Do you need a teaming agreement to regulate the relationship between team members? Sometimes people realise that they have complementary offerings and that a customer really needs both of them. In these circumstances, it often helps to team together to submit one proposal (or quote) to the customer. Sometimes, there are many potential customers who want the combined offering of goods or services.

It is crucial that the team members enter into a written teaming agreement to regulate their relationship regards winning the business. Many issues can arise, and it is best to have agreed on how you will deal with them.

Sometimes people call this a joint venture, and it is a kind of joint venture, but not the one where a new JV entity is created and each team member becomes a shareholder of the new entity. Sometimes people call a teaming agreement a collaboration agreement, but collaboration is really when multiple people work collaboratively to create one thing (as opposed to separate and related things).

How you benefit from a Teaming Agreement

  • Determine in whose name the proposal will be.
  • Agree on who will bear the costs relating to proposals.
  • Define each of your offerings.
  • Identify the prime contractor and the subcontractor. Once the bid is won, the team members will have to sign both the prime and subcontracts.
  • Ensure that no one is left out of the loop when a team member whose proposal has been accepted fails to sign a subcontract with the subcontractor.
  • Define the nature of the relationship – it is not a partnership or employment relationship.
  • Specify who will own any intellectual property that is developed as part of the bidding process.
  • Ensure that any confidential information disclosed during the bidding process remains confidential.
  • Ensure the bidding process is managed correctly.
  • Resolve disputes between team members easily.

How can we help you?

We can provide you with a teaming agreement in multiple formats.

  1. Ready to sign teaming agreement for one opportunity.
  2. Teaming agreement template you can use multiple times for many opportunities.
  3. Short teaming agreement letter template that records the essentials of the agreement between the team members.

It depends on the circumstances and what you want. A teaming agreement template can take various forms and be structured differently. It often takes the form of a master teaming agreement signed upfront with team engagements (or opportunity schedules or project detail sheets) signed for each opportunity that arises. But it can also be a team engagement that incorporates Teaming Relationship Terms by reference.

We can help you work out which type of teaming agreement is right for you.

Remember, a teaming agreement only relates to team members working together to bid. It does not deal with the actual goods or services:

  • the team leader (acting as the prime contractor) will provide to the customer, or
  • the subcontractor (team member) will provide to the team leader or prime contractor.

Who does a Teaming Agreement apply to?

It is for teams of people to submit proposals to customers to secure business.