You lose more bids than you win. And you rarely find out why.
RFPs and proposals get decided in a room you’re not in, and procurement rarely gives real feedback. We interview the prospects who picked someone else — and the ones who picked you — and tell you what actually drove the decision.
For firms that win work through proposals and RFPs — agencies, consultancies, IT services, software development shops.- Interviews with prospects who chose someone else
- Patterns across your last dozen bids, not just one debrief
- Proposal and pitch adjustments grounded in what they said
Your BD notes show the outcome. Not the reasoning.
“They went cheaper” is the easiest note to write after a loss. It’s also usually incomplete.
“Lost the RFP — they went with someone cheaper.”
Your rate wasn’t the issue. The winning firm sent a named senior partner to the pitch; yours sent an account exec they’d never met. That read as a staffing risk, not a price decision.
“No feedback given — standard procurement policy.”
Procurement never asked them to stay quiet. Nobody from your side called to ask — the silence was assumed, not required.
“Strong proposal, good chemistry.”
The proposal was similar to the runner-up’s. They picked you because you were the only firm that asked about their internal politics before pitching a solution.
Start with your last dozen bids.
You see the pattern across recent wins and losses before committing to anything ongoing.
Interviews on 10–15 recent proposals
We interview the prospects from your most recent won and lost bids — reaching out as an independent research firm, not as you — and deliver a findings report on what actually drove each decision.
Interviews continue as bids close
Interviews continue as new proposals win or lose, with monthly updates and a quarterly report. Pitch and proposal adjustments get made from a growing pattern, not a one-off debrief.
Estimate: the pilot runs $3,000–5,000 for 10–15 interviews and a findings report. The ongoing program is scoped on the pilot call.
Who we work with.
Closest to the pitch, no time to dig
You’re usually in the room for the pitch but not for the internal conversation that decides it.
Writes the next proposal off the last one’s guesswork
Without real feedback, every RFP response is a repeat of whatever worked or failed last time — for reasons nobody confirmed.
Start the pilot.
Interviews with 10–15 recent proposal decisions, delivered as a findings report. $3,000–5,000. No recurring commitment.
We never contact a prospect without your sign-off, and we identify ourselves as an independent research firm.
If the findings don’t surface anything useful, you walk away with the report and owe nothing else.