Lead Specialist - Proposal Specialist

We are seeking a talented individual to join our Sales Enablement team at Mercer. This role will be based in Mumbai. This is a hybrid role that has a requirement of working at least three days a week in the office.

(Bid Management - OCIO BDU)

Sales Enablement CoE supports various Mercer businesses worldwide primarily across Proposal & Bid Management, Client Research and Creative Services. As a part of the Proposal & Bid Management support, the CoE teams are responsible for end-to-end management of bids and winning more business for key Mercer businesses, which include UK Wealth & Health, Ireland Wealth and OCIO. The purpose of this role is to provide bid support and independently manage production of high-quality RFP responses and Pitch presentations for Mercers UK Health business.

The purpose of this role is to provide bid support and independently manage production of high-quality RFP responses and Pitch presentations for Mercers OCIO business.

We will count on you for:

Deliver bids end-to-end, drive the bid strategy and manage communication with all relevant stakeholders. The incumbent will be a collaborator, a great communicator who will work with sales leaders, consultants, and bid teams to aid revenue generation for the business. You will help define and shape our responses, resulting in impactful and high-quality content to communicate winning differentiators. You will also collaborate with business on strategic sales initiatives as well as working on operational improvements to benefit the bid management function.

The candidate is expected to demonstrate experience in managing bids independently, preferably for international stakeholders, delivering high value bids and demonstrating a strong understanding of the bid life cycle. The candidate is also expected to understand cultural sensitivities and business needs of the operating companies to deliver high quality bids. You will be required to:

• Build knowledge and understanding of: the Wealth business, service offerings and strategic priorities
• Develop competence and familiarity with the Mercer bid management methodology
• Ensure Project management of RFI/RFP submissions and other client/ prospect Pitch materials - developing and driving project timelines, coordinating with internal/ external stakeholders and facilitating meetings
• Review RFPs and other client material to gain complete understanding of client requirements
• Assemble a bid team with the relevant knowledge and skills to prepare a winning bid
• Manage virtual bid teams and inputs from a variety of stakeholders, ensuring they are fully briefed and understand the client bid requirements/ key deliverables and develop a win plan for each opportunity
• Liaise with key members of the project team to obtain the information required to compile the bid to develop unique, compelling client value propositions and proposal messaging as per inputs from sales and delivery teams against agreed timelines
• Assess and address the technical and commercial risks relating to the bids
• Work closely with the pursuit team to resolve open items during the proposal and pitch presentation development process
• Facilitate strategy discussion with the pursuit team to identify client-centered value propositions and supporting Mercer differentiators
• Gather and organize information and staff resources necessary to formulate winning executive summaries that speak to "why us", and not the competition
• Ensure that the response reflects the agreed Win Strategy with clear messaging and play an active role in developing key aspects of the response, including the Executive Summary
• Work closely with graphic designers to create optimal visuals and graphics in accordance with Mercer brand guidelines that support messaging, including cover designs and other graphics and illustrations
• Hold master drafts of proposals and presentations, incorporating edits and changes and sending out revised drafts to the pursuit team
• Perform final reviews of proposals and pitch presentation drafts along with the sales teams
• Assist with the development of templates, improved systems and processes for measuring bid success
• Carry out content management activities, including collecting and updating content for proposal database and extracting best practice content

What you need to have:

• Postgraduate/ Graduate in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics would be preferred. Other postgraduate degrees may also be considered.

• 5-9 years of experience in a pre-sales/ bid management environment
• Experience of working as a part of bid teams in a professional services environment.
• Very strong written and verbal communication required
• Proficient in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel
• Exceptional customer service focus
• Advanced business writing ability with outstanding grammar and proofreading/ editing skills

What makes you stand out?

• Experience on sales lifecycle and content/proposal management tools like Salesforce, QorusDocs, Seismic, SharePoint etc. would be preferred.
• Demonstrated understanding of financial markets is preferred
• Experience of directly dealing with senior internal stakeholders preferred
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• CFA level 1 or similar is preferred.