Where a bid team operates with at least a moderate sense of urgency from the outset, this (generally) eliminates the need to enter into panic mode in the bid’s closing stages.

In my experience, there is a direct correlation between the sense of urgency attributed to the early stages of a submission process, and the stress either experienced or avoided in its final stages.

Where the bulk of the writing and production activity is compressed into the latter stages of the bid process – lack of control, un-exercised opportunities, inaccuracies and a general lack of quality control result.

Keep It Moving

It’s important to keep all components of the overall bid production process continually moving, as any singular point of unnecessary delay e.g. in the completion of the strategy workshops, in the production of the strategy blueprint, or in the individual section authors’ camps can result in a collective bottleneck.

Bottlenecks also occur within each process area itself. For example, if you’ve scheduled the editing process such that the various section authors’ contributions arrive in for editing in a neatly staggered manner, but some of the writers miss their deadlines, you’ll end up with a jam-up on the editor’s desk.

An early and consistent sense of urgency allows for a more realistic number of editing rounds (and re-writes, which are necessary in the majority of cases), along with a macro-level, across-the-submission edit, to ensure the response reads as one cohesive, flowing and comprehensive document.

Bids, Stress & Sustainability

There’s another reason to avoid the common scene at the end of the submission timeframe.

For most large B2B and B2G organisations, major bids are not one-off or sporadic events. They’re a back-to-back, year-around way of life.

In many cases, developing this early start / moderate sense of urgency approach to submissions helps ensure personnel get to operate in a physically and psychologically sustainable manner.

See the following articles, also in the Bid Management section of Pursuits Academy:

• ‘The 11 Stages of Competent & Comprehensive Pre-Probity Bid Management’

• ‘The 13 Stages of Competent & Comprehensive Post-EOI/RFP/RFT-Release Bid Management’

• ‘Set Priorities & Nail Them One At A Time’