By Marian Paton on Thursday, 16 January 2025
Category: Blogs

Balancing internal bid process and governance effort with time spent generating compelling proposals

Insights from our recent poll: ​What's the right balance between internal bid process/governance effort versus creating a compelling proposal?


In a recent LinkedIn post, Graham Ablett posed a question that has been on the minds of many in the industry:

"What's the right balance between internal bid process/governance effort versus creating a compelling proposal?"

This question emerged during an engaging in-person capture training event, where a fascinating perspective was shared. A company, known for developing intricate solutions, revealed that over 80% of its bidding efforts are spent on meeting internal process demands. This revelation sparked a lively discussion and led us to wonder: Does this sound like a massive imbalance to you too?

To delve deeper into this topic, Graham conducted a poll to gather views and perspectives.
The results were quite revealing:

75%+ time on internal: 10%
50-75% time on internal: 22%
25-50% time on internal: 27%
0-25% time on internal: 41%

The data indicates a significant variance in how organisations allocate their efforts between internal processes and creating compelling proposals. Interestingly, the largest group (41%) spends only 0-25% of their time on internal processes. This shows streamlined approach that feels about right. On the other hand, 10% of respondents spend over 75% of their time on internal processes, highlighting a huge potential area for improvement undoubtedly in terms of cost of bid and certainly win rate.

These insights underscore the importance of finding the right balance. While internal governance is crucial for ensuring compliance and checking we're winning the right sort of deal, it's equally important to focus on crafting proposals that resonate with clients and stand out in a competitive market. Striking this balance can be challenging, but it's essential for success. Five ideas for you to ponder:

1.

 Make sure you have clear levels of authority for who needs to approve all the appropriate aspects of each type of deal

​2.

 Ensure the internal stakeholders go on the journey of the bid with you and aren't just a speed bump at the end

3.

Make sure there are a series of approval points (gates) during the opportunity's lifecycle with the core ones having clear start, stop, continue outputs

4.

​Ensure inputs and outputs of each gate are well defined so expectations are set

5.

 Make sure that expectations on the level of detail required on areas such as commercials and the solution are realistic​

We invite you to share your thoughts and experiences on this topic.

How does your organisation manage the balance between internal processes and creating compelling proposals?

What strategies have you found effective in optimising this balance?

Let's continue the conversation and learn from each other's experiences.

Feel free to respond to the poll here and drop your thoughts below.

Together, we can uncover best practices and drive improvements in our proposal processes.


​​To find out more about the key skills and tools necessary to develop powerful, compelling proposals contact our experts on 0800 009 6800 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.​

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