You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. This is especially the case in the realm of bidding. If your business is based on your ability to renew old contracts and secure new ones, then you must establish a sound and winning strategy for bid writing. It is a skill and competence that you need in abundance, and it is an activity that you must put at the center of your organization.
Not even the most talented writers naturally develop the skill to write effective bids. The elements and features of a winning bid are so specific and specialized that the people who write them must be trained to do so. Only those who undergo bid writing training will be able to put a good proposal together. And only those companies that establish a dedicated team of bid writers will outdo the competition time and again.
Your training program should keep the skills of your bid writing team sharp, relevant, and up to date; it must also train up a cohort of
interim bid staff. Interim staff members are needed to take up the slack of permanent members who depart the company or are otherwise unavailable. You also need a pool of interim staff to gear up for a large and exceptionally important contract proposal. If you are preparing to put in a bid for a client that you have worked with for a long time and that contributes substantially to your bottom line, then you will need a larger team to ensure no detail is overlooked.
This kind of training should be delivered by high-quality professionals. You will need to bring in an outside vendor to train, advise, and support your bid writing team. The professionals you bring in should be able to provide leadership and management for your bid team. They should also train your people to assume the roles of bid directors, head of bids, and lead bid managers.
A professional bid writing training vendor will know how to review current team and individual strengths and come up with a plan of action to improve the bid writing process of your company. They will show you how to enhance your strengths and overcome your weaknesses. They will also provide team and individual training and coaching in bid writing.
If bid writing is at the center of what your company does, then you will need to design your organization to reflect this. The bid writing professionals you hire should offer you advice on bid staff recruitment, reward, and retention. They should also help you establish an in-house training and development program, so that your team can renew and replenish their skills.
More and more organizations are outsourcing their administrative and non-essential functions to outside companies. If you are in one of the many business services fields, then you will need to compete with others to win government and corporate contracts. Working with bid writing professionals will allow you to develop a plan and strategy to win every time.