APMP's benchmark: useful insights

Although APMP's recent benchmarking report covered the views of the association's US members, it makes for fascinating reading for everyone in the bid and proposal profession worldwide. It's taken me a few weeks to wade through all 110 pages, but I thought I'd share my personal perspectives on some of the findings that I found most interesting.

Summary: few surprises, some useful reminders, and much that's consistent with the data we've reported from Strategic Proposals' own Proposal Benchmarker tool. And it's great to see that report draws a positive conclusion - that "the mood within the proposal management industry is strong".

So, here are my top ten observations:

1. Only 66% of organisations have "a documented proposal process”. So one in three don't; that’s concerning. More worrying: only "about one-in-four APMP members say that the process that their organisation currently follows is working 'very well'".
2. 61% of larger organisations have clear "gate reviews" for qualification. The others, presumably, work on the principle that if it moves, we might catch it...
3. Do you win more than you lose? That's a question I ask at the start of many of our courses. In this survey, it's only true for 38%. That’s a lot of people whose jobs are, overall, more negative than positive.
4. I've argued for a while that competitive intelligence (CI) is hugely overlooked by bid organisations. So it's fascinating to see that "Competitor SWOT analysis" comes bottom of the table when respondents were asked to say which of 18 activities form part of their business development process. Perhaps even more worrying: only 14% viewed it as "Extremely important". I’ve built some useful tools in this area in the past couple of years (drawing on expertise from the CI professionals at SCIP, even if they don't tend to focus much on bidding). I really do see this as the next frontier for many advanced proposal centres looking to improve still further.
5. The only process viewed as less important than CI? Storyboarding. That’s despite this being one of the five top "behaviours and processes that predict high win rates". Traditionally, storyboarding's been taught as a very formal technique: perhaps that's why people are put off. Our view of good content design is that it's a hugely creative, flexible, agile process that enables teams to develop content sooner, faster and better.
6. Although we'd view it as a critical tool for an efficient, effective proposal organisation, only 58% of proposal teams have access to a "content document library". And even among those who use such a library "weekly or more", 33% report that it's "not actively managed". That's a lot of organisations using proposal automation technology to write poor proposals faster...
7. "The share of APMP members who say that proposal management staff lead nearly all bids" is "about six-in-ten at organisations with less than 2,500 employees", falling to 40% in larger companies. Enabling sales or business colleagues to lead bids professionally when the bid professionals aren’t involved is therefore a key challenge for many organisations – and one that I personally think is often not accorded enough attention. (Pre-written content links in here, of course, as well as training, templates and tools).
8. Do you work 50 hours or more? One in seven APMP members in the US does. Life/work balance, folks... We all go beyond the call of duty at times. But if the only way to get the job done is to consistently overwork, you need to get your organisation to change - or change organisation.
9. Years ago, Strategic Proposals' founder BJ Lownie coined the oh-so-important phrase: "All those involved in proposal development must be trained in the necessary skills." 52% think training isn't a priority in the minds of their leadership. Even among these APMP members, 27% "haven't received training in their current position". Of those who have, 40% were "dissatisfied" with it. (Perhaps they should have chosen Strategic Proposals for their training!!!)
10. 42% of APMP members don't see APMP certification as a priority. As APMP's top-ranked Approved Training Organisation worldwide, I find that depressing. There's more for the association to do here in terms of articulating the benefits - and ensuring that content remains relevant and contemporary, especially at Foundation Level.

There's lots more that's fascinating in the report, but I'll stop there - urging you to get your organisation to buy a copy from APMP's store! I need to leave them some secrets to sell! And, trust me, there's plenty more in there that are really powerful. If you're not reading this and acting on it, your competitors might be!

 As Rick Harris, chief executive of APMP, commented to me:

"I see the research as an essential tool to help our members see how their operations compare to their competitors and the industry as a whole. If your team is serious about bids and proposals, the APMP Benchmark Report will be on your desk and referenced regularly; the data in this report is a goldmine of cost-saving and business boosting information” 

If I'm critiquing the report fully and honestly, I confess to a few slight reservations. The report seems to conflate and confuse "business development", "bids", "proposal writing" and "proposal management". Some tables don't quite make sense. And, of course, the respondents were all APMP members, somewhat skewing the results towards organisations that tend to “get it” when it comes to proposals – rather than the very many out there who don’t. But overall this is an important and useful document.

It'll be interesting to compare these US results to their UK data in due course. My experience and our evidence suggests that the UK profession has overtaken our American colleagues over the past two decades. That the APMP UK chapter recently passed 2,000 members, when there are 4,029 across the whole of the States, would seem to support that. We'll see the findings in due course, and I’ll share my thoughts when the report comes out.

Meanwhile, all credit to the association for undertaking the research. The more evidence we have as a profession of the importance of good bid and proposal management practice, the better. And if you want a quick test of your own proposal capabilities, the 100 or so questions in own free online benchmarking tool might be worth an hour of your time alongside these APMP initiatives.

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