“Decoding Victory: Harnessing Past Bids to Amplify Win Rates”
- Charles Hunter
- Dec 5, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 20, 2025
In the competitive world of IT services, crafting compelling bids is both an art and a science. While many MSP's focus heavily on the "now"—assembling their best resources to respond to immediate opportunities—few give enough weight to an invaluable asset they already have: their past bid submissions.
By systematically tracking and analysing past bids, sales teams can unlock a treasure trove of insights that help refine strategies, improve content, and ultimately drive higher win rates.
Here’s how you can harness this approach to give your sales team a decisive edge.
The Value of Historical Bid Data
Every bid submission, whether successful or not, tells a story. It reflects your team’s understanding of the client’s needs, the strength of your value proposition, and the effectiveness of your communication. Capturing and analysing this data can answer critical questions:
What language or structure resonates most with specific client segments?
Which value propositions win business, and why?
Where are your proposals falling short?
How do external factors (like market trends or competitor moves) influence outcomes?
Tracking this data isn’t just about documenting successes and failures; it’s about building a playbook for future opportunities.
Key Benefits of Tracking Past Bids
1. Identify Patterns and Trends
By reviewing bid outcomes, you can detect patterns in how clients respond to specific strategies, pricing models, or even proposal formats. For instance, you may find that proposals emphasising ROI analytics consistently outperform others.
2. Refine Messaging
Analysing feedback (formal or informal) from lost bids reveals how messaging could have been improved. Over time, these lessons enable you to tailor content that aligns with client priorities and language.
3. Focus on What Works
Tracking successful bids allows you to replicate strategies that have proven effective. This doesn’t mean reusing templates wholesale, but rather identifying and adapting the best-performing elements for new opportunities.
4. Enhance Team Collaboration
When teams have access to a central repository of bid insights, they can share learnings and align their approaches. This fosters collaboration, minimises redundant efforts, and drives consistency in proposals.
How to Implement a Bid-Tracking System
Create a Repository Centralise all past bid submissions, making them easily searchable by client, industry, bid type, and outcome. Modern CRM platforms or proposal management software can help.
Standardise Post-Bid Reviews Implement a formal review process for every bid. Document what worked, what didn’t, and any client feedback. These insights are invaluable for future bids.
Analyse the Data Use analytics tools to identify trends across wins and losses. Look at metrics like win rates by industry, value proposition, and even writing style.
Refine and Train Share key findings with your sales team through training sessions. Equip them with updated messaging, templates, and strategies that are data-driven.
Close the Loop Periodically revisit the repository to ensure the insights remain relevant. Update strategies as market dynamics and client expectations evolve.
The Competitive Edge
Sales success isn’t just about working harder—it’s about working smarter. By leveraging insights from past bids, you empower your sales teams to continuously improve and adapt, ensuring their efforts are not only efficient but also highly targeted.
For Managed IT service providers, where competition is fierce and margins are tight, this approach can mean the difference between mediocrity and market leadership.
So, start today. Dig into your archives, build that repository, and watch your win rates soar. Because in every past submission lies the blueprint for future success.
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