What are the responsibilities and job description for the Bid Specialist, Strategic Response Team position at FURNITURE MARKETING GROUP INC?
Job Summary
The Bid Specialist, Strategic Response Team assists the sales department through the RFP process. This role is responsible for managing vendor partnerships, leading pricing strategy, and producing accurate, competitive final proposals. The Bid Specialist oversees project workflow, ensures complete and compliant submissions, and serves as the primary point of leadership for internal customers (Sales, Design, Project Management). This position directs the entire bid process to ensure RFP requirements are fully satisfied.
Responsibilities and Duties
RFP Submission
• Leads all RFP strategy calls.
• Responsible for leading pricing strategy and managing all submissions to marketing and/or sales.
Departmental Leadership
• Guides Sales and Designers in product research and technical order information.
• Directs coordination of all customer projects and work orders, ensuring effective implementation of orders and service requests.
• Oversees all revisions to orders throughout the budgeting process.
• Manages workflow across internal departments to maintain successful project flow between Designers, Project Managers, Project Coordinators, Installation Crews, etc.
Sales Order Management
• Leads vendor pricing negotiations for both service and product.
• Leads preliminary budgeting and quoting for clients.
• Ensures a responsible close of sale by confirming signed sales orders, terms & conditions, client purchase orders, and forwarding deposit requests when required.
• Stays closely involved throughout sale implementation to ensure any changes in scope are identified and resolved.
• Participates in project and account meetings as required.
Process, Quality, and Customer Satisfaction
• Ensures performance standards are exceeded for all customer work activities.
• Leads establishment of cost and sell amounts for all account products and services based on contract pricing, gross margin guidelines, and established service pricing.
• Ensures documentation standards are maintained for all account activities and dealership processes and procedures are followed.
On-Going
• Completes all bid/RFP forms and documents.
• Leads team assignments to ensure workload activities are appropriately balanced and supported.
• Participates in team meetings as scheduled.
• Performs other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:Required Skills
• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Design, or similar fields.
• 5 years of experience in a customer service or sales support–related field.
• Strong Microsoft Office Suite skills.
• Exceptional customer service skills and multi-tasking abilities.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and under tight timelines.
• Ability to build strong relationships with internal teams (Sales, Design, Project Management).
• Highly detail-oriented.
• Strong organizational and prioritization abilities.
• Effective communication across multiple departments.
Preferred Skills
• High level of contract furniture product knowledge.
• High-level expertise in vendor/customer discounting.
• High level of independence — able to work with minimal supervision.
• Experience with Khameleon (business system).
• Experience with Project Spec (product specification software).
• Experience with Adobe Acrobat.