Blow the Industry-Standard Hit Rates Out of the Water!
Posted by Website Director on Dec. 7, 2022 / Blog / Subscribe 0
The Start
At my firm, we started measuring both the hit rate and win rate in 2020. Before that, we just tracked the hit rate, which is the number of competitive proposals won divided by the number pursued. The win rate is the amount of revenue won divided by the amount of revenue pursued. I believe both are important, and both need to be measured.
- In 2019, our hit rate was 37%. We were not using a formal Go/No-Go process. Our win rate was 41%.
- In 2020, I started implementing a Go/No-Go process without telling anyone. I would score each competitive proposal to learn if the process was effective in predicting winning and losing proposals. Our hit rate was 51% and win rate was 52%.
- In 2021, our hit rate dropped to 39% and win rate dropped to 38%. However, I began revealing my Go/No-Go process and demonstrated that I was predicting winning proposals 85% of the time and losing proposals 90% of the time. This made a profound impact on our leadership. So, they started listening to me and participating in my Go/No-Go process for 2022.
- Nearing the end of 2022, our hit rate is 68% and our win rate is 75%. What is more important is that our revenue is up 18% from this time last year and 27% up from 2020.
The Process
Your staff must be willing to participate in your Go/No-Go process. My firm uses a Go/No-Go questionnaire developed by our CRM. Whatever process you choose, test it for awhile to make sure it can accurately predict winning and losing proposals.
Automate your process. We have a workflow in our CRM that automatically sends out a Go/No-Go questionnaire form when a new project opportunity is entered into the system. Key staff answer the questions as open-ended questions, not multiple choice. They send their answers to marketing staff, and we select the best multiple-choice answer that closely aligns with their answers. I send them our score with my recommendation of a Go or No-Go.
Leadership will buy into your process when you deliver it with objective data. If you can prove your system works with a high level of accuracy, you will get their attention.
The Last Ditch Effort
I still have engineers who find it difficult to say NO to poor opportunities. They find it difficult to turn down opportunities on projects that are in their technical wheelhouse, but all other pre-qualifying metrics are poor. The best way I have found to reinforce our process is to show them the Go/No-Go score and remind them of our losing record on pursuits with similar scores. My last weapon to reinforce our process is to remind them of how much money we spend on proposals. I then ask them if they are ok blowing $10,000 or more on a losing proposal.
About Gabe Lett, CPSM, FSMPS
Director of Marketing for Allgeier, Martin and Associates
Gabe is a veteran of A/E/C marketing and business development. He has served three consulting engineering firms over an 18-year career. He is a published writer, contributing numerous articles educating and promoting best practices for A/E/C marketing professionals. Gabe currently serves as Director of Marketing for Allgeier, Martin and Associates, a civil and electrical engineering firm. He published “The AEC Professional’s Guidebook” which offers seventy lessons to strengthen design and construction professionals’ careers. Gabe also presents for several SMPS chapters and regional conferences on a range of topics. His background as a Licensed Professional Counselor gives Gabe unique insights into the marketing profession.
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