Blog - APMP Greater Midwest Chapter

Japan Chapter: Improving Win Rates by 15%

In advance of our Symposium 2025, we reached out to APMP chapters from around the world to hear about winning the business, bid processes and more. Here is what our friends in the Japan Chapter had to share! I am a member of the Creative Proposal Center (CPC), an...

RFP Success: Leveraging Innovation to Solve Problems

By Michaela Wischmeier Compliance is more than an administrative hurdle—it’s a strategic imperative. While ensuring that your proposal meets every requirement is essential, it’s only the foundation of a winning submission. The next step is just as crucial, elevating...

Managing Large, Complex Pursuits

By Mercedez L. Thompson, MA, CP APMP, Shipley BDC Recently, I’ve managed some of the most complex pursuits I’ve come across in more than 13 years of professional marketing services. In some ways, I’d thought I’d seen everything, but I suppose that’s the beauty of our...

Turning the Page: How a Book Club Sparked Connection in a Hybrid Workplace

By Mercedez L. Thompson, MA, CP APMP, Shipley BDC It was 2:11 on a Tuesday afternoon when my colleague pinged me on Teams: Sorry, but I think we are canceling book club this month. Only four of us accepted and now Courtney has a client conflict. I replied moments...

The Power of the Five-Minute Break: Enhancing Productivity and Well-being

By Becky Petty, CP APMP In today's fast-paced professional environment, back-to-back meetings have become the norm. As proposal professionals, we often find ourselves jumping from one meeting to the next without a moment to catch our breath. However, there's a simple...

More than a Mentor

By Amy Ryan and Heidi Romero, CP APMP We had never met each other... but we have been in the GMC for almost three years together and have attended some of the same BPC and Symposium gatherings. We both have a hunger for knowledge and consider ourselves lifelong...

Letter from the President (Alexa Ramsey: August 2024)

GMC members, Summertime in Minnesota is always treasured. Maybe it’s because we’ve successfully escaped months of gray skies and feet of snow... Or maybe it’s because we can finally dip our toes back into the lake water. Either way, it’s a busy time of year that...

Is the Mentorship Program Worth It?

The Mentorship Program is one of GMC's key chapter offerings. Each year, we pair volunteer mentors with a mentee (or two!) to share wisdom, guidance and advice as new professionals navigate the proposal profession. We check in with one of our mentorship groups to ask...

Win Themes with a Capital L

Mercedez discussing winning vs. losing themes. Win themes are essential to translate your positioning and capture planning into your proposal document and to tell a compelling story about why you should win the work. However, it is crucial to use win themes in a manner that actually contributes to your success.