Are you a good Bid Manager?

People often ask what it takes to be a good Bid Manager.

I believe it’s a balanced combination of the following skills and competence to make an effective and efficient bid manager (not necessarily in the order given):

• Ability to plan, lead and drive the bid to closure
• Effective Business Communication skills
• Technical and functional analysis
• Ability to look at the big picture
• Art of building, articulating and narrating the story around customer needs
• Ability to comprehend the customer need and propose solutions
• Being unbiased and appreciating the customer needs
• Focus on specifics than being generic
• In-depth Domain and Technical understanding
• Understand the nuances of pricing and prepare an effective deal
• Being a customer’s advocate
• Don’t sell …but address customer needs
• Understanding your organization
• Understanding the competition in order to deliver an optimal solution
• Ability to coordinate and work seamlessly with the pursuit team
• Ability to deliver quality under stringent timelines
• Ability to deliver effective content while ensuring compliance to legal and financial terms
• Ability to foresee and Manage risks
• Relationship Management with all the stakeholders
• Ability to negotiate and persuade

To conclude, Bid manager’s role demands a blend of communication, management, lead and the ability to deliver.