Bid Director

at  The Ardonagh Group

ROLE CONTEXT

The Bid/RFP Director sits within the Business Development (BD) function. The BD function is responsible for generating organic growth to support Ardonagh Specialty’s overarching budget and growth goals. The BD function develops and manages projects designed to increase new business conversions and improve client retention rates. It does this by supporting the Ardonagh Specialty teams in London and globally, as well as by running independent initiatives to generate new business. The BD function also has additional responsibility to drive a sales culture within Ardonagh Specialty, setting out and implementing best practice for planning, analysis, prioritisation, qualification, prospecting/bidding, and pitching.

ROLE DESCRIPTION

The role leads a team responsible Bids, Tenders, RFPs, RFIs and other projects across all Ardonagh Specialty’s divisions and teams as part of a newly created Bid Team. The role essentially project manages bids from start to finish, across the Bid lifecycle, which includes planning with stakeholders, project management, bid writing, liaising with bid graphic designers and reporting. Building and maintaining Bid Libraries and contributing to team reporting on workflow systems is also key. The role will also work strategically with the BD Director and Global Commercial Director on projects to benchmark client retention rates, bid conversion rates, and bid qualification processes for implementation into the business. The role faces up to the business and must therefore always communicate exceptionally with stakeholders as well as building robust relationships.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

Organic Growth

• Build a Bid Team that supports the growth objectives of the Ardonagh Specialty business, specifically the Price Forbes and Price Forbes Re brands. The roles in this team may include Bid Managers, Bid Writers, Bid Operations, Bid Graphic Design.
• Manage a range Bids/Tenders/RFIs/RFPs across the Ardonagh Specialty business, including support the BD Director and Global Commercial Director as appropriate. This may include bid project planning, gathering content/info/data, populating templates, formatting, bid writing, proof-reading, and managing graphic design resources so projects are submitted on time, to the requirements set out by the client, and maximising Ardonagh’s chances of conversion. The ability to manage several projects simultaneously is key.
• Using your London Specialty insurance market experience, apply and educate the trading divisions on the optimal process for bid qualification, management of pipelines, bid project management and pitching to increase conversion rates.
• Promote best practice bid management and processes to the Ardonagh Specialty teams; educating them on the benefits, supporting them on embedding the process, and providing tools/templates to assist them. All of this supports the roll out of a professional sales culture.
• Manage projects to identify target accounts to Specialty; understand and map the likely bid cycle so we can plan for the management of these opportunities.
• Recording the outcomes of bids submitted so data can be analysed on hit rates, cut, and sliced by region/country/team/product etc.
• Develop mechanisms to gather client/customer feedback to factor into our post-bid review.
• Manage (and support the BD Director & Global Commercial Director) projects to benchmark and improve client retention rates; examining trading practices and overlaying client feedback from bids to drive plans to improve our service or product offering.
• Working collaboratively with other Specialty functions, such as Marketing, Legal, Operations, Communications, Compliance where appropriate; to gather data, intel, information, contacts that will enable the more efficient production of bids and to contribute to the Bid Library.
• Working collaboratively with other parts of Group, including in the UK and internationally, to understand their product and service offering and to develop, launch, and manage joint bid management projects where appropriate.

Inorganic Growth

• Support the BD Director & Global Commercial Director with the onboarding of newly acquired assets into the Group by introducing Specialty capabilities, building awareness of Specialty’s product and service offering, showcasing our best practice approach to bid management, and providing information and resources to foster alignment of new business priorities where appropriate.

Operational Excellence

• Manage the team effectively to ensure bids and associated projects are delivered in an efficient and timely fashion. Where budgets are involved, ensure budgets are managed and kept in line.
• Support the development of efficient and value-added Bid management processes, using appropriate company systems, to support growth strategies and increase retention rates.
• Support the development of bid pipelines and workflow management processes for optimal management of projects, and stakeholder updates to Ardonagh Specialty teams. Input based on best practice and experience at other broking houses.
• Where possible, use of progressive AI technologies to optimise team efficiency and output.
• Develop understanding of how to use Edge/Power BI data and analytics strategically to support planning and tracking of performance for reporting.
• Work proactively with the Digital and Data teams to further the Edge/Power BI reporting suite to support the Bid Team, and wider BD function.
• Develop understanding of other company systems, such as Monday.com, SharePoint etc to support on project management and workflow.
• Flagging potential risks, conflicts of interest, or areas for improvement with team management so these can be suitably tracked, managed, or escalated.

Personal/Professional Development

• Proactive participation in the annual objectives setting/appraisal process, and the mid-year review process for you as an individual.
• Support the BD Director and Global Commercial Director to role out the above process to your direct reports to support their professional development.
• Proactive participation in the Skills & Behaviours framework, to identify ongoing areas for professional development.
• Commitment to areas for professional development during the year, such as attending training, undertaking courses, taking on new projects.
• Completion on time of mandatory training, and recording of CPD.