Any organisation serious about winning tenders needs to understand the importance of having a carefully assembled bid team. Having a successful bid team will place your organisation in the strongest position when it comes to retaining customers and securing business. Creating a bid team and working out a clear bidding strategy avoids the responsibility to pull the various aspects of the bid together being left solely to one individual.
Inside all organisations it is critical to have an understanding of what exactly the bid team need to deliver, as the bid management process will bring together all the key stakeholders.
Who should be in the bid team?
The bid team needs to be assembled with the specific bid in mind and the members of the team should bring something unique to the bid. Each bid team doesn’t necessarily have to follow the same structure, as bids can often be specialist or in very different fields.
This is a typical Bid Team:
Bid Manager: The Bid Manager will act essentially as project manager and is responsible for end-to-end process; they have numerous roles and responsibilities when it comes the smooth running of the bid process. They will choose the core team, informing the team on their understanding of the bid and when the deadline is. The Bid Manger is also granted access to previous bids, case studies and is expected to gather any certificates or insurance documents.
Core Team: The role of the core team are to ensure the evaluation of the tender is completely understood. They need to break down the requirements of the tender and to craft a response strategy.
Support: Often a mix of external and internal resources, it may be necessary to call on various teams around your organisation. It is often one of the bid manager’s roles is to assemble the support.
Proof Reader/Copy Editor: Submitting a clear, concise and error free tender is often what can make or break the chances of winning a bid. The copy editor brings a fresh pair of eyes to the tender and may spot errors that have been overlooked. The proof reader will often add a professional polish to the bid which could make the difference between winning and losing.
The full stop on any successful and effective bid team is in the relationships between the team members and how the individuals work together. The team always needs to be focused on creating solutions not problems, and this is where leadership and taking ownership of tasks is critical.
For further information, contact Lindsay Rosul
T: 07702 823 648
E: Lindsay.Rosul@value-match.co.uk