Bid and proposal co‐ordinator
Sales, marketing and procurement
Level 3 -
Working across various business teams to bring together compelling, customer focused proposals and tender submissions to win business.
Reference: OCC0056
Status:
SOC 2020 sub unit groups:
- 3552/00 Business sales executives
- 1134/01 Estimating managers and directors
- 3541/02 Estimators
- 3549/03 Contract administrators
- 3556/02 Business development managers
- 4129/02 Grants officers
Technical Education Products
Employers involved in creating the standard:
Aviva, NG Bailey, Lloyds, Computacenter, Costain, Canon, Pick Everard, Canon, DHL, Babcock International
Summary
The role of bid and proposal professionals is integral to how businesses win work. Sometimes it is a separate job/discrete role, and sometimes it is rolled into another function. As a key part of the sales and business development function, the role works across various business teams to bring together compelling, customer focused proposals and tender submissions to win business. The apprentice will develop commercial capability, vital to businesses and valued across all business sectors.
The role of the Bid and Proposal Co-ordinator is to support new business through the full end to end proposal process – from initial interest and co-ordinating activities around pursuit of an opportunity, co-ordination of responses to pre-qualification questionnaires (PQQ), if applicable, and final tender proposal documentation submission. The role involves providing support to all affiliated functions to assist the quality and timely completion of proposal submissions – including organising meetings, structuring and writing proposal content, co-ordinating relevant activities and document management. This role extends to a range of related commercial activity such as sector analysis, trend analysis, engaging in contract law, and developing strategies to win business for a variety of goods and services.
On completion of the Apprenticeship, many transferable skills will have been acquired, lending themselves to a variety of careers and job pathways. Staying in bid/proposal co-ordination and management is the most obvious route but roles in procurement, sales, business development, project management and many more, are options available dependent on the individual and their preferences and appetites.
Employers involved in creating the standard:
Aviva, NG Bailey, Lloyds, Computacenter, Costain, Canon, Pick Everard, Canon, DHL, Babcock International
Typical job titles include:
Bid and proposal co-ordinator
Keywords:
Bid
Business
Business Management
Management
Procurement
Proposal
Sales
Tender
Knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs)
K1: Understanding the sales life cycle and how it all fits together; from opportunity tracking/pipeline, customer engagement, capture planning, competitive tendering, presentations, negotiations, contract award, implementation and delivery
K2: Understand and follow a detailed proposal process from opportunity qualification/Request for Information (RFI) stage, solution development, bid resource allocation, proposal writing and development, production and submission
K3: Understand when to use appropriate supporting templates and procedures, ensuring necessary steps, reviews and signatories are planned prior to proposal submissions
K4: Know how to use bid software to compile electronic submissions and understand how e-portals work, including how and where electronic tenders are handled
K5: Understand how to assist in the dissection of a bid and identify the customers key requirements
K6: Understand the relevant customer key issues and win strategy for individual proposals/bids
K7: Understand a range of tools and methods to analyse a proposal e.g. SWOT analysis
K8: Awareness of commercial and pricing positioning and frameworks “ to best describe value versus cost
K9: Understand the importance of contract management and the key areas for risk and mitigation of contracts
K10: Awareness of the importance of handling data, confidentiality, data protection, competition law and relevant business commercial policy
K11: The importance of relevant, high quality and up to date content including case studies and evidence
K12: Know how and when to use sensitive and confidential information
K13: Maintaining relevant certificates for registrations, accreditations memberships, frameworks, records and subscriptions
K14: Understand the roles and responsibilities required for each bid and proposal lifecycle, including bid managers, proposal management, writers, document managers, graphics and knowledge base managers
S1: Excellent organisational and time management skills to manage multiple activities simultaneously and prioritise own and others workloads
S2: Ability to meet defined deadlines and set own milestones to manage workload
S3: Ability to create and utilise a bid plan timetable and responsibility matrix, supporting virtual team adherence to process
S4: Contribute to proposal project timetable including the timely collection of data from various parties including sub-contractors, consultants and internal subject experts
S5: Ability to meet bid submission deadlines according to guidelines / instructions
S6: Logging and capture of all proposal data in central repository
S7: Able to maintain a healthy work life balance and understand the reasons why it is important to do so
S8: Maintain compliance matrices to ensure compliance to all questions Capable of managing multiple projects and deadlines
S9: Ability to proof read with an eye for detail
S10: Good creative writing skills and good grammar/authoring
S11: Collate proposal documents using library/information stores, search engines/corporate directories
S12: Ability to use a range of tools, methods and search engines, to analyse and assimilate data, such as competitor analysis or customer research
S13: Good verbal and written communication skills, and ability to communicate professionally with colleagues at all levels of the business
S14: Liaise with sales/legal/finance teams and other virtual team members as necessary
S15: The importance of putting the customer first and tailoring bid documents to their needs, wants and requirements
S16: Work and engage with colleagues and virtual teams, leveraging relationships and networks to support information gathering and writing
S17: Build relationships with colleagues and subject matter experts across the business, learning the go to people and how to manage their input
S18: Build rapport and trust
B1: A self-starter, with a desire to succeed
B2: Uses initiative to ensure effective workload management, deadlines and co- ordination of activities
B3: Willing to work flexibly to ensure that workload is managed effectively and deadlines are achieved
B4: Awareness of self and impact on others
B5: Able to work across large and virtual teams
B6: A drive to win
B7: A desire to go the extra mile to deliver winning bids
B8: Always acts professionally and ethically, protecting confidentiality of the organisation and customers.
B9: Willingness to continuously look for new and better ways of working, whilst considering the underlining best practice processes
Occupational Progression
This occupational progression map shows technical occupations that have transferable knowledge and skills.
In this map, the focused occupation is highlighted in yellow. The arrows indicate where transferable knowledge and skills exist between two occupations. This map shows some of the strongest progression links between the focused occupation and other occupations.
It is anticipated that individuals would be required to undertake further learning or training to progress to and from occupations. To find out more about an occupation featured in the progression map, including the learning options available, click the occupation.
Progression decisions have been reached by comparing the knowledge and skills statements between occupational standards, combined with individualised learner movement data.
Sales, marketing and procurement