Building a career in bids and proposals is a funny mix of chaos, challenge, intrigue, pride and growth. In this episode, I’m joined by Tania Field, Principal Pursuit Strategist and Submission Manager from our Sydney office, and also the Chair of the APMP ANZ Chapter, to shine a light on what proposal management professionals actually do, and why the work is far more skilled than most organisations realise. If you work in tendering, bid management, submissions, or proposals, you’ll recognise the pace, the pressure, and the constant need to keep people aligned while the deadline keeps marching.

Tania shares how she fell into the profession through a secondment into a proposal coordination role on a major joint venture for Central Place Sydney, an unsolicited proposal worth around $3 billion. We talk about why so many people “accidentally” end up in proposal management and what changes when you decide to build an intentional career path in bids, including training, certification, and finding the part of the craft you want to be known for.

We also take a look at the real proposal manager skillset, from stakeholder management and project management to communication, problem solving and empathy in high-pressure bid environments. Tania explains why not everyone wants to be a bid strategist, and why the profession needs people with different strengths from across the end-to-end process. If you’re leading tenders or managing submissions, this is the kind of conversation that helps you understand where your “superpower” fits.

Finally, we get into what’s emerging across the profession right now, including AI in bids and proposals, the future of work and what technology might free proposal teams up to do next. We also talk about ambiguity, flexibility and why command-and-control leadership can become a bottleneck in a bid room. If you’ve ever felt the stress of major submissions, hybrid bid teams, or the quiet gap between tenders, you’ll take something practical from this one.

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Introduction

00:38 Falling Into Proposals

01:09 Big Bid Origin Story

03:23 Core Skillset

04:30 Strategy Isn’t Everything

06:14 Soft Skills That Matter

08:20 Command Control vs Flex

10:19 Conference Future Themes

14:54 Pride and Advocacy

16:10 Surprises and Stress

Connect with Tania

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tania-field/

Website:

Connect with Deb at Tender Plus

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

Building an intentional career in tendering and bid management is rarely something people plan. Most submission professionals fall into it, then realise they’ve built a whole identity around deadlines, stakeholder management, and staying calm while everything shifts. In this episode of Chasing the Win, I’m joined by Veronica Simeoni, a strategic pursuits and submissions leader with close to three decades across water, transport, civil infrastructure and building.

We talk about what actually keeps people in this profession for the long haul and Veronica keeps coming back to curiosity. Not as a nice trait, but as a practical advantage in tendering, because the subject matter changes constantly and the best bid teams keep learning. If you work in infrastructure bids, you’ll recognise that feeling of seeing a project come out of the ground and knowing you helped win it.

We also get into what separates competent bid writing from exceptional submissions management. Veronica is blunt about the real skill being maturity with people, especially when you’re coordinating SMEs, managing review gates and adapting without drama when the goalposts move. We cover bid planning, capture management, Bronze Silver Gold reviews, and why tendering needs to be treated like a project with milestones and a critical path, not an emergency.

Finally, we talk about culture, leadership, and the future of bids. From setting expectations early on major pursuits to choosing the right bid manager, and even the basics of creating a functional bid environment that respects the team. We also unpack AI in tendering, including why AI tools are powerful for information retrieval and content libraries, but still need human judgement, empathy, and value proposition thinking to win work.

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Introduction

04:03 Skills of Great Tenderers

06:40 Calm in the Chaos

08:01 MBA Research Findings

09:42 Making Tendering a Career

11:30 Treat Bids Like Projects

13:34 Collaboration and Leadership

15:51 Respect the Bid Team

18:02 AI in Bid Management

21:56 Advice for Newcomers

Connect with Veronica

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-simeoni-bb466560/

Connect with Deb at Tender Plus

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

Pre-contracts strategy is the part of tendering most teams say they do, but few teams actually run properly. It’s the thinking and shaping that happens before the bid machine kicks in, when you still have choices, influence, and time to reduce risk. In this episode, I’m joined by Richard Cowley, Fulton Hogan’s 30-year tendering veteran, to talk about what strong pre-contracts strategy looks like in the real world, what gets missed when teams leave it too late, and why this stage is often the difference between a bid that reads well and a bid that wins.

Richard leads the pre-contracts team for Fulton Hogan’s northern region across Queensland, the Northern Territory and WA, and he’s spent nearly three decades in and around tendering across client, consulting and contractor roles. He’s blunt about the shift in the market, especially how probity has changed early engagement in the public sector, and why that makes it harder to get the insight you need to build a real strategy. If you’re chasing bids without that context, you can still burn the time and money, but you’re doing it with one hand tied behind your back.

We also get into the disconnect between clients and contractors, and how often both sides underestimate what the other is dealing with. Richard shares examples that explain why “small” changes can ripple through pricing, risk and approvals, and why project realities can be shaped by politics, governance and pressures you’ll never see from the outside. The takeaway is simple: if we want better outcomes, we need to get better at communicating the work, not just doing it.

From there we talk partnering and delivery, because pre-contract decisions don’t stop at submission. Richard breaks down why partner selection is make-or-break on large pursuits, why culture and behaviours matter more than a shiny capability list, and why your delivery performance can undo even the best tender strategy. We finish on the human side too: kindness, context, and the personal traits that actually hold up over the long game of tendering.

CHAPTER MARKERS (AUDIO VERSION)

00:00 Pre-Contracts Strategy Intro

02:33 Win Tenders With Pre-Contracts

02:58 Probity Rules Client Engagement

04:47 Tender Cost Client Disconnect

07:09 Competitive Edge In Tendering

07:58 Lessons Learned Bid Culture

10:27 Trust In Bid Teams

12:37 Contracts Vs Delivery Behaviours

15:15 Tender Pipeline Productivity

18:20 Deadline Risk In Major Tenders

20:17 Delivery Performance Wins Work

22:27 Align Tender And Operations

25:28 Joint Venture Partner Selection

31:19 Worthy Rivals Tender Mindset

32:33 Early Pipeline For Tenders

37:12 Bid No Bid Strategy

39:51 Stakeholder Alignment Pre-Contracts

Connect with Richard

Linkedin: au.linkedin.com/in/richardcowleyaustralia

Website: https://www.fultonhogan.com/

Connect with Deb at Tender Plus

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

If your bronze review feels thin, your silver feels rushed and your gold feels like a panic, it might not be your team. It might be the way you’re timing your bronze, silver, gold reviews.

In this episode, we’re breaking down the “bronze, silver, gold” tender review framework and what each stage is actually for. Bronze is structure and compliance. Silver is where the solution becomes readable and the features become clear. Gold is where you sharpen the story and make the benefits obvious.

We’ll walk through how to apply the framework across three common tender timeframes: 16 to 18 week bids, nine week tenders and the fast two to six week bids. You’ll hear why bronze should be pushed later on long bids and why on short bids the submission manager often needs to do bronze themselves by blueprinting the document and setting compliance expectations.

If you want a tender review process that creates clarity instead of chaos, this is the mindset shift. Match the review checkpoints to the time you actually have and you give your team a real chance of ending up on the podium.

CHAPTER MARKERS (AUDIO VERSION)

00:00 Introduction

01:26 Long Bid Bronze Timing

02:52 Silver Review Expectations

03:41 Gold Review Benefits

04:58 Nine Week Bid Setup

05:57 Two to Six Week Bids

07:27 Key Takeaways Wrap Up

07:51 Final Podium Mindset

LINKS:

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

Two teams can buy the same AI tool and get totally different results. One gets faster and sharper. The other ends up with more noise, more rework, and generic words that do not sound like them. When I spoke with April Shields, Head of Submissions at Built, she made it clear why. AI adoption in bid teams is not a software problem. It is a leadership and governance problem.

April shares how she was told to “go and get AI” and why she refused to start with features. She started with the real problem: how do you equip a flat-out team to deliver fewer bids that are far more complex and far higher impact? That shift changes everything, including what “success” even looks like.

We talk about what makes AI genuinely useful in a bid environment, including tools that link safely to your libraries so you can find and pull together relevant content fast. But the bigger win is what you do with the time you get back: more judgement, more time with SMEs, and better strategic decisions.

And we get blunt about quality and risk. Garbage in, garbage out still applies, and governance is what stops AI turning into sludge. April also raises the long-term question the industry cannot dodge: if AI takes the junior work, how do we train the next generation of bid leaders?

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Meet April Shields and Built

01:41 Why AI adoption varies in bid teams

02:44 Define the real AI problem to solve

04:33 The content search time sink

05:14 Team trial and adoption buy in

07:08 Garbage in garbage out and libraries

08:50 Judgement over automation in bids

10:20 AI and better SME collaboration

13:32 AI governance and rules of use

14:42 Tone of voice and quality control

15:58 Asking better why questions

16:25 Getting senior stakeholder buy in

16:37 Training junior bid writers with AI

18:33 Clarity under bid pressure

19:51 Better SME conversations and strategy

22:01 From blank page to first draft

23:34 Predictable leadership cuts rework

25:03 Culture and behaviours before tools

27:42 Governing AI long term in tendering

29:10 The human edge in competitive bids

30:05 Closing thoughts and thanks

April Shields - https://au.linkedin.com/in/april-shields-9aa22434

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

In the tendering world, time is our most precious resource. Yet, there is a pervasive culture that treats sleeplessness, late-night bid submissions, and running on pure caffeine as a status symbol. In this episode, Deborah challenges a long-standing industry norm and explains why treating long hours in tendering like a badge of honour is not a sign of commitment; it is a major operational red flag.

Stretching your bid team into 18-hour days does not produce better work. In high-stakes tender submissions, extreme fatigue triggers a law of diminishing returns, resulting in a drop in quality that can easily cost you the win.

Chronic overwork is a diagnostic symptom of a deeper problem. Persistent late nights point directly to structural issues within a business: internal bottlenecks, poor resource management, onerous governance, or a failure to respect the bidding process. If a company wouldn't run its core operations in a constant state of emergency, it shouldn't allow its tender management and proposal teams to operate that way either.

This is a vital conversation for anyone involved in competitive bidding, whether you are a bid manager, tender coordinator, proposal writer, graphic designer, or executive stakeholder. Winning work requires strategic clarity, sharp decision-making, and care. None of which can be delivered by an exhausted mind. It’s time to stop rewarding the martyrdom of the all-nighter, respect the craft, and build a framework that allows your team to win well-rested.

CHAPTER MARKERS

0:00 - The "Long Hours as a Badge of Honour" Club

0:50 - Sleeping Under Desks: A True PPP Tender Story

1:25 - Why Burnout Culture is Ruining the Tendering Industry

1:52 - The Law of Diminishing Returns in Bid Management

2:25 - How Exhaustion Lowers Your Tender Submission Quality

2:48 - Why Long Hours in Tendering Are an Operational Red Flag

3:27 - Diagnosing Bottlenecks, Poor Resourcing, and Broken Governance

3:53 - Choosing Strategy Over Exhaustion: How to Win Rested

LINKS:

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

In this episode of Chasing the Win, Deborah from Tender Plus speaks with Carla Garvie, Commercial Director (Australia and New Zealand) at Alstom, about what actually creates an edge in high-stakes bids. If you work in tendering, major projects, government procurement, or competitive bids, this is a practical look at how winning teams think and lead when the pressure is on.

We discuss why major tenders are won or lost early, often before the submission is even drafted. Carla shares what preparation really means in bid management, including getting the right people in the room, creating role clarity, and aligning the team on what “good” looks like. If you are a bid manager, tender manager, proposal manager, or part of a pursuit team, you will recognise how quickly assumptions and unclear roles can derail a tender response.

Carla also explains why communication is a system. We talk about the discipline of capturing information, running regular reviews, and keeping submission work, governance, and interactives aligned. Interactives are now a major part of many tender evaluations, and the teams need to use them to test solutions and build trust and collaboration.

Finally, we take a look at what “data-driven tendering” actually looks like in major bids. From pricing risk and departures, to modelling lifecycle cost, reliability and availability, data analytics shifts a tender from intuition to evidence. If you want to improve your approach to tendering this conversation is one to listen to.

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Introduction to major tenders and tendering strategy

01:21 Carla Garvie career journey in rail and mobility

02:08 Early tender strategy and role clarity

04:23 Left shifting and pre tender preparation

05:30 Aligning submission, governance and interactives

07:06 Strategy before win themes

09:13 Data driven bidding and tender analytics

12:41 Leading diverse bid teams

14:50 Keeping the bid on strategy

18:39 Transport sector tender challenges

21:34 Winning tender interactives

23:33 Leadership under pressure in major tenders

24:49 Mentoring and wrap up

LINKS:

Carla Garvie LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/carla-garvie-12896533/

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

In the tendering world, words matter. Not just the “world class” and “synergies” fluff that makes a bid sound like a brochure, but the small words that quietly shape how a team shows up under pressure. In this video, Deb takes a look at one word that is sabotaging confidence in tendering and bid teams everywhere: “just”.

You’ll hear why “I’m just the bid writer”, “I’m just the coordinator”, or “I’m just the graphic designer” is not humility, it’s self-erasure. In high-stakes tender submissions, every role is critical to winning work. Bid writing, tender coordination, bid administration and proposal design are not support acts. They are core to creating clarity, building a persuasive narrative, and helping evaluators feel safe choosing you.

This is a practical mindset shift for anyone working in bids and tenders, whether you’re a bid manager, proposal writer, tender coordinator, graphic designer, subject matter expert, or part of a pursuit team chasing competitive work. If you want to improve tendering confidence, strengthen collaboration, and lift the standard of your tender responses, start with the language you use about yourself.

Tendering is a team sport and winning tenders is never about one person. It’s about a team that respects the craft, respects the process, and respects each other. Take a moment and think about the words that you use to describe yourself. Are they a true representation of your worth, or keeping you feeling small?

LINKS:

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

Tendering is not won by the loudest capability statement. It is won by the team that truly understands the client. In this episode, Deb from Tender Plus shares a client-centric approach to tendering and bid writing that goes beyond the RFT documents, into the real pressures, risks and decision-making dynamics that shape what clients choose and why.

Joined by Karina Ames, Business Development Specialist and Manager at Tender Plus, we take a look at what separates generic tender submissions from proposals that feel like they were written for one client, and one client only. If you want to improve your tender strategy, strengthen your win themes, and write more persuasive tender responses, this conversation will help you focus on the one thing that consistently moves the needle: putting the client first, properly.

We talk about why client centricity in tendering is not a buzzword; it is empathy in action. That means asking better questions, having real conversations, and learning what matters to the client beyond the formal schedules. If you are working on tenders, proposals, government tenders, or competitive bids, you will hear practical ways to gather the insights that help you tailor a solution that is valuable, not just compliant.

We also cover what it takes to influence before the tender drops, how to build trust early, and why incumbents do not win by default. Tendering is never just what is written down. There are biases, internal politics and risk concerns under the surface, and winning teams know how to read them and respond with clarity, humility and confidence. If you want to win more tenders by improving client relationships and writing bids that feel safe to choose, you are in the right place.

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 Client-Centric Tendering Mindset

03:03 Tendering and Bid Writing as an Exercise in Empathy

04:13 Understanding the Client Ecosystem and Decision Drivers

06:54 Collaborative Contracting and Relationship-Based Tendering

07:34 Why You Should Talk to the Client Before the Tender

08:37 Asking Better Client Questions to Win More Tenders

11:54 Tender Clarifications, Probity and Staying Compliant

13:52 Influencing Early: Shaping the Tender Before It Drops

15:05 Incumbent Tender Risk: Avoiding Arrogance and Showing Humility

18:04 The Hidden Iceberg: Unwritten Factors That Decide Tender Outcomes

19:20 Final Takeaways on Client Centricity and Winning Tenders

LINKS:

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/

Tendering was not the path I expected to take, but it became the work that showed me how meaningful impact can happen in very real and practical ways. What began as a dream of diplomacy eventually led me into the world of aid, and then into tendering, where I discovered a craft that is strategic, collaborative and deeply purposeful.

My first tender, supporting a judicial reform program in Indonesia, opened my eyes to a completely different kind of contribution. It showed me that winning work is not just about process or paperwork. It is about bringing together ideas, people and strategy to create something thoughtful, persuasive and worth choosing.

Over time, that journey became Tender Plus. From a one-person business to a team working across Perth, Sydney and Brisbane, I have seen just how much skill, care and resilience this work demands. Tendering is often misunderstood, but it plays a vital role in shaping infrastructure, services and communities, and the people behind it deserve far more recognition than they often receive.

This story is really about why tendering matters. It matters because it creates opportunity, supports recovery, and helps good work move forward. And it matters because behind every submission are people doing their best to make a genuine difference. That is the story I want to keep sharing.

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 From Diplomat Dreams to Tendering

01:53 How I Found My Way into Aid Work

02:06 My First Tender Win and What It Taught Me

03:52 Balancing Motherhood and Career Ambition

04:18 How I Built Tender Plus

05:06 Working on Major Australian Projects

05:33 Why Kindness Matters in Tendering

06:01 Leading a Business Through COVID

06:26 My Blood Cancer Diagnosis and Recovery

07:38 Why I Started This Podcast

08:23 Final Thoughts and Invitation to Listen

LINKS:

Web: https://www.tenderplusconsulting.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tender-plus/