What are some effective ways to measure the success of your consulting proposal writing and pitching efforts?

Before drafting the proposal, I need to know what "winning" looks like. Is it simply landing clients, beating out the competition, or streamlining the process? Are we approaching the “right” clients? Encourage positive and negative feedback. Are we hitting the prospects' pain points? By tracking these metrics, we can tailor proposals that resonate and close deals faster.

What is the end goal and what do you want to accomplish from the proposal? Defining a goal and how will you measure the success will help you put a right roadmap for the proposal.

I will utilize data-driven metrics such as conversion rates, response rates, and engagement metrics to measure the effectiveness of your consulting proposal writing and pitching efforts. Implement KPIs specific to our consulting business, such as the number of proposals accepted, the value of contracts secured, or the time taken from proposal submission and mostly our daily usage tools like CRM systems to track interactions with clients, proposal statuses, and overall pipeline history.

3 metrics to go from pitch to closed won: 1. Speed to response. 78% of B2B customers buy from the first person to respond. Speed is one of the separators between a high and low earner. 2. Speed to live interaction. Those engaging deeply and swiftly win up to 50% of deals. It's not just booking calls because you need buy-in for them to show up to it. When done right, you can have a 95% show rate. 3. Speed to close. Move from months or years to days and weeks to get to a "yes" or "no". In a large majority of sales situations, aim to provide the prospect with everything they need to decide within 1-2 weeks. Focus on these three metrics in a "Repeatable Closing System". Go from writing pitches to closing deals.

Keep the data updated to the current. Things do change rapidly and you need to be quick enough to analyse the data you have. Track and manage this effectively.

BY using sentiment analysis to gauge responses and adjust our approach accordingly for improved effectiveness. Implementing machine learning algorithms to identify patterns in successful proposals and pitching techniques, enabling to optimize future efforts.

“No data is clean, but most is useful.” ~ Dean Abbott In our daily consulting work, we are often required to make the most explicit statements possible with incomplete data sets. For pitches in particular, it is important not to insist on completeness, but to understand it as an approximation procedure. What is important is the goal and the entire story behind the rationale, i.e. the big picture!

At the end of the day, the successful consultant should rarely pitch. If their process is solid they will Audition clients and agree on a program of work with pricing before sending any proposal. For the successful consultant, will use proposals to formalise sign off, never as an tool of selling. Some of the best proposals you’ll write will be two paragraphs your internal champion will use to produce a purchase order.

The three first points are of high interest. But when it comes to measuring success of proposal writing there is one and very, very, very basic question: what percentage of your proposals are accepted?…. Afterwards, one can analyse why the ones that were not accepted failed.. one Can cluster them: too expensive, idea not appealing or new, not responding to the contractors’ priorities, not good “writing”, no use of diagrams, etc… and more important : perhaps too many words to express simply understandable what you propose to do, why this will get done the contractor objective and why the cost is “logic”.

Explore emerging technologies such as blockchain for enhancing the security and transparency of proposal submissions and contract negotiations. Incorporate feedback loops into your proposal writing and pitching processes to gather insights from clients. and more imp stay updated on industry trends and best practices in Digital and AI-driven sales and marketing automation to ensure our SLED & Fed proposal efforts remain competitive and effective.