Bid and Proposal Co-ordinator

The role of bid and proposal professionals is integral to how businesses win work. Sometimes it is a separate job/discrete role, and sometimes it is rolled into another function. As a key part of the sales and business development function, the role works across various business teams to bring together compelling, customer focused proposals and tender submissions to win business. The apprentice will develop commercial capability, vital to businesses and valued across all business sectors.

The role of the Bid and Proposal Co-ordinator is to support new business through the full end to end proposal process – from initial interest and co-ordinating activities around pursuit of an opportunity, co-ordination of responses to pre-qualification questionnaires (PQQ), if applicable, and final tender proposal documentation submission. The role involves providing support to all affiliated functions to assist the quality and timely completion of proposal submissions – including organising meetings, structuring and writing proposal content, co-ordinating relevant activities and document management. This role extends to a range of related commercial activity such as sector analysis, trend analysis, engaging in contract law, and developing strategies to win business for a variety of goods and services.

On completion of the Apprenticeship, many transferable skills will have been acquired, lending themselves to a variety of careers and job pathways. Staying in bid/proposal co-ordination and management is the most obvious route but roles in procurement, sales, business development, project management and many more, are options available dependent on the individual and their preferences and appetites.

Skills

  • Excellent organisational and time management skills to manage multiple activities simultaneously and prioritise own and others’ workloads
  • Ability to meet defined deadlines and set own milestones to manage workload
  • Ability to create and utilise a bid plan timetable and responsibility matrix, supporting virtual team adherence to process
  • Contribute to proposal project timetable including the timely collection of data from various parties including sub-contractors, consultants and internal subject experts
  • Ability to meet bid submission deadlines according to guidelines / instructions
  • Logging and capture of all proposal data in central repository
  • Able to maintain a healthy work life balance and understand the reasons why it is important to do so
  • Maintain compliance matrices to ensure compliance to all questions Capable of managing multiple projects and deadlines
  • Ability to proof read with an eye for detail
  • Good creative writing skills and good grammar/authoring
  • Collate proposal documents using library/information stores, search engines/corporate directories
  • Ability to use a range of tools, methods and search engines, to analyse and assimilate data, such as competitor analysis or customer research
  • Good verbal and written communication skills, and ability to communicate professionally with colleagues at all levels of the business
  • Liaise with sales/legal/finance teams and other virtual team members as necessary
  • The importance of putting the customer first and tailoring bid documents to their needs, wants and requirements
  • Work and engage with colleagues and virtual teams, leveraging relationships and networks to support information gathering and writing
  • Build relationships with colleagues and subject matter experts across the business, learning the ‘go to’ people and how to manage their input
  • Build rapport and trust

Knowledge

  • Understanding the sales life cycle and how it all fits together; from opportunity tracking/pipeline, customer engagement, capture planning, competitive tendering, presentations, negotiations, contract award, implementation and delivery
  • Understand and follow a detailed proposal process from opportunity qualification/Request for Information (RFI) stage, solution development, bid resource allocation, proposal writing and development, production and submission
  • Understand when to use appropriate supporting templates and procedures, ensuring necessary steps, reviews and signatories are planned prior to proposal submissions
  • Know how to use bid software to compile electronic submissions and understand how e-portals work, including how and where electronic tenders are handled
  • Understand how to assist in the dissection of a bid and identify the customer’s key requirements
  • Understand the relevant customer key issues and win strategy for individual proposals/bids
  • Understand a range of tools and methods to analyse a proposal e.g. SWOT analysis
  • Awareness of commercial and pricing positioning and frameworks – to best describe value versus cost
  • Understand the importance of contract management and the key areas for risk and mitigation of contracts
  • Awareness of the importance of handling data, confidentiality, data protection, competition law and relevant business commercial policy
  • The importance of relevant, high quality and up to date content including case studies and evidence
  • Know how and when to use sensitive and confidential information
  • Maintaining relevant certificates for registrations, accreditations memberships, frameworks, records and subscriptions
  • Understand the roles and responsibilities required for each bid and proposal lifecycle, including bid managers, proposal management, writers, document managers, graphics and knowledge base managers

Behaviours

  • A self-starter, with a desire to succeed
  • Uses initiative to ensure effective workload management, deadlines and coordination of activities
  • Willing to work flexibly to ensure that workload is managed effectively and deadlines are achieved
  • Awareness of self and impact on others
  • Able to work across large and virtual teams
  • A drive to win
  • A desire to go the extra mile to deliver winning bids
  • Always acts professionally and ethically, protecting confidentiality of the organisation and customers.
  • Willingness to continuously look for new and better ways of working, whilst considering the underlining best practice processes

Entry Requirements

Individual employers will identify selection criteria in terms of previous qualifications, training or other criteria. 

Duration

Typically 24 months.

Professional Qualifications / Recognition

On successful completion of the apprenticeship, individuals will be eligible for membership of the Association of Bid and Proposal Management Professionals (APMP).? The apprenticeship is set at level 3.

Originally published on Gov.uk, this information has been re-used under the terms of the Open Government Licence.

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