The project manager's survival guide to bids, tenders and proposals presented by David Warley Thursday 26th November 2015 APM Contracts and Procurement Specific Interest Group (SIG)

1. The Project Manager’s Survival
Guide to Bids, Tenders and
Proposals
APM Contracts and Procurement SIG
David Warley CPP.APMP Fellow

2. Agenda
Project and business development lifecycles
Project organisation and governance
Customers, competition and win strategy
Surviving the proposal phase
Controlled close
Conclusions and actions

3. Bids are Projects:
Project Definition:
“A temporary organisation established to achieve a defined objective within
a specific timeframe.”

4. One View of the Business Development Lifecycle
Source:
APMP® Body of
Knowledge
“An Introduction to the
Business Development
Lifecycle”
http://newbok.apmp.org
/bok/introduction-to-the-
business-development-
lifecycle/

5. World of
Opportunities
Bids and Projects share similar lifecycles:
Opportunity
Assessment
Pursuit /
Capture
Proposal Negotiation
Handover to
Delivery
Start Up Initiation
Delivery
Stage(s)
Final Stage Post Project
Selected Opportunity

6. Does this bid / project have a business case?
6

7. Your turn:
A B C
What
management
products /
exhibits would
you expect to
have at a Start
Up review?
List common
issues with Start
Up process
Suggest checklist
items to aid
preparation for
Start Up review

9. Integrated Project
Emerging Project
Lagging Project
Start early
Positioning Pursuit Proposal Negotiation Delivery
9

10. J.Herther.APMPJournal,Fall2006
1982 2006

11. TSTART
PWIN
(%)
$
Spend
RFI RFP Submit AwardPQQ

12. What to do if you start late:

13. Project Organisation
and Governance
• Creating a Controlled
Environment for your bid
Project Organisation and Governance

14. Let’s get organised:
Direct
Manage
Deliver
14
Bid
Executive
Bid
Manager
Team Leader
Senior
Supplier
Senior
User
Team Leader Team Leader
Bid
Support
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs
SMEs

15. Designing a bid team organisation:
Bid Team Roles:
• Business InterestBid Executive
• User ChampionSenior User
• Provide ResourcesSenior Supplier
• Deliver the bidBid Manager
• Manage Area of OfferTeam Leader
• Create Response PartsTeam Member
• Support the BoardBid Assurance
• Support the PMBid Support
Business Development Resources:
15
Services
Manager
Programme
Director
Account
Director
VP Business
Development
Account
Manager
Bid Manager
Sales
Executive
Proposal
Manager
Services
Manager
Systems
Architect
SME
Quality
Manager
Product
Specialist
Technical
Expert
Graphics
Designer
Technical
Author
Internal
Auditor
Roles define:
• Accountabilities
• Activities performed
• Product types created
• Competencies required
Resources are
mapped to
roles according
to skills and
availability

16. Working with partners
• Prime Contractor
• Sub-contractor
• Alliance / Joint Venture
• …
What is the
commercial
relationship?
• Documented
• Agreed split of work
• Pre contract
• Post contract
Is there a
teaming
agreement?
• Reporting
• Communication
• Location and facilities
Working
arrangements

17. Create a controlled environment
Management
• Governance
• Sponsorship
• Process
Bid Managers
• Getting the ‘charter’ right
• Agreement on ‘controls’
Cost
Timescales
Quality
Scope
Risk
Benefits
(Business Case)
Get the right charter for your bid
Set clear tolerances on controls

18. Take a break!

19. Customers, competition and win strategy
Customers, competition and
win strategy
• De-mystifying sales voodoo
• Defining and communicating strategy

20. “If you wish to persuade me,
you must think my thoughts,
feel my feelings, and speak
my words.”
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
Understand your Customer

21. Issues, Motivators and Hot Buttons
• Issue
• Any problem or concern that
may be affecting the
Prospect
• Motivator
• An issue that causes the
Prospect to want to act
• Hot Button
• An issue that is high in the
list of Prospect’s concerns
Motivators Hot
Buttons
Issues

22. low
low
high
highCustomer Orientation
Feature Function Advantage Benefit
-ve Discriminator
+ve Discriminator
Differentiator
DegreeofDifferentiation
Aspect of
your offer
What the feature does Feature of the offer
that might provide
a benefit to the buyer
Feature that differs
from the competitor’s
offer
Feature that provides
more benefit to the buyer
than the competitor’s offer
Solution to an issue,
reduction in cost or
increase in value
Feature that provides
less benefit to the buyer
than the competitor’s offer
Do you Speak Sales?

23. Know your competition
“If you know the enemy
and know yourself,
your victory will not stand
in doubt”
Sun Tzu: “The Art of
War”

24. Our
Weaknesses
STRATEGY STRATEGY
Sweet Spot
• Mitigate Our
Weaknesses
• Highlight Our
Strengths
• Neutralize
Their
Strengths
• Ghost Their
Weaknesses
Their
Strengths
Our Strengths
Their
Weaknesses
Customer’s Issues
STRATEGY STRATEGY
Sour Spot
Base Your Strategy on Discriminators

25. Customer Issue /
Buying Criteria
Your
Company
Competitor
1
Competitor
2
System Availability   
Reduced Footprint   
Experienced Vendor
Team
  
50% Reduction in
TCO
  ++
Savings in current
year

(Current Vendor)

(Current Vendor)

Bidder’s Comparison Matrix
(an example)

26. Communicate strategy in your opportunity plan
Develop strategy statements:
• WHAT you are going to do
• Mitigate, neutralise, highlight, ghost
• HOW you are going to do it
• Simple description of the approach
Strategies can apply to:
• Solution
• Teaming
• Price and Terms
• Proposal

27. Develop your solution and target win price early
Solution
• That
delivers
what the
Prospect
wants
Price
• Within the
Prospect’s
budget
• And your
acceptable
margins

28. Your turn:
A B C
List sources of
customer and
competitive
intelligence
Suggest ways to
analyse the
quality of
intelligence
Suggest ways to
keep solution
costs within
target costs

29. Surviving the Proposal Phase
Surviving the Proposal Phase
• Controlled execution
• Managing time, cost and quality

30. When the RFP arrives:
Confirm the requirements
• Systematically strip requirements from the RFP (you need SMEs)
• Carefully extract any tendering requirements
• Build a compliance matrix
Generate questions for the Prospect (there may be a deadline)
Identify actions for the solution team
Freeze the solution
Finalise your Proposal Stage plan
RE QUALIFY!
• Gate / Stage Review required

31. Prepare a robust topical outline and content plans for writers
A robust outline
MECE
Uniquely
Assignable
Compliant
Sample content plan
http://newbok.apmp.org/bok/content-plans/

32. Kick off:
A well prepared and executed kick-
off is the #1 work winning practice
APMP® Benchmarking Study 2002

33. Winning proposals are compliant, responsive,
focused and easy to evaluate
• Compliance
• means strict adherence to the RFP
• means «question is answered»
• Responsiveness
• means addressing the prospect’s
underlying needs
• means «they know what my issue is»
• Focused
• means «why choose us» is evident
• benefits and discriminators are clear
• Easy to evaluate
• answers are easy to find
• document is easy to navigate
• key information is highlighted
Requirements
Underlying
Needs
Responsive
answers
Compliant
answers

34. Advice to SMEs
Answer each question directly
• Demonstrate compliance
• Don’t waffle
Provide evidence in support of your
answer
•What
•How
•Who
•When
•Where
•Why
Use boilerplate if needed to support
your answer
ATFQ

35. Metrohopper™ Installation ?
(Informative, but no benefit)
Man in Shorts ?
(That would be a ‘Horse Title’)
Figure 6: Installation. One man can do it! Metrohopper’s
light weight and packaging mean that a single engineer can
safely and quickly complete on-site installation. This means
that you’ll be in service faster and achieve quicker savings
than with typical transmission solutions.
Ah! That’s better.
Metrohopper™isatrademarkofNokiaSolutionsandNetworks
©PhotographcopyrightNokiaSolutionsandNetworks
Include interpretive action captions with graphics

36. Keep progress visible:
Daily Stand Up Meeting Proposal Management Plan
Proposal Responsibility Matrix Content Plans
Daily Management
Tools

37. Your turn:
A B C
List issues in
managing a
distributed
team. Suggest
ways to address
them.
List issues with
managing
external
partners.
Suggest ways to
address them.
Suggest ways to
maintain
visibility of
status and
progress with
your team.

38. Your turn:
A B C

39. Controlled Close
Controlled Close
• Lessons learned vs Lessons noted
• Protecting value and assets

40. Learn from experience
Seek out lessons
learned before
each stage
Include lessons
learned in
project plans
Implement
lessons learned
“lessons learned” but not implemented
are merely “lessons noted”

41. Project closed or just abandoned?
• Even losing bids have value
• Management products
• Plans, strategies, tools
• Re-usable outputs
• Relationships formed
• What did we learn?
• What works / what doesn’t
• Customer & Market Intelligence
• Effort Metrics
• What will we change?
• Ineffective techniques
• Broken processes
• Skills gaps
Ahead of it’s time?
Or an opportunity
missed?
Archive all bid products
Implement lessons learned

42. Managing improvement
Frameworks:
• IUK Routemap
• SCAMPI
• P3M3
• BD-CMM
Tools:
• DECA
• Helmsman
Use gates as readiness assessments
Fix issues before starting

43. Conclusions and Actions
Conclusions and Actions
• Applying this in the work place
• Personal Action Plans

44. Applying lessons in the workplace

45. Personal Action Plans (SKS):
Start Doing Keep Doing Stop Doing

46. Some useful resources:
Web resources:
• APMP BoK: http://newbok.apmp.org (APMP member subscription)
• Outperform toolkit: http://bids.outperform.co.uk/
• Intrastructure UK Procurement Routemap:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/infrastructure-
procurement-routemap-a-guide-to-improving-delivery-capability
Texts:
• The Bid Managers Handbook, David Nickson (ISBN:9780566088476)
• Bids, Tenders and Proposals: Winning Business Through Best Practice,
Harold Lewis (ISBN: 9780749456108)
• Powerful Proposals - How to Give Your Business the Winning Edge,
Bacon & Pugh (ISBN: 9780814472323)

47. This presentation was
delivered at an APM event
To find out more about
upcoming events please visit our
website www.apm.org.uk/events