You need to use your expertise to create a successful bid. That specialist knowledge usually comes from your subject matter experts (SMEs) – those busy, brilliant people who know your products inside out. But that’s just it. They’re busy running your business in their daily roles. And now you need their help to create a bid proposal for potential future work. How do you ensure your SMEs can carry out their usual roles and contribute effectively to the bid?

Strain risks the bid outcome

Subject matter experts are key people. They are in great demand operationally because of everything they know. Even without a bid to contend with, they’re rushed off their feet. And, of course, they have personal lives to enjoy outside work. There’s only so much time in a day. When you put SMEs under too much strain to help create a bid proposal, the commercial outcome is clear – they won’t deliver their best work. And this could be the difference between winning and losing new business. They may also become demoralised because so much is expected of them and they’re not progressing as they’d like. Yet, these are the people you really want to retain in the company.

Time to change your bidding process

If SMEs are to contribute effectively to a bid and carry out their day job without feeling the strain, you must take an honest look at your bidding process. When you get this right, SMEs can deliver brilliance in both camps – and enjoy doing so.

Adopt the right mindset

Bidding is crucial to the future of many companies. So why is it common for bid writing to become a “chore” nobody wants to accept? A hot potato that departments are reluctant to get involved with. From the top down, working on bids must be seen as essential and important work. If you’re going to put resources into bidding for work, make sure you do your best. Otherwise, why bother? Proposal writing isn’t something your business development team can do in isolation. Bidding is an all-department responsibility. Everyone must appreciate how important it is to involve SMEs and develop a process that delivers the best proposal you can create.

Start early

When you receive a Request for Proposal (RFP) or spot an opportunity to tender for new business, you usually have a decent timeframe; if you start right away. So, use all the time you have so your teams can plan requirements into their schedule. Unrealistic timescales lead to a last-minute rush, stressed people, and a below par proposal. Yes, in reality, you may need a “final push” but give everyone involved the chance to work sensibly (and strain-free) towards that.

Have clear roles and responsibilities

Establish who needs to get involved in creating the bid and what their specific roles are. Ideally, you’ll have someone acting as Bid Manager to pull the team together. Avoid overlapping responsibilities and make sure everyone knows who’s involved and what’s expected of them. When it comes to SMEs, select those best equipped to answer the bid questions and most able to provide great input.

Allocate SME time

If you want to get the best from your SMEs, don’t leave them trying to shoehorn bid time into their already busy schedules. Plan ahead wherever you can (by starting early) and consider who could support their operational remit a little while they divert attention towards supporting the bid. Help them secure this support if necessary. Also consider the best way to gain the knowledge you need from SMEs. Are they happier providing documents and their written thoughts, or would they rather have a verbal conversation? By working in their preferred way, you’ll get more from them.

Communicate your plan

SMEs must understand what knowledge you need from them. Otherwise, they’ll give you everything they know, wasting their time and yours. So, develop a concise proposition strategy for your bid proposal and get clear on the USPs and reasons why you believe you should win. Then identify the questions you must answer (noting the main points for your answer) and determine which SME will provide input for each one. Once clear, communicate all this to your SMEs so they provide their input with the right context. This is a smarter and more time-efficient way to develop your bid proposal.

Give SMEs the right support

Let your SMEs focus on their brilliance by providing knowledge that can create a winning bid. Don’t then lean on them to write the bid because that’s an entirely different skillset. Those who write the bid must be able to use your SMEs’ knowledge to draft a compelling and structured document that answers the questions and proves easy to read. They must adhere to wordcounts, language requirements, and write well (no poor grammar or inconsistencies). It’s a tall order to expect your SMEs to write the proposal, so let them work with specialist bid writers. The same goes for presenting the proposal. You’ll want to add several graphics or images before branding and formatting it. This document will determine whether you win or lose. Yes, it must read well, but it must look good too. You could use someone who is an enthusiastic PowerPoint user or choose an external specialist designer who’s experienced at creating graphics for bid proposals that portray a convincing message.

Recognise the output

Regardless of whether your bid wins, celebrate the delivery of it and recognise the team involved. Linking back to having the right mindset, make your SMEs feel good about getting involved. This will motivate them to help on future bids and even look for new business opportunities across their professional network.

Everyone wins

When you make bidding a pleasurable and rewarding process, everyone achieves more. And ultimately, you win more business. By supporting your SMEs so they can help create the proposal in a targeted way, without compromising their operational roles, everyone benefits. The collective resources you allocate to bidding will deliver better returns and your team will be motivated to do it all over again.