January 24, 2024

Reading Your Lost Proposals Honestly

Most firms celebrate wins in detail and file losses quickly. A short, structured look at the ones that did not work will teach you more than another round of praise.

Set a rule for the review

The aim is to understand, not to assign fault. Say so at the start. People who worked hard on a proposal will defend it, and a review that turns into a defence produces nothing.

Hold the review within a month of the decision, while the details are fresh. Invite people who worked on the bid and at least one who did not. Keep it to an hour and record the findings in a shared place, not in individual notebooks.

Ask the client, once, politely

A brief request for feedback after a decision is normal in professional services. Some clients will answer and many will not. Record whatever you learn, including the fact that no reply came.

When feedback does come, record it as given and resist explaining it away. A buyer who says the price was high may mean that the value was unclear. Note the words used, then consider what they might mean, keeping the two apart.

Separate the causes

Group each loss under one of a few causes: we should not have bid, we were not known to the buyer, our approach did not fit, our price did not fit, or we were late or careless. Use your own categories, and keep them few.

Add a sixth category for losses that were simply beyond your control: an incumbent with a strong relationship, a decision made before the request was issued. Naming these honestly stops the team from over-learning from cases that hold no lesson.

Look for patterns, not a single story

One loss is an anecdote. Ten losses reviewed the same way begin to show something. Be cautious with small samples, and treat any pattern you see as a question to test rather than a fact.

Compare the losses with a few wins of similar size. If the same weaknesses appear in both, they are probably not what decided the result. If they appear only in losses, they deserve attention. Even a rough comparison is better than a single vivid memory.

Read your own document as the buyer would

Take the losing proposal and read it cold. Is the buyer's problem clear in the first page? Is the evidence for your claims visible? A colleague who was not on the bid is the best reader for this.

Check the first page especially. Evaluators often form an impression early, and a proposal that starts with the firm's history rather than the client's problem invites a weaker score. This is a judgement, but a colleague's fresh reading usually confirms it fast.

Change one thing next time

Choose a single change from each review and try it on the next proposal. Small, specific changes are easier to carry out and to evaluate than a general resolve to do better.

Write the change into the proposal checklist so it outlasts the individuals who attended the review. After a few cycles, the checklist becomes a compact record of what your firm has learned, and new joiners benefit from it immediately.

Keep the archive useful

Store each review in a single shared place with the same short headings: the opportunity, the cause category, what we learned, what we changed. A consistent format makes it possible to scan a year of reviews in an afternoon.

Limit access appropriately, since the notes may include candid remarks about a client or a colleague. Write them as you would want them read by the person concerned, and the archive will stay both honest and safe to keep. A firm that reads its losses calmly tends to bid more selectively and to write better proposals, and that is a lasting advantage for a modest amount of effort.

VIPMarketing Editorial