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Graham Ablett, CPP APMP Fellow (Class of 2022)

Director
Strategic Proposals

Bio

Graham is a Director at Strategic Proposals - part of an award-winning team helping sales, marketing, and proposal teams to win bids.

He has over 20 years of bidding experience, helping his clients to win more and win more easily by delivering a broad range of proposal, bid, pitch, and presentation services, including:

• Supporting proactive sales campaigns
• Creating compelling RFP and Tender responses
• Developing engaging bid presentations
• Training and coaching bid, proposal, marketing, sales and technical teams
• Benchmarking proposal capability and uncovering opportunities to improve
• Designing efficient and effective proposal teams
• Building winning proposal processes
• Creating proposal content libraries
• Developing document templates and efficiency tools

He also holds PPM. APMP, is an APMP Approved Trainer and is a Fellow of the Institute of Sales Management - FISM.

At home, he is married to his amazing wife, Hilary, and they have three incredible children. They live in London. Graham plays tennis and touch rugby and enjoys coaching at Twickenham Rugby Football Club.

What does being an APMP Fellow mean to you?

Its the highest level of accolade in our world, so it makes me feel immensely proud.

What's your best memory from attending an APMP event?

Some of the headline speakers at UKAPMP have been very memorable and inspirational: McCoy, Campbell, Grainger, et al. The bid-related presentations I've seen that have taught me, entertained me, and inspired me also stick out. Among the best are ones delivered by my supremely knowledgeable and experienced colleagues: Jon Williams and BJ Lownie, and very recently Richard Buijs and Janneke Orriens, who were just stunning at BPC Europe 2023. But I think the best memory, perhaps slightly selfishly, was presenting with Jon Williams at UK APMP, where we presented on best practices using a Fifty Shades of Grey parody - 50 Shades of Great. I had such a good time co-delivering that!

What advice do you have for a proposal professional entering our field?

1. Our profession is constantly evolving, so it's important to stay up-to-date on the latest thinking. Go to APMP events but also ones in related sales, marketing, and perhaps project management disciplines.
2. Build a network: Bidding can be lonely, so build a network in your organization and outside. APMP events are a great way to do this, as well as the numerous online forums.
3. Speak up: Often engaging with senior folks, you must be confident in your experience and knowledge of best practice. Additionally, don't be afraid to ask for advice or guidance from more experienced professionals.
4. Always be learning and developing your skills: Proposal professionals need a wide range of skills, from project management and writing to research and analysis. Identify areas where you need to improve and seek opportunities to develop those skills. Support your development with APMP certification and use tools like My Proposal Coach to help.
5. Be flexible, and be ready for long hours, but don't let it consume you. The proposal profession can be unpredictable, with tight deadlines, last-minute changes, and unexpected challenges. It's important to be flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances while maintaining a focus on delivering high-quality work. However, you need to learn to respect your own time, health, and well-being... so give yourself recovery time.

Anything else you would like to share?

Winning can feel like everything, but you have to have fun and enjoy working with colleagues if you want to get the most out of bidding.