A Bidding Manager Who Doesn't Aspire to Be an Expert Is Not a Good Presales Engineer

A Tendering Manager Who Doesn't Want to Be an Expert
Is Not a Good Presales Engineer

A Bid Evaluation Expert's Perspective · Three Levels of Presales Excellence

Although I spent my earlier years primarily in project management and solutions roles, it was only in the past year or so—after moving into a tendering manager position—that I found the opportunity to think about this question from a different angle. What follows is my reflection on this topic based on that experience.

There's a memorable line from the Chinese film The Continent: "We've heard countless truths, yet still can't live a good life." That sentiment fits presales engineers surprisingly well.

When an opportunity first emerges, we charge in at full speed. After multiple rounds of visits and discussions, requirements gathering, solution design, pricing, demos, and POCs—after surviving round after round of competition—we finally reach the tendering stage. Until the results are publicly announced, we can't relax for a moment. Looking back on the whole process: anxiety, sleepless nights, endless cycles repeating year after year.

This is the typical journey of landing a project—from start to finish, from zero to one. We in this industry have always done it this way. But that's exactly where the problem lies: we do it this way this year, next year—but what about the year after? Three to five years from now? Ten years from now? Nobody seems to know.

The process itself isn't the problem. But can we think about it from a different angle? Broadly speaking, three key roles are involved: the bid evaluation expert, the tendering manager, and the presales engineer. The latter two are our daily reality. The first comes from a third party. While winning a deal involves other roles and factors too, that first role is critical—and entirely outside our control.

So let's work backward from the outcome and examine how each role should drive the key actions at each stage. That's what this article will explore through the lens of these three roles.

1. The Bid Evaluation Expert

The final link in the chain—and the most important one

As the last and most critical link in the chain, everything you've prepared leads to one thing: the bid document presented to the experts. It's like the moment of truth—the "ugly bride" finally meets the in-laws. To a relatively objective and impartial third party, whether the bride is beautiful or not comes down to that single document. It's the only impression they have.