Associate membership is open to anyone with a general interest in proposals, bids and tenders, sales and business development. It is most relevant to those in the early years of a career involving bids and business development either in a customer-facing or support role. Associate membership is also appropriate if you are looking for roles in which sales and business development play an important part, kick start your employment prospects by joining the Academy

As an Associate member you will be provided with a personal certificate of membership, demonstrating your commitment to excellence in the field of bids, sales and business development. You are able to access our twice monthly webcasts, including ones developed specifically by and for younger members. You will be sent weekly mailings including insights, tools and templates, and quarterly newsletters. As an Associate you’ll be invited to networking and training events, the annual Summer School training programme to progress to Master membership, the International Proposals Academy annual conference and be able to use our logo on your business card, website and professional communications.

International Proposals Academy:  Master’s Curriculum

The curriculum is designed to equip those who have been working in a largely operational bid support role to increase their knowledge and skills such that they can make a greater contribution to bid management with a view to becoming bid function leaders over time. Completion of the curriculum is optional but provides the member with formal progression from Associate to Master and endorsement of their skills and insight.

We offer a core curriculum with optional electives which are likely to be useful to bid managers as they progress but may be of more or less relevance depending on their career evolution. The core curriculum is designed to be completed over the course of a year. Once the core has been successfully passed, members have the option to select up to two electives each year.

Core curriculum:

The Bid Function (BF)

The Internal Bid Process (IBP)

The External Bid Process (EBP)

Effective Bid Management (EBM)

You should allow one to two hours per Core curriculum module component which equates to two to four hours per week during term time plus two hours or more per module for testing. Each week you will be provided with an e-booklet to study the module components. Once you have completed a module you will be tested on it using the Action Learning method in which you apply the lessons learned to your own organisation.

Electives:

Finance

The Business Development Landscape

Account Management

Procurement

 

The Bid Function:

In this module, participants will learn about the components of a successful Bid Function:

1. Roles and responsibilities
2. How the Bid Function fits within the organisation, different approaches to reporting lines
3. Misconceptions about the Bid Function
4. Key ways the Bid Function adds value
5. Resource allocation/take on process/business case
6. Bid Function infrastructure

 

The Internal Bid Process

In this module, participants will learn about the components of a successful Bid Process from an internal perspective, including:

1. The role of the organisation’s leadership
2. Reading between the lines of a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Invitation to Tender (ITT)
3. The bid/no bid decision
4. Research and leveraging existing knowledge of the prospect
5. Selecting an effective customer-facing and support team
6. Planning all components of the bid
7. High impact kick off meetings
8. Managing internal expectations and influencing without authority
9. Preparing for fact finding meetings
10. Coordinating meeting collateral
11. Debriefing after fact finding meetings
12. Bid document development meetings
13. Coordinating the components of a powerful bid document
14. Pitch presentation development meetings
15. Coordinating pitch presentation collateral
16. Pitch presentation rehearsals
17. Post-presentation debrief
18. Internal win/loss debriefs

 

The External Bid Process

In this module, participants will learn about the components of a successful Bid Process from the prospect’s perspective, including:

1. The pre-RFP process including Requests for Information (RFI)
2. Initial communication (on receipt of RFP)
3. Handling clarification questions
4. Leveraging existing relationships
5. Understanding the buying dynamics and the role of procurement
6. Competitive SWOT and impact strategy
7. Develop tailored key messages/value proposition
8. Introducing the proposed customer-facing team
9. Pushing back on RFP/ITT rules or requirements
10. High impact fact finding meetings
11. Following up on interactions
12. Developing a bid document which “answers the question”
13. Online bid submissions
14. Getting feedback between document and pitch presentation
15. Pitch presentation: introductions, structure and closing remarks
16. Pitch presentation: Q&A
17. Post-presentation follow up
18. External win/loss debriefs

 

Effective Bid Management

In this module, participants will learn about the components of Effective Bid Management. This draws together a number of aspects of the previous three modules and includes:

1. Setting expectations internally and externally
2. Analysing an ITT/RFP
3. Comprehensive bid planning
4. Working with bid leadership
5. Common pitfalls, how to avoid or recover
6. Lessons learned and continuous improvement

 

Structure of the programme

We follow a term structure of 3 x 8 week terms beginning in October and ending the following June as follows (using 2015 as an example):

Term	Week	Commencing	Module
Autumn	1	5/10	BF 1, 2
	2	12/10	BF 3, 4
	3	19/10	BF 5, 6
	4	26/10	IBP 1, 2
	5	2/11	IBP 3, 4
	6	9/11	IBP 5, 6
	7	16/11	IBP 7, 8
	8	23/11	IBP 9, 10
Vacation		30/11 – 10/1
Spring	1	11/1	IBP 11, 12
	2	18/1	IBP 13, 14
	3	25/1	IBP 15, 16
	4	1 /2	IBP 17, 18
	5	8/2	EBP 1, 2
	6	15/2	EBP 3, 4
	7	22/2	EBP 5, 6
	8	29/2	EBP 7, 8
Vacation		7/3 – 17/4
Summer	1	18/4	EBP 9, 10
	2	25/4	EBP 11, 12
	3	2/5	EBP 13, 14
	4	9/5	EBP 15, 16
	5	16/5	EBP 17, 18
	6	23/5	EBM 1, 2
	7	30/5	EBM 3, 4
	8	6/6	EBM 5, 6
Vacation		13/6 – etc

 

Testing

At the end of each module you will be tested on your understanding of the content and ability to apply it practically in your own organisation. The tests are designed to assess your insight into the topics and relevant, realistic observations for moving your organisation towards best practice. They are not a memory test or invitation to regurgitate the course materials in your own words.

This Action Learning method also encourages you to think about ways in which you can contribute to your organisation which in turn demonstrates to your colleagues and managers the value you bring.