Does your company want to win more business through bids and tenders? If so, James Noel Smith is your guy.

James, the 176th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is an expert in helping companies bid for contracts worth tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars.

James’s role as a bid manager begins with assessing the likelihood of his client winning the contract – and, therefore, if it’s worth submitting a bid. Then, if the client decides to proceed, James and his team create a detailed and persuasive bid.

A bid is partly a technical document (the company has to prove it can meet all the criteria) and partly a marketing document (it has to highlight its value).

James has turned his years of experience into valuable educational resources. He’s published a book, called Managing Bids, Tenders and Proposals, and created a training program, called the Bid.Win.Deliver Framework. 

Years ago, when James was a rebellious student attending university in his native England, he volunteered for a couple of pirate radio stations. Now, as a respectable Sydneysider, James is the treasurer and a non-executive director of community station FBi Radio.