The debate on clear role descriptions has long been won by those who believe and adopt such a practice. From clear expectations on both sides, to identifying areas for further development, the benefits of providing your employees with clear terms of reference are clear. But what happens when you get into such a niche role that there is no job description, and how should companies look for the best candidate?
The role of a bid manager is not always very well defined so, when companies are looking to recruit, either internally or externally, it can be difficult to nail down exactly what the role is. And different companies have different views on it.
This leads to a number of issues, but mainly it’s quite hard to measure performance; as everyone, from employer to employee, has a different take on what the role should be. As people become bid managers, they have to create the role description as they go, and more or less guess what the client or employer wants – there’s no manual they can pick up to tell them what the procedure is.
Sometimes people are just pulled from other functions of the business to manage bids. You could have a commercial manager asked to undertake the role – they will probably make sure all the risks are taken care of, that they’ve gone through all the governance reviews, and the deal is viable so it’s going to make the company a lot of money. At the other end of the scale you could have someone who is more sales focused and prioritises winning the bid over everything else. One of the challenges is finding a balance between the two – because yes you want to win the bid, but at the same time, you want to make sure it’s the right business.
A clear definition of the role would help businesses increase retention rates. The costs of hiring a bid manager are very high, so you want to make sure your hire does not leave after less than a year – which is what tends to happen, and is not a great return on investment. People tend to leave because they don’t know what to expect. Bid managers who have no direction, usually engage with the client too late, don’t have time to prepare, and then they work crazy hours to make up for the lost time. All of this creates a lot of pressure and people eventually leave into other roles.
If companies recruited certified bid managers, and wanted to adopt best practices, including clearly defining the role, they would have a much better retention rate, and higher bidding success. Companies and organisations should look for somebody who has managed a bid before, or an APMPUK certified member – as that proves their experience. After all, you wouldn’t hire an accountant who wasn’t properly qualified.
Once a bid manager has been hired, you should expect them to begin by creating a bid plan. This will detail what needs to happen, by when, and who needs to do it. Bid managers have to be great planners, but bear in mind they can’t do everything by themselves – they will need a team to assist them. Once the plan is complete, they have to share it with the entire bid team and of course stay on top of any changes that might occur. In essence, if you combine a project manager, a sales person and commercial manager, you would have the ideal bid manager.
Remember that there is no one way of doing bidding successfully and different certified practitioners will have different methods. If you are going to put together a role description for the big manager position in your company, make sure you consult with a certified professional before.
