The Bid Managers Handbook

Winning significant business on the right terms is an increasingly complex, challenging and time-consuming task, and a successful bid is a vital part of any business offering its services or products to another. This book will help you to enhance the probability of success in winning bids at the desired margins and to set up and run effectively a bid management team. The revised edition expands on the writing and editorial side of the bid, the use of bid management software and the bid review process.

This title was first published in 2003. Winning significant business on the right terms is an increasingly complex, challenging and time-consuming task, and a successful bid is a vital part of any business offering its services or products to another. This book aims to help you to enhance the probability of success in winning bids at the desired margins and to set-up and run effectively a bid management team. Aimed at two main groups of readers (sales staff managing multi-disciplinary bid teams and project and technical managers who find themselves managing a bid to support a sales campaign) it's a resource for the battle to win new business. Taking an extremely practical approach and using real life examples David Nickson leads the reader through every stage of planning for, producing and delivering a bid: knowing what needs to be done; knowing how to present the information to the prospective client effectively; gaining the writing and editorial skills needed to put a sales case across; identifying the skills that are needed to manage a bid. It also shows how to save time - the most important commodity in any bid as it is always a scarce resource - without affecting quality.

"Learn how to improve your chances of winning that proposal whilst minimising your risk and maximizing your profit. Learn the Bid Methodology SuperBid to move you from Wish to Win in a logical and organized way. Understand how to identify and mitigate risks found lurking in those invitations to tender documents. Ensure that you produce a winning proposal that highlights your companies [sic] strengths and hides your weaknesses. This book will provide you with the key bid management skills and several workshops and question sessions and practice with them."--Back cover.

The Winning Bid is an easy-to-read practical guide which will teach the reader how to think like a professional bid manager. It gives essential advice on, amongst other things: PQQs and bid readiness, GIVE analysis, competitor analysis, grantwriting and funding bids best practice, freedom of Information as a research and continual improvement tool, a view from the buyer's side - featuring feedback from buyers on their experiences of being on the receiving end of bids, measuring bid performance over time, virtual team management, sharing bid best practice with other Bid Managers through APMP membership and accreditation, LinkedIn groups, the new Cabinet Office feedback channel. It will appeal to anyone engaged in bidding activity, from the bid novice to professional bid managers.

While it is becoming increasingly common for contracts to be awarded through formal procurement processes, smaller business are missing out. Without the training and confidence needed to write a successful bid or proposal valuable business can be lost. Bid Management is an easy-to-read practical guide which will teach the reader how to think like a professional bid manager. It covers the basics of how to find opportunities, understanding the rules of the game and how to get to know your customer. It also gives essential advice on how to compete with other bidders, present a deliverable and profitable bid, project manage your bid, work out a pricing strategy, clinch the deal and learn from success as well as failure. With an insightful interview with the Director behind the London 2012 Olympic bid, Bid Management uncovers the myths of bidding and teaches all the skills needed to get noticed, retain existing clients and win new ones.

From Wish To Win With The Bid Manager's Handbook! Bid Management THE skill that takes your company from Wish To Win! Learn how to improve your chances of winning that that proposal whilst minimising your risk and maximizing your profit. Learn the Bid Methodology SuperBid - to move you from Wish to Win in a logical and organized way. Understand how to identify and mitigate risks found lurking in those invitations to tender documents. Ensure that you produce a winning proposal that highlights your companies strengths and hides your weaknesses.

At what stage in the process do commercial projects go wrong? Some of the worst problems (unrealistic objectives, faulty assumptions, and poorly understood constraints) are 'programmed in' at conception when the bid is written, long before the project manager is brought on board. If the bid is misconceived, no amount of clever project management is going to recover the situation. Involving the designated project manager at the bidding stage is becoming the norm in many commercial organizations. Some make the project manager the bid manager so they can direct all aspects of the project's conception. Getting the bid right is the essence of planning for project success, and is the main theme of this book. However, many project managers are unfamiliar with the pitfalls of competitive bidding and don't know how to balance a compelling sales message against a realistic delivery plan. Bid Writing for Project Managers will guide prospective project managers through the bid-writing lifecycle, providing comprehensive guidelines and numerous tips on how to craft a winning bid and how to set the project up with the best possible chance of success.

Bid manager The Ultimate Step-By-Step Guide.

For many of today's most lucrative contracts, competitive bidding is the only route to winning valuable new business, and in a fiercely competitive marketplace, you can no longer rely on hard work and good fortune to succeed. To win consistently requires more than just a good pitch. Competitive tendering is a game played by certain rules, and the costs of bidding are as high as the stakes. After spending thousands on a competitive bid there are no prizes for coming second. Winning the Bid will give you the tactics you need to make sure that the rules of the game are of your choosing and not your competitors'. This goes beyond the fundamentals of bid management - it is a powerful framework for winning every bid.