Proposal Manager
Proposal Manager Job Description – Title Variations
Depending on your industry and geography, you may not have the title Proposal Manager but will have similar responsibilities to those outlined below. Common job title variations include: Submissions Manager; Pitch Manager; Tender Manager; and RFP Manager. To make it even more confusing, some organisations call Bid Managers Proposal Managers and vice versa. It is essential to look beyond the title and understand the core responsibilities.
Role
The Proposal Manager will co-ordinate and produce the proposal (RFI, PPQ, ITT, RFP, etc) response whilst assembling a proposal team with the skills to prepare and submit a winning proposal. Responsibilities include the introduction and implementation of all necessary proposal procedures and governance. This is a highly networked role that requires an ability to work under pressure and to challenging deadlines.
To enhance efficiency, the Proposal Manager may leverage digital AI tools and proposal management software to deliver automated proposal content generation, content management, delivery matrices or document analysis.
The Proposal Manager is involved in eighteen Bid Lifecycle stages. The effort / commitment required at each stage varies and is shown in our core role overlay. The Proposal Manager is typically engaged at the beginning of the Bid and Pursuit Phase and exits at Clarification stage.
Experience
Proven ability in planning, producing, and delivering compliant proposals within a complex business environment. The Proposal Manager will be experienced in scheduling and running proposal kick-off meetings, leading storyboarding sessions, facilitating key review meetings / final document review, co-ordinating proposal governance / sign off, document production, and delivery of the completed proposal.
Understand the basics of prompt engineering for generative AI / AI tools and how they can be used for driving efficiencies across proposal management tasks, content creation, tone adjustment, and task automation
Familiarity with the legislation around use of AI and relaying critical information and updates to the bid team, such as the PPN Improving Transparency of AI use in Procurement and any client specific limitations.
Typically, they will have experience of designing, managing, and updating a Content Library or Proposal Automation Solution.
Core Responsibilities
- Delivery of compliant, professionally produced proposals within customer defined timeframes
- Coordinate and review / edit proposal input from a variety of stakeholders, typically involving contributions from sales, marketing, product teams, finance, commercial, legal and delivery
- Work with brand marketing and proposal teams to define the brand style and voice for proposal content, ensuring this is consistently applied across all content
- Communicate and influence at a senior level
- Ability to coach sales teams in persuasive writing and proposal best practice
- Proposal automation software (or similar) experience
- Document template management in line with company branding
- Strong time management / prioritisation skills
- Strong written English language skills
Reporting Line
In a large corporate / multinational, the Proposal Manager will be part of a larger team that has defined roles and responsibilities. Typically, the role will report to a Head of Bid / Commercial management or a business unit team leader such as Commercial / Sales / Marketing or Finance Manager. In a small-medium sized enterprise, the Proposal Manager is normally a standalone role, assuming responsibility for a much broader range of roles and responsibilities. It is often combined with Bid Manager responsibilities in smaller organisations. Typically, the role will report to a Sales / Marketing or Managing Director.
Measure of Success
Typical measures of success include win rate, capture rate, content quality, revenue, margin, proposals submitted and achievement of internal SLAs.
Qualifications
Strong academic background or successfully completed the Bid and Proposal Apprenticeship. APMP Foundation (Practitioner or Professional level desirable). APMP Capture Practitioner desirable. Advanced MS Word / Powerpoint skills and proficient in MS Office / Adobe InDesign.
Salaries
There is a wide variation of Proposal Manager salaries across geography and industry. Our most recent UK Salary Survey has all the information you need.
Contract vs. Permanent
Contract Proposal Manager roles tend to be much more task driven and focussed on submitting a compliant response on time. You can review our available Contract Proposal Managers here.
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