Why Bid Teams Are Your Most Underutilized Revenue Asset (And How AI Is Changing That)

Christina Thanks for being on The Stargazy Brief. I know people know you already, but give me some background. Why did you decide to start Altura? It’s been around for a while. What made you decide to start it, and where is it going right now?

Matthijs It’s a fun story how I got into bid management. Originally I was in hardware. I always liked creating products, but hardware didn’t work out, so I decided to go into software.

I didn’t really know what problem to solve, so I went into consulting.

Christina As one does.

Matthijs Exactly. I worked for a lot of different companies on digitization, automation, and data-driven processes.

Eventually, I worked for a big firm that got most of their revenue by winning RFPs and tenders. I’d never heard the term bid management before that, so I was intrigued. I talked to maybe 10 or 15 bid managers and found out how important this function is.

Sales teams are always out front. Bid teams are more in the background. Yet they can be responsible for almost all revenue, and they have to coordinate across departments to do their job. I thought, there’s a huge wealth of data they’re capturing, but the department is hidden. That dynamic was interesting, and the opportunity for automation and data-driven approaches was obvious.

Christina A lot of criticism proposal management software gets is that it’s built by people who don’t have the background. I actually think it’s good you weren’t a bid manager before. You came in and saw the bigger picture: bid teams are crucial for revenue in private and public sector, and there’s so much data behind it.

Bid teams can feel disempowered. They don’t realize how much data they have. You’re talking to so many teams, bid teams, and sales teams that need automation and aren’t using it. What automations should people be using that they aren’t using right now?

Matthijs AI unlocks a lot of automation, but bid management is really information management. You go into the RFP pack, your CRM, and the organization to structure the information you need. First you decide where to put effort. Yes, automation can make work more efficient, but that’s not the big shift.

Automation is a means to an end. What I’m passionate about is: how can bid managers become the function that surfaces the wealth of data hidden in bid work?

I talk to bid managers, bid writers, CFOs, commercial directors, and CEOs. Leadership sees bid teams as revenue-creating, but they don’t see the data asset.

With today’s tools you can automate tasks and surface information more easily. A lot of people work in SharePoint, and it’s hard to find information. It’s metadata-heavy, and it blocks you from finding and using the right information.

So act one is: can we surface the right information easily? That includes analyzing documents and databases. Second is SME collaboration. With SMEs you’re always asking, always taking, rarely giving something back.

If you can find information easily and collaborate by providing an initial answer and relevant context, collaboration gets easier.

And if you can go back to someone and say, “We did 10 bids this quarter and here are five insights that help you do your job,” that’s powerful. People aren’t doing that today.

Christina I get really excited about this. Bid and proposal teams have far more data than people realize. We’ve been so busy, RFP after RFP, it’s impossible to sit down and look at it.

Is there specific data bid and proposal leaders should bring to execs?

Matthijs Start with bid/no-bid. You’re looking at what’s being asked, what risks are in it, and how it matches your organization.

You need to train the muscle, but it’s also about consistently sharing information. I know someone building a startup who sends weekly updates to advisors: what’s going well, what he’s working on, challenges.

Bid managers often feel like they’re in a support role and don’t take the stage they deserve. But when you’re analyzing bids you see patterns. Maybe you’re no-bidding because you don’t have an ISO certification. Or projects are too big, so you partner with a competitor to go for bigger bids. That’s all in bid/no-bid data.

If you synthesize it and proactively share it weekly or monthly to a skip-level leader (commercial director, CFO), people start seeing bid management differently.

It’s not about “crazy insights.” It’s about training that muscle and building an internal audience.

Christina Proposal people, whether you manage a team or you’re a one-person function, you’re the only person who can interpret those insights. It’s your job to bring it to your revenue leader.

You talk to CEOs and CROs behind closed doors. The leaders who say, “I love my bid team,” what are those teams doing differently than the leaders who say, “I don’t know about my bid team, they’re a cost center”?

Matthijs One is likeability. Not just how you show up, but building an audience and having a story to tell. People underestimate it. You can be good at your job, but people also need to like you.

Another is consistency and predictability. Revenue leaders want consistent growth. Finance leaders want risk mitigation. When bid teams are seen as a cost center, leadership attention goes to sales, and bid becomes “just write it down.”

If you can show decisions clearly, like “We’re not going for this opportunity because we’d spend £50K on a proposal, and ROI isn’t there,” you help the revenue leader do their job.

So it’s likeability, consistency, and communicating why decisions are being made. Otherwise you’re stuck in the worst position: “I need to do this bid because sales wants to.” That’s a horrible place to be.

Christina Individual bid managers often report to non-bid leaders, like sales or sales ops. They don’t feel they can go above their manager to explain why this matters. Revenue leaders miss the information. What should they do to bridge the gap?

Matthijs Start with the other person’s priorities. They are not interested in you telling them bid management is important. They want to see why it matters to their role.

You do that by sharing insights consistently, without asking for recognition. You have a goldmine of information.

Take two hours next week. Review bid/no-bid, client feedback, and internal sales conversations. Synthesize it, use AI to help extract insights if needed. Then share it and say, “I’ll send these updates every month.” After four to six updates, they’ll see bid management differently.

Christina Make yourself visible in a helpful way. Is there specific data points revenue leaders want to see but aren’t seeing? Proposal people think of KPIs like shortlist rate or win rate, but I’m not sure leaders care. What should they bring up?

Matthijs In the end, they care about top-line growth. Also, not all revenue is equal. Some is risky or not retainable.

If there are lots of opportunities, growth might come from efficiency: doing more bids with the same headcount. That can connect to win rate and throughput.

If it’s a competitive field, then it’s more about choosing the right opportunities you can win, and that bring the right revenue.

Christina Should bid teams share insights with others besides revenue leaders? Product, finance?

Matthijs Yes. SMEs matter for winning. Connections help your job.

For recognition, it depends on what you want, but product managers care about market feedback. The most concentrated feedback happens when you submit proposals and win or lose.

Christina Proposal teams get thousands of customer questions. If you keep no-bidding for one reason, that’s worth bringing to product. If messaging keeps missing, that’s a marketing conversation. There’s data there people would appreciate.

Matthijs Agreed. The challenge is credibility. If I’m a marketer, will I trust your opinion? Better to share the data without saying “your messaging is off.” Say, “We’re seeing this pattern. How should we respond?” You supply insight, they apply expertise.

In your monthly updates, have a section for marketing: what resonates. And for product: gaps. Example: “Out of 10 bids, we no-bid eight because of the same five requirements.” Data, data, data.

Christina There are lots of admin tasks. Which can AI take over so proposal people can focus on strategy and data?

Matthijs Two main things.

First: structuring and retrieving information. Pulling from SharePoint, CRM, standard packs, and reconciling conflicting info across repositories. AI is good at this.

Second: enriching and filling. Answering questionnaires, filling forms, drafting first-pass content.

Where it’s often lacking is the idea that “AI proposal writing” wins by adding creative sauce. Good bid writers already do narrative and persuasion well. Use AI for structuring and enrichment: what’s the question behind the question, what promises you need to make, what proof points to add. Build the data table, then either let AI draft the story or polish it yourself.

Enrichment also improves SME collaboration: make the inputs easy to review and respond to.

Christina You mentioned agentic AI. Do you have a point of view that’s different from others on agents in proposals?

Matthijs We’ve shifted toward agents. Instead of launching different tools for different tasks, AI can call tools and chain steps.

Bid managers string together many tasks: search, input, admin work. Agentic AI can now perform more complex multi-step tasks. It’s improving fast, with better context understanding. That’s what makes humans special: social interaction and context. Agents mimic that capability.

Christina Two questions. One, what color are you painting your kitchen?

Matthijs Probably a beige with a yellow undertone.

Christina Not McDonald’s yellow.

Matthijs No, no.

Christina Second: a lot of proposal folks want AI workflows, but a lot of software doesn’t deliver. Some try tools like n8n or Lovable to build their own automations. What questions should they ask in demos to make sure they’re getting real AI workflows and agentic capability?

Matthijs Proof is proof. Give the vendor a document and have them show it working.

Also, clarify the workflows you want: initial analysis, questionnaire automation, complex proposals, SME collaboration. You can ask many questions, but you need to experience it.

The space is early and progressing rapidly. Contracts are often one to three years, so trust matters. Will the vendor keep up with innovation? And do a POC to test it.

Christina Demos are where it starts. Tie it to what problems you’re solving. SaaS is generic, so be specific: “We do a lot of questionnaires, we want autofill.” Some tools are great at that. If you want broader workflow automation, there are tools for that too. If you build in something like n8n, you may need a dedicated person. Sometimes it’s better to buy from a bid-focused vendor who has the workflows baked in.

I work with construction companies in the UK and US. Their needs are different. What should they look for? Where do they mess up?

Matthijs Construction has specific workflows from receipt to submission. Many big players have mapped processes. The tool must mimic those processes well.

You want collaboration interfaces for SMEs. Construction is complex, with contractor and subcontractor collaboration, drawings, and many dependencies. If you want a tool that helps your bid process, it needs to fit your workflows.

Christina We’ve talked about data helping bid teams become strategic leaders. Altura has seen patterns across teams. Despite geography and industry, what makes one team win more than another?

Matthijs They actively think about how to get better across people, process, data, and tools.

We publish the State of Bid Management report. Teams evaluate themselves on those pillars. Higher maturity teams progress faster because they keep improving.

Also, evaluate outcomes. A good team reviews wins. A better team reviews losses. The best teams evaluate before results, then compare to outcomes and bid/no-bid decisions. They ask: how do we improve? Don’t get comfortable. Keep getting better.

Christina That’s always been important, but buying behavior has changed too. One last question: what should the proposal industry stop doing that isn’t helping?

Matthijs This has been said before, but: stop going after bids you know you will not win, or that won’t bring the right business.

People keep doing it because they don’t have the audience or sway to convince others to trust their judgment. If you reposition yourself internally, build trust through updates and insights, people start saying, “You’re right. We shouldn’t go for this. What should we go for, and why?”

Christina Start a newsletter.

Matthijs Start a newsletter.

Christina I agree. This morning on a roundtable it was the biggest discussion point: the bid team has data showing you’ll lose, but a sales leader says “bid anyway.” It’s tough for bid, legal, finance, everyone. Their voice is louder.

The newsletter idea is useful. There are many ways to do it. If you take a few hours, people can reach out to me, and I’ll look at the data with them. You don’t need perfect storage or fancy analytics. If you’ve collected information, you can generate valuable insights.

We’re doing something with Altura in London, an in-person event about automations and how easy they are to set up. You don’t need to be an Altura customer. If you work in bids and proposals, RFPs, frameworks, you can join. That’s 24 March. Where else can people find you and learn more?

Matthijs I’m easy to reach on LinkedIn. I’m on there more than I should be. Message me. I love talking to bid managers. I’ve probably spoken to more bid managers than anyone. I’m happy to spar on these topics. And I’ll be there on the 24th.

Christina Do you have a blog too?

Matthijs Our main channel is LinkedIn. We have a blog, but everything on the website is also distributed via LinkedIn. Follow us, that’s where events are published. We do events almost every month, online and offline.

Christina I’ll put the URLs in the show notes. Go find Altura and join us in London. See you then. Thank you so much.

Matthijs Thanks.