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Winning Project Work
This document provides guidance on winning project work through effective bidding practices. It discusses establishing a bid strategy, categorizing projects based on complexity and risk to determine appropriate resources and governance, authorizing bids based on business risk, documenting bid requirements, estimating costs and contingencies, setting prices and payment terms, and getting final approval to submit bids. The key tasks for project managers in winning work include qualifying bids, defining project details, managing risks and costs, and gaining appropriate approvals.
Winning Project Work
- 1. 1 of 14 WinningProject Work
- 2. 2 of 14 Whatis it? Why do it? We are all salesmen …at least we all have a part to play in the sales process Projects often must be won, certainly in the consulting and contract R&D domain, but also often in a product business as there are generally more project opportunities than funding Even if not leading the acquisition team, most project managers need sales competencies to play their key role – putting together a commercially competitive cost of delivery
- 3. 3 of 14 CommercialBest Practice Miller Heiman founded in 1978 The New Conceptual Selling The New Strategic Selling The New Successful Large Account Management Shipley Associates founded in 1972: “We Help Clients Win Business!” Shipley Proposal Guide, Fourth Edition Shipley Capture Guide, Third Edition Shipley Business Development Lifecycle Guide Association of Proposal Management Professionals American association, founded by Shipley in 1988, offering Foundation, Practitioner and Professional Level training and certification UK Chapter founded in 2001 Huthwaite International founded in 1974 SPIN® Selling, by Neil Rackham Based on extensive research into what makes a successful salesperson “The world’s most validated selling skills model, at the heart of consultative, B2B selling” MHI Global founded in 2014 by merger of Miller Heiman, Huthwaite, AchieveGlobal, Impact Learning Systems and Channel Enablers
- 4. 4 of 14 Howis it done? ● Brief bid description ● Set bid strategy ● Schedule reviews & submission ● Set bid resources ● Qualify bid: Bid/No Bid decision ● Set & release bid funding A to F ● Define Project Category by value, risk & complexity ● Match PM & TA competence to Category ● Set governance level by Category 1 to 4 ● Define business risk ● Set bid authorisation level ● Document Bid - Confidentiality Agreement - Services Agreement - Proposal & Commercial offer - Project Schedule & Estimation risk graphs - Risk Register - SHE (Safety, Health & Environment) Risk Assessment - other documents as required ● Define Project Cost - Cost without risk - Risk Contingency - Estimation risk - General risk - Delivery resource profile - Payment profile & Cash flow ● Define Project Price - Offer price - Negotiating strategy ● Approve Submission
- 5. 5 of 14 KeyProject Manager Tasks ● Brief bid description ● Set bid strategy ● Schedule reviews & submission ● Set bid resources ● Qualify bid: Bid/No Bid decision ● Set & release bid funding A to F ● Define Project Category by value, risk & complexity ● Match PM & TA competence to Category ● Set governance level by Category 1 to 4 ● Define business risk ● Set bid authorisation level ● Document Bid - Confidentiality Agreement - Services Agreement - Proposal & Commercial offer - Project Schedule & Estimation risk graphs - Risk Register - SHE (Safety, Health & Environment) Risk Assessment - other documents as required ● Define Project Cost - Cost without risk - Risk Contingency - Estimation risk - General risk - Delivery resource profile - Payment profile & Cash flow ● Define Project Price - Offer price - Negotiating strategy ● Approve Submission
- 6. 6 of 14 Plan ●Brief bid description ● Set bid strategy ● Schedule reviews & submission ● Set bid resources ● Qualify bid: Bid/No Bid decision ● Set & release bid funding Bid Authorisation Group Bid Authorisation Bid Documents Review Red Team Review Bid Submission Approval Group Bid Submission Approval Bid Submission All Bids Bids at or above: A1 All Bids Bids at or above: B1 All Bids Bids at or above: A1 All Bids Brief bid description The need or requirement that the bid must satisfy Set bid strategy How we propose to win – our Unique Selling Points Schedule reviews & submission Set bid resources The proposed delivery leadership team should deliver the bid A dedicated bid manager can add significant value to larger bids Qualify bid: Bid/No Bid decision A simple questionnaire may ensure effort is only directed towards bids likely to be won Set & release bid funding What will it cost to bid? What are we willing to spend bidding?
- 7. 7 of 14 Meetoverall customer objectives Senior internal sponsor Project team management Achieve project objectives Primary customer contact Project Reviewer Project Manager Technical Authority Technical strategy Achieve project objectives Manage Technical Risk Higher value/risk/complexity: Low value/risk/complexity: PM PM or TA or Engineer Bid & Project Leadership
- 8. 8 of 14 Categorise DefineProject Category By categorising the proposed delivery project according to value, risk and complexity, in a simple manner, it is possible to: 1) Match PM & TA competence to Category Ensures the most competent (and few & expensive) people are used effectively Helps avoid availability as the only selection criteria Reduces delivery risk Aids PM development by scaling successive project category and so growing competence 2) Set governance level by Category Using oversight effectively Avoids unnecessary cost and bureaucracy Enables dashboard / report filtering based on value, risk and complexity A to F ● Define Project Category by value, risk & complexity ● Match PM & TA competence to Category ● Set governance level by Category
- 9. 9 of 14 Authorise Definebusiness risk Commercial risk arising from the proposed project Defined by financial, corporate, export, tax and other elements deemed by the business as requiring senior authorisation Set bid authorisation level Define who in the business should authorise the bid submission Based on the business risk analysis 1 to 4 ● Define business risk ● Set bid authorisation level
- 10. 10 of 14 Document ConfidentialityAgreement Defining confidentiality responsibilities of the parties Services Agreement Terms and conditions on which our bid is based Proposal & Commercial Offer A Proposal or Statement of Work describes the project our bid offers to deliver for the stated price Project Schedule & Estimation risk graphs Project Schedule: timeline, tasks, order, dependencies and resources to deliver the project Estimation risk handled via range estimating: estimation risk graphs depict a spread of results (dates or costs) against probability and can define bespoke project estimation contingency Risk Register Documents relevant uncertainty and how we propose to manage significant risks SHE Risk Assessment Safety, Health or Environmental risks and how we propose to manage them such that the risk of harm to people is kept below an acceptable level ● Document Bid - Confidentiality Agreement - Services Agreement - Proposal & Commercial offer - Project Schedule & Estimation risk graphs - Risk Register - SHE (Safety, Health & Environment) Risk Assessment - other documents as required
- 11. 11 of 14 Cost Costwithout risk The cost if there were no uncertainty Risk Contingency The contingency set aside to manage risks that occur despite any mitigation or enhancement tasks Derived from two analyses: estimation risk and general risk Estimation risk Uncertainty associated with estimation: range estimation can define bespoke contingency General risk General uncertainty: risk register data and discussion typically determines contingency Delivery resource profile Describes the deployment and type of resources needed to deliver the project Payment profile & Cash flow A payment profile to manage a desired cash flow between spend and income ● Define Project Cost - Cost without risk - Risk Contingency - Estimation risk - General risk - Delivery resource profile - Payment profile & Cash flow
- 12. 12 of 14 Price& Approve Offer Price Our price to deliver the project Cost plus: fixed or firm price / time & materials or effort based Value pricing: based on a belief of the project value to the buyer Priced to win: often below cost, offset by resulting gain elsewhere Negotiating Strategy Contingency may be built into an opening price to allow for anticipated negotiating down The offer may be contingent on other things, e.g. part of a package Approve Submission Permission to submit the bid, usually based on scale ● Define Project Price - Offer price - Negotiating strategy ● Approve Submission
- 13. 13 of 14 Summary Usethe same PM and Technical Authority to bid and deliver This ensures buy-in of the PM and TA but also a PM and TA should be the ones with the required competence to define the cost and level of risk Price and Cost are not necessarily related Only scope or delivery strategy can be changed if required to meet a budget or price target This needs delivery team buy-in, supported by a realistic plan and risk analysis Avoid potential conflict of interest Where the same person is responsible for both cost and price there is a temptation for short term thinking, especially if that person is not responsible for delivery Match the level of governance to the project value, risk and complexity Maximise the time available to produce the bid documents – these define the bid quality
- 14. 14 of 14 AuthorProfile In my board role I led a team of 22 Project Managers and 5 Quality Engineers, and ensured Roke’s £79m project portfolio delivered better than budget profit. I set-up and ran a virtual PMO and created REP, the Roke Engineering Process, also managing the engineering tools to support it. After 4 years as an electronics engineer for Siemens, achieving Chartered Engineer, I moved into project management for 14 years, at Siemens and Roke Manor Research. Successfully delivering Roke’s most challenging whole lifecycle product developments on time and under budget led to a role as Director and board member for 6 years. In 2013 I returned to hands-on project management as Programme Director at Cambridge Consultants, founder member of the Cambridge Science Park. Creator of the APM corporate accredited PM Excellence Programme, I chaired a quarterly PM forum to share best practice and built a supportive PM community. I coached seven PMs to RPP, five to PQ, and all passed APMP. These investments in PM professionalism led to a turn-around and annual improvement in project results across a 400 project portfolio and delivered an above budget performance in five consecutive years with profits totalling £7.9m above budget. Passionate advocate of PM professionalism, Fellow of the APM and the IET and author of articles published in Project and PM Today. Professional Development Winning Project Work Planning Estimating Risk Management Earned Value Management Change Control Stakeholder Management 3 Steps to Professional Project Management: Case Study ProjectManagementTopics