RFP's relevancy criteria (scope, size, complexity, recency).
2. Verify quality, by calling your points of contact, sending questionnaires, or pulling CPARS ratings if you have them.
3. Assign a confidence rating, often something like Substantial Confidence, Satisfactory Confidence, Neutral, or Limited Confidence.

Notice what they are not doing: counting how many federal contracts you have held. A single highly relevant commercial project with a reachable, enthusiastic reference can outscore three loosely related government contracts. Your job is to make the evaluator's mapping exercise easy.

What actually counts as past performance

Read the RFP's instructions carefully, because most solicitations define acceptable references far more broadly than new bidders assume. Unless the RFP explicitly restricts references to federal prime contracts, you can usually cite:

• Commercial contracts. Work for private companies counts if it is relevant. A managed IT services agreement with a hospital system is legitimate past performance for a government IT support bid.
• Subcontract work. If you performed under another company's prime contract, that performance is yours to cite. Name the prime, the end customer, and exactly what your scope was.
• State, local, and education contracts. A contract with a county or school district demonstrates you can work inside procurement rules, invoicing cycles, and public accountability.
• Key personnel experience. Many RFPs allow the experience of proposed key personnel or of major subcontractors to be considered. If your project manager ran similar programs at a previous employer, say so, clearly labeled as individual experience.
• Teaming partner and subcontractor references. If the RFP permits it, references from your proposed subcontractors can fill relevancy gaps you cannot cover yourself.

Before you invest in writing, run the opportunity through a disciplined go/no-go scoring process. If the RFP demands three federal prime references of a certain dollar size and you have zero, that is a real gate, and your energy belongs elsewhere.

Map every reference to the relevancy criteria

Evaluators score relevancy on a few standard dimensions. Build a simple table for yourself before drafting, then make sure your write-ups answer each dimension explicitly.

A reference that nails scope and complexity but is smaller in dollar value is still worth submitting. Address the gap head on rather than hoping nobody notices: explain how the work scales and what you have added since.

How to write each reference

A strong past performance write-up is not a client testimonial. It is structured evidence. For each reference, use a consistent format:

1. Header block. Customer name, contract or PO number if one exists, period of performance, total value, your role (prime or sub), and a live point of contact with phone and email.
2. Relevancy statement. Two or three sentences mapping this work directly to the current requirement. "This effort is relevant because we performed help desk support, endpoint management, and network administration, the same three task areas in Sections C.3.1 through C.3.3."
3. Work performed. A short narrative of what you actually did, organized by the RFP's task structure where possible.
4. Results. Concrete outcomes: uptime achieved, deadlines met, renewal or expansion of the contract, problems solved.
5. Challenges and corrective actions. One honest example of a problem and how you fixed it. Evaluators trust write-ups that show recovery, not perfection.

Here is a fictional example header, framed only to show the format:

Customer: Example Regional Bank (commercial contract) Period of performance: 24 months, current and ongoing Role: Prime Relevance: IT service desk and endpoint management for 400 users across 6 sites, mapping to task areas C.3.1 and C.3.2 of this solicitation.

One warning that trips up new bidders: call every point of contact before you submit. Confirm their information is current, tell them a government evaluator or questionnaire may reach them, and remind them what you did. A reference who does not respond, or barely remembers you, can quietly sink an otherwise strong volume.

Use the neutral rating rule to your advantage

Federal source selection rules protect new entrants more than most people realize. Under FAR 15.305, an offeror without a record of relevant past performance may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably. In practice that means a genuine newcomer usually receives a neutral confidence rating rather than a failing one.

Neutral is not a win, but it is survivable, especially when your technical approach and price are strong. What you should never do is stretch a weak, irrelevant reference to fill a page. A marginally relevant reference invites the evaluator to rate you Limited Confidence, which is worse than neutral. If you truly have nothing relevant for a given requirement, a short, honest statement acknowledging that, paired with key personnel experience and a strong management approach, often scores better than padding.

Borrow relevancy through teaming

If the work is a stretch for you alone, bring in a subcontractor whose past performance covers your gaps, or pursue the job as a subcontractor yourself to a prime who needs your niche. Subcontracting is the fastest legitimate way to build citable government experience: you get a real contract number, a real government end customer, and a real performance record. Two or three subcontract efforts over a year can transform your next prime bid.

Build past performance on purpose

Treat your first several pursuits as a portfolio-building campaign, not just revenue. Practical moves:

• Target smaller purchases and simplified acquisitions where past performance requirements are lighter.
• Pursue state and local work, which many federal RFPs accept as relevant references.
• Pick a narrow lane and stay in it, so every project deepens the same relevancy story. Browsing open professional services RFPs or current IT and software solicitations by your exact niche helps you find requirements sized for a first or second win.
• Document every project as you deliver it: metrics, dates, contacts, outcomes. Writing references from memory two years later produces vague, weak volumes.

A daily scan of new postings matters here, because the best-fit small opportunities close fast. RFPhound users get fit-scored SAM.gov matches by email each morning, which makes it easier to spot the winnable, portfolio-building jobs before the deadline pressure kills your response quality.

Quick checklist before you submit

• Every reference includes a verified, live point of contact
• Each write-up opens with an explicit relevancy statement tied to RFP task areas
• Magnitude gaps are addressed directly, not hidden
• Key personnel and subcontractor experience is used where the RFP allows it
• No padded, irrelevant references that invite a low confidence rating
• Page limits, formatting, and reference counts match the instructions exactly

Thin past performance is a positioning problem, not a disqualification. Frame what you have honestly, map it ruthlessly to the requirement, and pair it with a strong technical volume. For the broader strategy around that first award, see our playbook on how to win your first government contract.