Posted by Jon
We fell into a discussion recently about roles within a proposal centre, considering the variety of skills needed to pull together a first-class document. To quote from a note I fired off to a friend who runs a proposal centre in the States:
We fell into a discussion recently about roles within a proposal centre, considering the variety of skills needed to pull together a first-class document. To quote from a note I fired off to a friend who runs a proposal centre in the States:
Oh that it was easy to get someone who could simultaneously conduct that orchestra superbly, write an award-winning book, and draw a masterpiece… and that clients gave us long enough for one person to do everything necessary from a proposal perspective.
But, of course, these are very different skills – and time pressures mean that some sub-division of labour is essential. Either that, or affordability means that there has to be a trade-off.
So what of the “Proposal Manager” – “the conductor”, if you like? Take excellent project and people skills, and add in a healthy dose of creativity and lateral thinking. Make sure they’re a great facilitator, and adept at building internal relationships (often at the most senior levels). Check they can combine almost-paranoid attention to detail with an uncanny ability to help the team to see the big picture. Verify their ability to be calm under pressure, and to work brilliantly at six in the morning, on three hours’ sleep.
Require them to be highly “proposal savvy”. And (if it’s possible) make sure they know their way around your organisation and understand your market too – although this would be the area in which I’d compromise if I were recruiting for the role: a great proposal manager can lead a proposal team selling breakfast cereal to a supermarket or business-critical technology services with equal aplomb. But at least make sure they’re great strategic reviewers – able to dissect draft text and see where improvements need to be made, pushing towards a truly excellent document.
Finally, in some organisations, offer this mythical being the salary of a glorified administrator. And then wonder why you can’t get the staff!
Of course, these competencies are very different to those of a great Proposal Writer (brilliant at editing text and building one-to-one relationships with content contributors, but liable to run a mile if asked to stand up and facilitate a workshop). And the skill-set is poles apart from the great Word and design skills of a good Document Manager. But hey, we can expect them to do all of this brilliantly as well, right?
Require them to be highly “proposal savvy”. And (if it’s possible) make sure they know their way around your organisation and understand your market too – although this would be the area in which I’d compromise if I were recruiting for the role: a great proposal manager can lead a proposal team selling breakfast cereal to a supermarket or business-critical technology services with equal aplomb. But at least make sure they’re great strategic reviewers – able to dissect draft text and see where improvements need to be made, pushing towards a truly excellent document.
Finally, in some organisations, offer this mythical being the salary of a glorified administrator. And then wonder why you can’t get the staff!
Of course, these competencies are very different to those of a great Proposal Writer (brilliant at editing text and building one-to-one relationships with content contributors, but liable to run a mile if asked to stand up and facilitate a workshop). And the skill-set is poles apart from the great Word and design skills of a good Document Manager. But hey, we can expect them to do all of this brilliantly as well, right?