The beginning of the year is a great time for proposal professionals to evaluate their professional development and schedule time to polish their skills. So, let’s take a test on how you would rank yourself in comparison to key competency areas defined by APMP – the Association of Record for Bid, Proposal, Business Development, Capture, and Graphics Professionals.
Rank yourself on a scale of high/expert, medium/intermediate, or low/novice. Keep in mind that the Harvard Business Review indicates that 10,000 hours of practice (about 1 year and 51 days total) is what you need to gain “expertise” in a field.
| Functional Area | Expert | Intermediate | Novice |
| Capture plan development | |||
| Client interface management | |||
| Compliance matrix development | |||
| Content plan development | |||
| Executive summary development | |||
| Graphics development | |||
| Information gathering | |||
| Kick-off meeting management | |||
| Knowledge management | |||
| Negotiation management | |||
| Opportunity qualification | |||
| Outline development | |||
| Process management | |||
| Production management | |||
| Proposal review management | |||
| Proposal strategy development | |||
| Proposal strategy review | |||
| Requirements identification | |||
| Risk mitigation | |||
| Sales participation | |||
| Schedule development | |||
| Teaming identification and management | |||
| Virtual communications | |||
| Win strategy development | |||
| Winning price development |
If you find you have gaps, there are many free or low-cost methods to improve your skill set without moving from your desk. Lohfeld Consulting Group offers an extensive free library of blogs, webinars, and topical articles from Washington Technology in addition to books and classes to help you catch up. APMP International and its local APMP Chapters also offer meetings and webinars on these topics. I challenge you to create your own professional development plan for this year—I am using this list to plan mine.
by Brenda Crist, MPA, CPP APMP Fellow
