How Construction Companies Can Boost Proposal Win Rates through Automation and Access to Data

Whether you have an established go/no go process or a less formal one, defining specific pursuit criteria and systematizing approvals can help ensure that you invest in winnable projects and increase your win rate while enabling you to track related data over time.

Asking questions like the following can help you determine if an opportunity is winnable and is the right fit for your company:

• What is our experience working on this type of project? 
• Do we have qualified and available resources?
• Have we worked with this client before? If yes, was it a referenceable project?
• Does the client have the financial resources to support the project? 
• What is the contracting method for the opportunity? Is this favorable for our business model?
• Have we ever worked in this geographic location? Do we have resources there now or can we easily add them? Are there other opportunities in this region?
• Do we have subcontractor or vendor relationships that will be effective on this project?
• Are we familiar with our competition on this opportunity? How do we usually fare against them?
• Do we understand the potential challenges to winning this work? Do we have a win strategy and/or a plan to address them?

By digitizing your go/no-go process with tools like construction360 CRM, you can make informed decisions and start building a history to further fine-tune your process. Taking the time and putting forth the effort to thoroughly consider and document key elements of an opportunity will provide the best chance to ultimately win the work. And using a standardized approach, you can train your team to master the art of pursuing work that makes sense for your firm and delivers the profit and results you’re looking for from your projects. 

Once you’ve put the work into determining which opportunities to pursue, it is equally important to present your company in the strongest way possible in your proposals. Referencing the right project experience and highlighting the most relevant qualifications of your team requires visibility into your firm’s project history as well as any attribute you want the ability to search on to identify similar projects to reference in your proposals. With construction360 CRM, you have access to an easily searchable centralized repository of all of your project history and experience as well as your staff, their qualifications, and if they are willing to relocate. 

A dynamic proposal document generator provided by construction360 can then help you create customized project cut sheets and employee resumes quickly and in multiple formats, ensuring you’re highlighting the most relevant experience and qualifications for the work you’re pursuing. 

Additionally, your marketing team can quickly see proposal results and project outcomes and use this data to predict the chance of future success and adapt proposal strategies to win more bids. 

A “numbers game” strategy—submitting as many proposals as possible and hoping some will win—is not the way to boost revenue, especially considering the expense that comes with each pursuit. Access to the right information to make informed decisions, presenting your company in the best light, and adapting your proposal strategies based on readily available information can make the difference between winning and losing more work and meeting your firm’s growth objectives.