Mitigate turnover risk in your Bid and Proposal department

The Bid and Proposal field is rich with new work, advancement, and consulting opportunities. Most experienced bid and proposal professionals receive multiple contacts from recruiters monthly looking to staff jobs. In addition, increasing opportunities for remote work have only widened opportunities to those outside major metro areas.

Bid and proposal professionals who understand corporate customers, past performance, and capabilities play an essential role in helping to win and maintain business. However, what happens when they resign? A company could be in the middle of a major proposal or string of proposals, and trying to fill these gaps takes work. Therefore, we urge every company to implement succession plans to mitigate business risk.

In our experience, great succession plans have five characteristics:

1. Standardization: The organization follows standard processes for planning and conducting bid and proposal activities, collecting and storing information, reviewing progress, reporting status, and performing lessons learned
2. Automation: The organization automates its bid and proposal management process using standard industry tools for document development, content management, capture management, review management, editing, and graphics.
3. Training: The bid and proposal team is trained in company processes, standard tools, and industry best practices. The company also offers opportunities for industry certification.
4. Organizational Redundancy: The company identifies primary and backup personnel for each role. The company trains those staff members in company processes, tools, and industry best practices.
5. Reach-back: The company has reach-back to bid and proposal professionals to fill gaps immediately. The company has established master agreements with bid and proposal consulting firms like Lohfeld Consulting Group and has previously connected with these firms to discuss their corporate needs.

By Brenda Crist, Vice President at Lohfeld Consulting Group, MPA, CPP APMP Fellow

Lohfeld Consulting Group has proven results specializing in helping companies create winning captures and proposals.
As the premier capture and proposal services consulting firm focused exclusively on government markets, we provide expert assistance to government contractors in Capture Planning and Strategy, Proposal Management and Writing, Capture and Proposal Process and Infrastructure, and Training. In the last 3 years, we’ve supported over 550 proposals winning more than $170B for our clients—including the Top 10 government contractors. Lohfeld Consulting Group is your “go-to” capture and proposal source! Start winning by contacting us at www.lohfeldconsulting.com and join us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.