3:The Bidding
Landscape

Purpose: The horizon scanner, on the hunt for new strategic clients, allowing the rest of the sales team to focus on conversion and growth of existing business and near side targets.

Bid Activities: Identify key targets and logos that will build the revenue and reputation of the company. Their job is to build up intelligence on the target and increase their profile with the companies that they are pursuing. They develop targeted marketing to get access to clients, including attending conferences, meet-ups, sponsoring sessions, becoming speakers at events where the targets are. They are also building up their intelligence.

You may find the job being done by: CEO, VP Sales, Head of Work Winning

Also known as: Whale Hunters

Rudely referred to as: The Face

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: To generate sales from new and existing contacts and leads.

Bid Activities: Takes over from the Strategic Pursuits Lead. Balancing the resource investment in an RFP versus another warm deal is a constant juggle for them. They contribute to the bid strategy, feed information through to the researcher and bid director.

You may find the job being done by: CEO, Strategic Pursuits Lead, Manager of an existing contract that is coming up for renewal

Rudely referred to as: Heavy drinkers

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: Influencing customer requirements as part of business development.

Bid Activities: Comes alive once you have decided to bid and before the bid comes to market. Develops a capture plan that defines the opportunity, assesses the environment, gets resources together and leads positioning of your offer with the customer. Ensures all internal stakeholders are aligned and on message.

You may find the job being done by: VP Sales, CEO

Rudely referred to as: Rarely (subjected to rude names because not often seen on a bid)

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: To bring together the information available about the buyer and the tender opportunity. To turn information into intelligence so the bid team can develop the win strategy.

Bid Activities: Downloads target knowledge from the Strategic Pursuits Lead. Drives the research gathering on buyer’s incumbents, competitors and markets. Defines the key areas to research. Does the research. Crafts this into analysis to contribute to the winning solution.

You may find the job being done by: Bid Manager, Bid Director, Bid Writer

Rudely referred to as: Nosey

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: Looks after the relationship with a current customer, identifies opportunities for selling deeper and wider, develops relationships with key people in customer organizations.

Bid Activities: Provides intelligence on the customer pain points, gets involved in solution development, provides feedback and steer to bid team.

You may find the job being done by: VP Sales, CEO

Rudely referred to as: Gatekeeper

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: The owner of the bid. The main interface with the buyer.

Bid Activities: Involved deeply with the buyer. Works closely with the Strategic Pursuits Lead. Navigates your company’s needs and the offer to the buyer to secure a win. Owns the governance process internally. Selects the bid team. Drives the intelligence. Develops the win strategy. Writes little, reviews all. Protects the strategy.

You may find the job being done by: VP Sales, Bid Manager, CEO

Rudely referred to as: Dictator

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: The person responsible for bringing the bid together. They drive the process, coordinating the input from the bid team and the information from the Bid Director. They are responsible for the final production of the tender document.

Bid Activities: Works very closely with the Bid Director. They work with the Bid Director to select the team. Collates the intelligence. They issue the bid deliverables to the team, define the deadlines and the review processes. Coordinates between Subject Matter Experts, Bid Excellence Lead, and Bid Director. They will write and recraft much of the bid.

You may find the job being done by: VP Sales, Bid Manager, CEO, Proposals Manager

Rudely referred to as: The Understudy

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: Price the bid to win.

Bid Activities: Develops pricing for tenders, leads commercial negotiations with buyers and supply. Finds savings and efficiencies to support win strategy. Manages contracts, resources and risks. Writes the commercial section.

You may find the job being done by: Bid Director, CEO

Rudely referred to as: Penny Pincher

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: To assist the Bid Manager.

Bid Activities: This role does whatever is required by the Bid Manager. This may involve writing, chasing copy, collating content, keeping notes on progress, assisting at writing workshops, reviewing, proofreading

You may find the job being done by: Bid Manager, Writer, Office Assistant

Rudely referred to as: Dogsbody

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: To design the bid concept and branding for the bid.

Bid Activities: They use the intelligence and the win strategy to develop a compelling identity that represents what the bid offers

You may find the job being done by: Graphic Designer

Rudely referred to as: Pre-Madonna

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: To design the bid to have maximum impact on the reader.

Bid Activities: Take copy and design it in line with the bid brand, develop visuals and infographics to enhance content.

You may find the job being done by: Bid Designer, Bid Manager

Rudely referred to as: Slow

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: To take the print version and digitize it.

Bid Activities: Using software and programming and working with Bid Director and Manager and Brand Designer.

You may find the job being done by: Graphic Designer

Rudely referred to as: The IT guy

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: The guru of greatness. They identify excellence in bidding systems, strategy, and winning practices and drive it out across the organization.

Bid Activities: They keep up with international best practice. Review what’s emerging across internal bid practice and lessons learned from previous bids. Capture it in writing. Explore bid technology. Disseminate, train and maintain standards

You may find the job being done by: Bid Manager, Bid Researcher/Analyst, Bid Writer

Rudely referred to as: Annoying

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: To provide input on specialist subject matter. Ideally able to write it up but not always.

Bid Activities: Provides technical guidance on how the bidder meets the requirement of the procurer in a specialist area. It may be a technical solution or a detailed description of the company’s process. You may find the job being done by: Writer, Bid Manager, Bid Director, The Solution Generator, Google search

You may find the job being done by: Writer, Bid Manager, Bid Director, The Solution Generator, Google search

Rudely referred to as: Hard work

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: To bring their targeted expertise to work with the bid leadership to craft an innovative solution that delivers the win strategy, it could be financial, technical, a new value add, behavioral or procedural.

Bid Activities: To bring deep expertise in a specialist area that can generate an advantage for the bidder.

You may find the job being done by: SME, Bid Writer, Bid Manager, Bid Director

Rudely referred to as: Excitable

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: To write the responses to the bid questions.

Bid Activities: Write responses from scratch, or from a content depository, or from interviewing an SME. Improve the readability of all responses. Edit tone and consistency across the bid. Write the executive summary.

You may find the job being done by: Bid Manager, Subject Matter Expert, Bid Director

Rudely referred to as: Rarely subjected to rude names as seen as heroes

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose: Final edit and polish as the bid is ready for submission.

Bid Activities: Reviews and proofs all copy. Does not engage with the content other than readability and flow

You may find the job being done by: Bid Director, Bid Manager, Writer, Subject Matter Expert

Rudely referred to as: Nit-picky

Salary level: $$$$

Purpose:

Bid Activities: Presentation facilitation, coaching, collaborative behaviors coaching.

You may find the job being done by: Bid Director

Rudely referred to as: White Witch/Guru

Salary level: $$$$