Customer Success Leader | Bid & Proposal Professional | B2B SaaS Strategist
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Sharing insights from over 30 years across the global proposal profession and enterprise customer success discipline, focussed on helping organisations build high-performing teams, deliver lasting customer value, and win more business.
About Steven Coles, CPP.APMP Fellow
An award-winning bid and proposal expert and senior customer success leader with over 30 years of experience, Steven has won multi-million dollar business-to-business deals in the software, services, defence, telecommunications, and consulting sectors.
Specialised in strategic growth, business winning, and organisational transformation, Steven is an acclaimed builder and leader of high performing teams, retaining and motivating top talent to deliver outcomes for businesses, teams, and individuals.
Professional Journey
Notable Milestones
Customer Success Leadership
Strategic Growth
Driving transformative customer success leadership, scaling teams to accelerate successful retention and expansion programmes. Delivering measurable growth through strategy, execution, conversations of value, and trusted executive partnership with customers, partners and peers. Steven is maniacally focussed on helping his customers be wildly successful with their investment in software and services.
Bid & Proposal Leadership
Business Winning
Winning multi-million pound business-to-business deals. Shaping compelling value propositions and building high-performing teams that consistently deliver strategic business wins in complex, competitive environments. Disciplined governance, meaningful collaboration, and business outcomes underpin Steven's success.
Management Consulting
Organisational Transformation
Engaging with C-level leadership teams across leading public, private, and third sector organisations to deliver truly transformative change through a unique combination of proprietary methods, services and software. Steven thrives on developing products and services, marketing what he develops, selling what he markets, delivering what he sells, supporting what he delivers.
Professional Certifications
Accreditations & Licences
APMP Professional Certification
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Gainsight CSM Leader Certified Professional
APMP Fellow Award
The APMP Fellows award is one of APMP's highest individual honours. It recognises individuals who have made significant contributions to the bid and proposal industry throughout their careers. Selected nominees are judged and are inducted into the Fellows class once a year during APMP's Honours Gala. Only members can nominate a Fellow.
APMP William C. McRae Founder's Award
This is a rare honour reserved for the most accomplished and distinguished APMP members. As APMP’s highest honour, it has been awarded only 12 times in the association’s 35-year history for demonstrating exceptional ability and quality to move the industry forward through their actions by: exhibiting unselfish leadership, contributing significant hours of exceptional volunteerism, providing unique industry thought leadership, putting the industry above their accomplishments.
Verizon Outstanding Contribution Award
Presented for exceptional business impact through collaborative leadership, delivering measurable revenue growth, operational excellence, and customer outcomes. This award recognises individuals whose cross-functional partnership, innovation, and execution consistently advance Verizon’s strategic priorities and drive sustained enterprise value at scale globally.