Persuasive Business Proposals: Writing to Win More Customers, Clients, and Contracts

Measuring Success—the First Steps

To improve your proposal process in a systematic way, you must first decide what it is you want to measure. Which measurements are truly meaningful?

The second step is to develop a baseline of data based on the “old” way of handling the task. If you don’t know where you are, it’s pretty hard to figure out if you’re moving in the right direction.

The third element in measuring results is to implement a system that will collect the appropriate measures from the “new” process. This may be a matter of self-reporting on the outcome of each sales opportunity, but it could require a more structured effort, such as conducting a win/loss analysis or tracking hours of effort.