What Happens If You Do Not Pass?

Receiving Practitioner-level certification boosted my confidence and validated my experiences and professional growth in the bid and proposal industry. The badge is something that I see each day, and it motivates and encourages me to keep networking, learning, and elevating others in our combined professional development goals.

For the first time since I started my career, I felt like I was not alone in my struggles to meet deadlines, wrangle SMEs, and answer impossible questions. I’m grateful to have this community to share our wisdom and experiences.

APMP certification is the gold standard for the industry. For me, accreditation is formal recognition of my commitment to the profession, as well as an avenue for improving my performance and bid outcomes by training in APMP principles.

My experience, combined with the APMP Body of Knowledge, helped me obtain both the APMP Foundation exam and the Practitioners exam within a week.

Being a part of APMP, I get access to the knowledge and experience of great leaders and mentors from the community. I have learned a great deal from the webinars and conferences I attended on diverse topics from career progression in Proposal Management, trends (such as automation) in PreSales to achieving work-life balance, and handling burn-outs – all real-life experiences.

The time was a good investment, and I expect to reap benefits now and in the future!

The Executive Summary is the key element of each proposal, literally the most important part of the response next to the price – this is why my focus was on this micro certification. Understanding the principles of Deal-Strategy, Win-Strategy, Competitor-Analysis, Ghosting, Persuasive Writing, Features/Benefits/Discriminators, and many more is essential and beneficial for so much more than just the Executive Summary.

I never want to be complacent in my career, so it has been beneficial to have this group of peers who are going through similar trials and tribulations in the proposal world on a day-to-day basis.

With this micro-certification and digital badge, I signal to my bid team and stakeholders that I am familiar with this topic. They can use me as their contact and "sparring partner," independent of RFPs.

Certification has enhanced my worth as a bid professional. It has validated the skills and experience I have and is proof of my bid management qualities and capabilities. It has given me a springboard to develop my career and aim for Professional certification.