How Enhanced Qualification Improves Proposal Win Rate

Enhanced Qualification Helps You Win More & Lose Less

Nobody is more attuned to the strength of a potential proposal opportunity than proposal managers. Because proposal managers vet incoming proposals, dissect the requirements, look for competitors’ fingerprints, collaborate on proposal and price strategy, and chart a winning course, they operate with a very clear understanding of the relative fit of every proposal opportunity and their likely win percentage. 

But without the data to quantify their instincts about opportunity fit, demonstrate opportunity cost, and indicate win probability, executives tend to overlook proposal team’s recommendations. 

As a result, companies respond to far too many low-probability proposal opportunities, sapping company resources, distracting employees from key initiatives, and hampering efficiency. 

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Armed with Patri Score’s enhanced qualification data about Opportunity Fit, Win Probability, and Opportunity Cost, proposal teams can elevate their role, involving themselves in the strategic pursuit decisions that dictate everything from proposal win rate to captured revenue to team satisfaction. 

With enhanced qualification, proposal teams can expect to access the following benefits:

More Time for High-Quality Work

Winning proposals take time. Proposal writers need time to create compelling win themes, respond with customized, in-depth answers to requirements, craft a compelling solution, forge the right teaming arrangement, and design winning pricing.

Every additional proposal on your plate means less time for the other proposals in the queue. Quality work requires time and space. Reducing the number of low-probability proposals your team responds to gives everyone more time to devote to their other proposals.

This remains true for all the contributors that will touch a proposal too. From finance to legal to engineering, when employees get time back in their schedules, they’re better able to deliver on key initiatives.

Increased Revenue

It can sound counterintuitive: bidding on fewer opportunities helps win more business. But time and time again, we find that companies share this experience. 

The root of the issue is this: winning proposals are customized to the specific pain points and needs of the prospect. To customize proposals effectively, proposal response teams need time. The best proposal response teams plot out win strategies, draft and refine win themes, customize their solution to meet the customer’s needs, run thorough review processes, and debrief every opportunity to find ways to improve. But despite these well-known best practices, most proposal teams need to cut corners because they are so overworked. Proposal teams that are overworked aim for compliance rather than overwhelmingly convincing proposals.

By cutting out the lowest-probability opportunities, executives can help give their proposal teams the time they need to create winning proposals for the most important and highest-probability opportunities.

Higher RFP Win Rates

This one’s fairly simple. Remove the opportunities you’re most likely to lose from your plate and your win rate should increase significantly. In fact, when OpenGov, a leading provider of software services for America’s cities, counties, and state agencies, implemented Patri’s enhanced qualification software, they saw a higher win rate and their total number of wins spike.

Improved Company Morale

Winning cures all woes. Teams get a positive boost every time they win an opportunity. And with every loss, teams become frustrated and annoyed. Missing a family dinner to win an opportunity feels a lot different than missing it to not even qualify for oral presentations. Keep company morale high by focusing on maintaining a healthy win rate. Keep a healthy win rate by avoiding low-probability opportunities.

Reduced Stress 

Most proposal professionals report significant job-related stress. Tight deadlines. Multiple stakeholders on every project. And a heavy load of ongoing proposals. It’s no wonder that the field is notorious for burnout. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If even just a few low-probability proposals were taken off proposal professionals’ plates, a more equitable work-life balance could be achieved.  Responding to fewer low-probability opportunities reduces stress and increases job satisfaction. 

Elevated Role in Strategic Decisions

Would a Sales Executive make a qualification decision on a potential sale without consulting with the salesperson responsible for the account? Certainly not. So why are so many proposal pursuit decisions decided without significant input from the proposals team?

Become involved in strategic pursuit decisions by coming to conversations armed with data about opportunity fit, how to calculate opportunity cost, and win probability. 

Fewer Late Nights and More Time With Loved Ones

Proposal professionals don’t always get to leave work at the office. Typically, proposal professionals need to work long hours that can interrupt family dinners and time spent together on the weekends. Better qualification not only improves company efficiency and increases revenue, but it gives you back time to do the things you love, whether it’s spending time with family and loved ones or kicking back with Netflix and a bowl of popcorn.

Putting it All Together: How Enhanced Qualification Improves Proposal Managers’ Lives

Enhanced qualification is essential not only to proposal managers’ success at work but also to allow them to maintain a healthy work-life balance, avoid burnout, and work harmoniously with the rest of their company.

Armed with Patri’s quantitative data about Opportunity Fit, Win Probability, and Opportunity Cost, proposal teams can elevate their role, involving themselves in the strategic pursuit decisions that dictate everything from proposal win rate to captured revenue to team satisfaction. 

But to access these benefits, you’ll first have to get your executives on board with the value of enhanced proposal qualification. 

Download How to Sell Enhanced Proposal Qualification to Your Executives to learn how to talk to your executives about enhancing your qualification process today.

This eBook will walk you through how to make the case for proposal qualification software to your executives using the language and frameworks that are most compelling to an executive’s mind. 

How to Sell Enhanced Proposal Qualification to Your Executives covers the following topics: 

• Why You Need Data-Backed Proposal Qualification
• Understanding the Executive’s Role
• How Qualification & Proposal Software Contribute to the Executive’s Role
• Value Propositions for Enhanced Qualification Software
• How to Make the Case for Enhanced Qualification Software to Your Executives

Download the eBook