News

The list of awards held by Bid Solutions’ Team of Experts just got a little longer this week. Huge congratulations to Jon Williams and Jeremy Brim who were both recognised by the APMP.

Jon was presented with the William C. McRae Founder’s Award, the highest honour in the proposal profession, in an online ceremony from the States as part of APMP’s global awards week. Jeremy’s business the bid toolkit won Vendor of the Year.

If you have a question for Jon or Jeremy, or indeed any one of our 25 Bid & Proposal Experts, you can ask it here: https://bidsolutions.co.uk/bid-hub/ask-the-expert/

The Bidding Quarterly Team has been awarded the Strategic Proposals Team of the Year Award for 2019. A huge thank you goes out to Jon Williams and the Strategic Proposals team for recognising the fantastic contributions from all the BQ experts. I’m genuinely delighted for each and everyone of them because this truly is a team award. Without their honest, funny, informed and truly insightful articles, BQ wouldn’t be what it is.

There are now over 1,000 bid and proposal contractors, consultants and freelancers delivering services in the UK. Having passed this milestone, it felt like an appropriate time to dig beneath the surface and find out exactly what life is like for those that made the transition – mostly from permanent employment.

The contract market has experienced significant growth in the past five years. Whilst there are more options than ever for clients, there has never been a greater need to audit the credentials of those engaged.

The advice provided in BQ7 is the most comprehensive we have ever pulled together. This is supplemented with the key findings from the largest ever contractor survey we completed over the summer.

Read all the articles and download Issue 7 here. 

Mel Mae Smith (UK APMP Chair) kindly agreed to be ‘In the Spotlight’. Having voiced my concerns about APMP International in BQ5, I was keen to listen to what she had to say on a wide range of subjects. She talks passionately about the benefits of joining APMP and the soon to be released ‘speciality’ certifications.

We also have fabulous articles from our regular BQ experts. Holger Garden presents three core questions that helped him develop a successful business. Jon Williams provides some great insight on succeeding outside of the ‘corporate’ world, whilst Andy Haigh talks openly about why redundancy can be a blessing in disguise.

Nigel Hudson – candid as always – talks about the importance of making hay while the sun shines and Pippa Birch provides a great list of ideas to keep contractors on their toes. Finally, Kathryn Potter talks about the importance of family and staying motivated.

Changes to IR35 legislation are just around the corner and feature heavily in much of our experts’ thinking. Whilst we attempt to get to grips with the basics of these changes, the question on most freelancers’ lips anxiously remains: “Will HMRC and my clients deem me a contractor OR an employee after April 2020?”

The APMP UK 2019 “Coming of Age” Conference is now just a few weeks away. We are really proud to be sponsoring the Best Newcomer Award and look forward to announcing the winner at the Black-Tie Dinner. This will be our 17^th consecutive year of attending the UK Conference and supporting APMP UK. Please come and say hello – we will have an exhibitor stand where you can try your hand at Bid Roulette and pick up the latest copy of Bidding Quarterly.

More information can be found here: https://apmpuk.zohobackstage.eu/apmpukcon2019#/?lang=en

Whilst canvassing ideas for Issue 6, we were overwhelmed by the energy and passion our experts showed for a variety of different subjects. Rather than stifle this, we decided to remove the shackles and let our experts run free. The only request? Write about something you are truly passionate about right now in the bid and proposal profession.

Once again, we have a fantastic range of articles covering everything from becoming a doctor to Excel modelling. In our biggest issue yet, there is advice on effective knowledge sharing, writing proactive proposals, client focussed innovation, creating high scoring answers and even the odd rant about challenging procurement rules.

We have been truly humbled by all the positive feedback from the first five issues – but BQ will be changing soon. Moving forward, we will develop industry focus groups, provide opportunities to submit white papers, sponsor key industry and professional research whilst still providing honest, unbiased opinion on subjects that matter most to you.

If you have genuine bid or proposal expertise in a particular field or industry, or believe you have a unique approach to winning business, I’d love to hear from you – the panel and BQ wants you!

Download your copy here. 

As a Bid Writer, do you feel that win rate is not an appropriate method to measure success? If so, what other metrics would you use?

Our Deal Management Expert, Alison Gurd has been posed this question via our Ask the Expert forum and offers up a viable alternative.

To view Alison’s response, click here: https://bidsolutions.co.uk/questions/ask-the-expert-performance-management/

To access the forum and pose a question to one of our 20 Experts, click here: https://bidsolutions.co.uk/bid-hub/ask-the-expert/

This week, our Content Management Expert, Kathryn Potter, has been asked what metrics can be used to measure effectiveness and success of prewritten content.

Kathryn’s fantastic response offers up a number of useful suggestions, which you can view here: https://bidsolutions.co.uk/questions/how-do-you-measure-the-success-of-prewritten-content/

To pose a question to any of our 20 Experts, follow this link to our Ask the Expert forum: https://bidsolutions.co.uk/bid-hub/ask-the-expert/

Through our Ask the Expert forum, our Proposal Management and IT Industry Expert, Graham Ablett, has been asked about success rates within bidding. Specifically, he was asked for any statistics or research that explains how success rates are affected by a poor bid / no bid decision-making process.

To view Graham’s response, click here: https://bidsolutions.co.uk/questions/bid-statistics/
To pose a question to any of our 20 Experts, click here: https://bidsolutions.co.uk/bid-hub/ask-the-expert/

Our Content Management Expert, Kathryn Potter, has been asked how to influence SMEs to provide better content.

Kathryn’s brilliant response covers how to influence stakeholders to buy-in to working with bid teams on pre-written content, as well as 3 points that should be considered when creating the content itself.

To see Kathryn’s response, click here: https://bidsolutions.co.uk/questions/how-to-influence-smes-for-better-content/ 

To ask Kathryn (or any one of our 20 Experts) a question, click here: https://bidsolutions.co.uk/bid-hub/ask-the-expert/