Bids Manager

Ideas | People | Trust

We’re BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today’s changing world.

We work with the companies that are Britain’s economic engine – ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high‑growth businesses that fuel the economy - and directly advise the owners and management teams that lead them.

We’ll broaden your horizons

Our Marketing team is the driving force behind the creativity and growth at BDO. Marketing has a broad remit here. Their main goal is to equip the business to win and there are teams covering most touchpoints of the customer journey. Highlights include a national advertising campaign, the launch of a new firm-wide sales planning process and the implementation of new digital marketing tools. Because we know that great ideas can come from anywhere, you can be sure you’ll be heard and have the chance to make a real impact. You'll be supported to build your career, but also to be yourself in the office. Help the firm succeed by staying ahead of the latest market trends, confidently implementing your ideas and collaborating with a range of shareholders. You’ll be rewarded with a great work-life balance and a career with real purpose.

We’ll help you succeed

Leading organisations trust us because of the quality of our advice. That quality grows from a thorough understanding of their business, and that understanding comes from working closely with them and building long-lasting relationships.

You’ll be someone who is both comfortable working proactively and managing your own tasks, as well as confident collaborating with others and communicating regularly with senior managers, directors, and BDO’s partners to help businesses effectively. You’ll be encouraged to identify and draw attention to opportunities for enhancing our delivery and providing additional services to organisations we work with.

BDO’s Bids and Pursuits team sits within MSC (Markets, Sales & Clients). Its core focus is winning profitable, high-quality work from new and existing clients and audited entities. The team identifies and prioritises opportunities and drives the pursuit and bid process to maximise our chance of winning. Currently there are 7 people in the Bids and Pursuits team located in London and Manchester, although they support the firm nationally.

We are seeking an enthusiastic and experienced bid professional to join our team. You will already be experienced in delivering all parts of a bid response but now you will be keen to own and drive the bid process from end to end.

Reporting to an experienced Pursuit Opportunity Conversion Lead (POCL), you will focus on supporting bids that are strategically important to the firm across all sectors and streams of the business. You will be one of the 3 Bid Managers in the Central Bids and Pursuits Team.

This role is based out of our Baker Street hub.

In this role you’ll:

• Undertake background research
• Assist the Pursuit & Opportunity Conversion Lead (POCL) in Chances of Winning conversations, including deputising where appropriate.
• Design and build the project plan to ensure the correct process and approach is taken and correct skill sets are leveraged to deliver maximum value (SMEs/POCL/Risk etc).
• Assist the POCL in kick-off sessions, stakeholder meeting preparation sessions, value proposition and storyboard development.
• Write the first draft of proposal Executive Summary.
• Brief design teams to produce concepts that reflect the win themes, and provide feedback
• Co-ordinate the production of the final proposal & pitch materials, ensuring they have been signed off by the appropriate team members.
• Support other Bid Managers by performing RFP compliance reviews on their opportunities.
• Manage day-to-day activities of the client team throughout the response process and be a central point of contact for queries and concerns.
• Drive activity and leverage the correct skills to deliver the plan & maximise chances of success
• Advise team and partner on pursuit or bid process and steps based on firmwide best practice approach.
• Assist the POCL in presentation planning and preparation.
• Ensure best practice is implemented on each bid as appropriate through support from POCL.
• Maintain statistics on win/loss ratio, opportunity scores and contribute to analysis on firm-wide trends in winning and losing.
• Help spread best practice across the firm by updating “self-service” bids content on BDO’s intranet, taking part in “lunch and learn” sessions, and producing posts for the Bids Team Viva Engage Board.

You’ll be someone with:

• Professional bids experience with a strong motivation to ‘win’
• Proven experience of working in a bids and pursuits team (ideally from a professional services business)
• Stakeholder management skills
• A good understanding of, and experience in delivering, the ‘end-to end bid process’
• The ability to converse comfortably with senior stakeholders
• Confidence to ask insightful questions to both understand and challenge thinking
• Strong project management experience
• Strong writing and communication skills
• A degree/ relevant professional qualification is desired (but not essential)

You’ll be able to be yourself; we’ll recognise and value you for who you are and celebrate and reward your contributions to the business. We’re committed to agile working, and we offer every colleague the opportunity to work in ways that suit you, your teams, and the task at hand.

At BDO, we’ll help you achieve your personal goals and career ambitions, and we have programmes, resources, and frameworks that provide clarity and structure around career development.

We’re in it together

Mutual support and respect is one of BDO’s core values and we’re proud of our distinctive, people-centred culture. From informal success conversations to formal mentoring and coaching, we’ll support you at every stage in your career, whatever your personal and professional needs.

Our agile working framework helps us stay connected, bringing teams together where and when it counts so they can share ideas and help one another. At BDO, you’ll always have access to the people and resources you need to do your best work.

We know that collaboration is the key to creating value for the companies we work with and satisfying experiences for our colleagues, so we’ve invested in state-of-the-art collaboration spaces in our offices. BDO’s people represent a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and we’ll encourage you to build your network, work alongside others, and share your skills and experiences. With a range of multidisciplinary events and dedicated resources, you’ll never stop learning at BDO.

We’re looking forward to the future

At BDO, we help entrepreneurial businesses to succeed, fuelling the UK economy.

Our success is powered by our people, which is why we’re always finding new ways to invest in you. Across the UK thousands of unique minds continue to come together to help companies we work with to achieve their ambitions

We’ve got a clear purpose, and we’re confident in our future, because we’re adapting and evolving to build on our strengths, ensuring we continue to find the right combination of global reach, integrity and expertise. We shape the future together with openness and clarity, because we believe in empowering people to think creatively about how we can do things better.

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