With proposals influencing over a third of company revenue*, our profession has far outgrown the “administration” and “support” labels. We’re thought leaders, change agents, storytellers. Yet, other teams – leadership, sales, even client procurement – struggle to keep pace with how our profession has evolved. It’s time these stakeholders recognise how far the proposal profession has come and the critical impact we have across organisations.
How the proposal profession has matured
Despite growing pains, we’ve found our voice and honed our identity by building a global community. We have industry bodies, certifications and training, shared terminology, and established in-person and virtual networks. We take ownership of our continuous development, honing our technical and interpersonal skills. We celebrate our successes and see setbacks as learning opportunities.
We operate with an abundance mindset, sharing insights with our peers through magazines, books, blogs, webinars, whitepapers, podcasts, surveys, and reports. Within our own organisations, we act as stewards of institutional knowledge – trusted content curators as well as creators.
We’re aware of and addressing issues such as:
• Burnout: Raising awareness and offering practical support through articles, surveys, reports, and mental health affinity groups
• Barriers to entry: Expanding access through apprenticeships and collaboration with colleges
• Career longevity: Promoting growth though coaching and mentoring schemes
• Conflict: Managing challenging situations with emotional intelligence, persuasion, and versatile communication
How other teams can catch up
For proposal teams to thrive – and for organisations to win more – leadership, sales, and even client procurement must evolve with us.
Leadership should rebrand the proposal function to reflect its impact by incorporating terms like “growth,” “winning,” and “revenue” into our titles. Competitive salaries, bonus incentives, and leadership pathways – on par with sales and marketing – are essential to attracting and retaining top talent. Flexibility must be the norm, not the exception. AI investments should enhance quality and alleviate workload pressures, not simply increase volume or reduce headcount. Protecting technical SMEs’ time while holding them accountable through bidding-related KPIs would improve collaboration. And it’s time we’re measured on more than just win rate.
Sales needs to move beyond last-minute handoffs. We need pipeline visibility and true collaboration on capture – for new business and retention efforts. A seat at the table for go/no-go decisions, backed by real data, enables smarter choices. And post-bid, working together to implement lessons learned should be standard practice.
Client procurement must do better. Realistic RFP timelines, avoiding holiday-adjacent deadlines, and making bidder briefings useful should be the baseline. And when decisions are made, meaningful win/loss feedback should be non-negotiable.
How much more could we all achieve if every team treated proposals as a strategic function, not an afterthought?
References
“Companies sourced more than a third (37%) of their revenue from RFPs” – Loopio. (2025) 2025 RFP Trends & Benchmarks. Available at: https://loopio.com/trends-report/ (Accessed: 16 February 2025)
“RFPs and other strategic responses influence, on average, 48% of company revenue” – Responsive. (2024) 2024 State of Strategic Response Management Report. Available at: https://www.responsive.io/resources/whitepapers/2024-strategic-response-management-report/ (Accessed: 16 February 2025).
Ceri Mescall
Ceri is the Managing Director at Strategic Proposals Canada. Clients trust her to help them win. Ceri is a presenter/panelist, podcast guest, article author/contributor, and awards judge. She holds all four signature APMP certifications plus the Executive Summaries and Bid & Proposal Writing micro-certifications. Ceri was an APMP 40 Under 40 award winner (class of 2019), and is an APMP Fellow (2020) and APMP Accredited Trainer (2024).
