1

  Professional Proposal Management Organisation with Flexible Role Concept

1.1

  Typical Tasks and Roles in Bid and Proposal Management

1.1.1

  The Role of Proposal Manager or Bid Manager

1.1.2

  The Role of Sales

1.1.3

  The Role of Bid or Proposal Support (Bid or Proposal Support Office)

1.1.4

  The Role of the Opportunity Board

1.1.5

  The Role of Project Manager

1.1.6

  The Role of Subject Matter Expert (SME)

1.1.7

  The Role of Pricing Manager

1.1.8

  The Role of Contract Manager

1.1.9

  The Role of Quality Assurance (QA)

1.1.10

  The Role of Compliance Manager

1.1.11

  The Role of Finance Manager

1.1.12

  Other Possible Roles

1.2

  Organisational Set-Up of Bid and Proposal Management within a Company

1.2.1

  Temporary or Dedicated Team?

1.2.2

  “Breathing” Proposal Management Organisation

1.2.3

  Anchoring of Bid and Proposal Management within a Company

1.2.4

  Decentralised Organisation, Central Management

1.2.5

  Offshoring or Nearshoring

1.2.6

  Using External Consultants or “On Demand” Proposal Managers

1

  It Always Begins with a Need

1.1

  From Need to Want:  The Desire for Change Awakens

1.2

  From Want to Demand:  Things Get Serious

1.3

  Finally: The Purchase Decision

1.4

  The Buying Centre:  The People behind Bid Acceptance

2

  The User (User)

2.1

  The Subject Matter Expert (Technical Buyer)

2.2

  Management  (Economic Buyer, Approver)

2.3

  The Buyer  (Procurement, Purchasing, Sourcing)

2.4

  The External Consultant

2.5

  Additional Roles

2.6

  How Customers Evaluate Bids

3

  The Tender Evaluation Process: Different Every Time

3.1

  Central Mechanisms:  Spreadsheets, Criteria and Points

3.2

  The Customer’s Evaluation Goggles

3.3

  Foundations: Easy Readability

3.3.1

  Go the Extra Mile:  Compliance and Responsiveness

3.3.2

  It Always Begins with a Need

1

  Preparing the Proposal: Before the Tender or Request for Proposal is Received

1.1

  Save Valuable Time with Preliminary Work

1.2

  The Four Typical Areas for Preliminary Work

2

  The Tender Has Been Received:  Let’s Go!

3

  Tender/Request Analysis

3.1

  Make Your Core Team Responsible for the Analysis!

3.2

  The Dynamic Dozen:  Analyse the Twelve Key Components!

3.3

  Get Answers to Your Questions and Use the Round of Questions

4

  Qualification or the Bid/No-Bid Decision

4.1

  Use the Six Magic Questions

4.2

  Qualification is Best Left to the Boss:  The Opportunity Board

4.3

  If You Say No, Say it Properly!

5

  Proposal Strategy and Planning

5.1

  Your Team Set-Up: Get Your Whole Bid Team Together

5.2

  Define the Optimal Document Structure

5.3

  Proposal Planning: Plan the Bid Process Working Back from the Due Date!

5.4

  Define the Target Price

5.5

  Develop the Four Columns of Your Proposal Strategy!

5.6

  Draft the Storyline

5.7

  Define the Structure of Your Business Case

5.8

  Draft the Executive Summary

5.9

  Set up Joint File Storage for the Team

5.10

  Thoroughly Prepare for the Kick-Off Meeting

6

  Developing Content and Solutions

7

  Finalising the Storyline and Initial Document Draft

8

  Calculating Costs and Risks

9

  Writing and Editing Iterations (Text and Graphics)

9.1

  Create Images before the Text!

9.2

  Observe the Seven Golden Style Rules when Writing Your Text!

9.3

  Have all Documents Systematically Proofread or Edited!

9.4

  Observe Correct (Micro) Typography

9.4.1

  The Most Important Typography Rules for Bid Writers

9.4.2

  Different Strokes for Different Folks

9.5

  Use a Professional Document Template

9.5.1

  Text

9.5.2

  Page Design (Layout)

9.6

  Plan, Manage and Review Any Translations Thoroughly

10

  Finalising the Business Case

11

  The Red Team Review (Final Document Review)

12

  Business Case Approval

13

  Finalising the Proposal (Printing, Binding, Hole Punching, Folders, Creating PDFs,  Packaging etc.)

13.1

  Final Formatting and Digital Production

13.2

  Physical Production

14

  Submitting the Proposal

15

  After Submission

15.1

  Get Ready for Subsequent Requests and Clarifications

15.2

  Use the Proposal Presentation to Build Trust

15.3

  Don’t Let the BAFO Put too much Pressure on You!

15.4

  Negotiate Smart, not Hard!

16

  Maintaining the Customer Relationship and Lobbying during the Proposal Process

17

  Partner Management (Teaming)

18

  Logistics

19

  Efficient Management of the Proposal Process

20

  Lessons Learned:  Improve Systematically

21

  Party Time!

1

  The Customer and Needs Analysis

2

  Developing Key Messages

3

  Setting Up a Message Tree

4

  Developing compelling bid content

4.1

  Create Images BEFORE Text

4.2

  Ground Rules for Text Development:  Two Principles,

4.2.2

  Principle 1:  Use the customer’s language from the be

4.2.3

  Principle 2:  Focus on the benefit

4.2.4

  Seven Golden Style Rules

4.2.5

  Stay Positive!

4.2.6

  Ghosting

4.2.7

  Repeat Your Messages:  Little Strokes Fell Big Oaks

3

  Setting Up a Message Tree

1

  Cover Letter (Side Letter)

2

  The Executive Summary

3

  The Customer’s Business Drivers, Aims and Challenges: We understand!

4

  Description of Solution (“Our Offer”)

5

  Experience and Skills

6

  Commercial Information

7

  About the Bidder

8

  Next Steps

9

  Attachments and References

9.1

  References

9.2

  CVs

9.3

  Indexes

1

  The Beauty Contest

2

  Q&A Style Requests

3

  Unsolicited Proposals

4

  Public Tenders

5

  Grant Writing

6

  Licence Applications

1

  Local differences

2

  Industry Differences

3

  Risk Management

4

  Proposal Management Controlling

5

  APMP (Association of Proposal Management Professionals)

6

  Bidding for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

7

  Knowledge Management and Acquiring Information

8

  Bidding under Time Pressure

9

  Boilerplate (pre-written text)

10

  Sizzle

Appendix A

  Glossary (300 Terms from the Bid and Proposal World)

Appendix B

  The APMP Certification Programme

Appendix C

  Literature Recommendations

Appendix D

  Sample Documents

  D.1 Side Letter

  D.2 Cover Page

  D.3 Executive Summary

  D.4 Thank you – but no thank you (no-bid)

  D.5 Request to extend bid deadline

  D.6 Sample Risk Analysis

Appendix E

  Checklists

  E.1 RFP Analysis

  E.2 Bid Qualification (The Six Magic Questions)

  E.3 Kick-Off Preparation

  E.4 Proposal Planning

  E.5 Document Finalisation

  E.6 Pre-Submission

  E.7 Seven Golden Style Guidelines

Appendix F

  Useful Tools and Links