Issue 17 - Industrial Evolution

Being an expert in a particular industry or sector certainly has its appeal. As a master of your chosen discipline, you can become highly respected amongst peers and your confidence can soar. People also tend to trust experts more freely.

But what if that expertise is holding you back? Maybe you can’t see the wood for the trees. Or maybe you are held in such high esteem you become an unopposed expert. What then? Where is the motivation to better yourself?

Turn the clock back 20 years and very few employers sought bid professionals with relevant industry experience. They were more focussed on your ability to put a winning bid together. You could quite literally jump from industry to industry and there were very few barriers to doing so.

Fast forward to today. We have never seen greater demand for specialist industry knowledge and skills in permanent recruitment. Many of our clients are very specific about the industrial background and experience they seek. Most say they are willing to be flexible but in reality, very few candidates make the cut if they don’t meet the wish list.

The contract market is slightly less prescriptive and we work with both generalists and specialists in equal measure. Clients with short term resource emergencies tend to be more flexible and candidates are equally successful.

So what is behind this drive towards specialists and our self-termed ‘Industrial Evolution’? Large swathes of the bid and proposal profession are maturing at a rate of knots. They are accelerating beyond the traditional ‘sales support’ or ‘sales admin’ function into the ‘strategic enabler’ and ‘trusted advisor’ space. It is in these more mature (and often more complex) businesses where we see the highest demand for specialist industry knowledge and skills.

The slight irony with this trend is that these types of businesses generally have the most capable subject matter experts (SMEs) so are potentially doubling up on the same skills. In our experience, clients with strong SMEs in situ typically need strong bid management or bid writing skills to enhance the process/proposals. The SME has the industry knowledge; it just needs to be meticulously extracted from them and professionally articulated.

Certain industries such as Defence, Construction, Science, IT and Professional Services are more likely to ask for specific experience but they also then tend to pay higher salaries to attract and retain the talent. The recruitment process can also be more protracted in these professions (three to six months is not uncommon) whilst the focus remains on securing their ‘bidding unicorn’.

All too often we see months of intense effort to secure a perfect match candidate unravel because definitions of hybrid and homeworking are also rapidly evolving. The move back to an office environment is very real. Although there is strong resistance to returning to pre-Covid working conditions across our profession, hybrid work now typically means at least three or four office-based days.

APMP’s introduction of micro-certifications is also driving the profession towards more and more specialist roles. While these certificates provide kudos and respect amongst peers, we are yet to see an employer actively seek out such skills. Even those companies stipulating APMP Foundation or Practitioner rarely reject candidates without those qualifications. (APMP Professional has never been requested by our clients on a job specification.) We’d argue that how the prospective employer gels with the candidate has greater sway in the decision-making process.

Geography clearly also plays its part. Some countries are only in the earliest stages of bid and proposal evolution and others are sprinting ahead. There is currently a clear lack of specialist Bid Writers in the UK market but we haven’t seen a move (yet) by clients to sponsor international candidates with the right skills and industry experience. It can only be a matter of time.

We firmly believe capture, bid and proposal skills are transferable across industries. There are absolutely some things you will need to learn about any industry to be successful but none are insurmountable for a skilled professional. And being a generalist is equally as credible as being a specialist. Our recommendation to candidates seeking out a new sector or industry is to focus on your most transferable skills. Examples include working on complex or multi-million £/€/$ bids, leading or line managing teams, influencing stakeholders, developing value propositions, making bid/no bid decisions, and writing social value responses.

Our team of BQ Experts brings an unparalleled breadth of knowledge and experience to this topic and have generously shared their unique perspectives in BQ17. We hope you enjoy the 22 fantastic articles and can take advantage of the many opportunities arising from the Industrial Evolution.

Martin Smith
Lisa Easthope
Ben Hannon
Tanya Smith