They say "you can't win 'em all", and they're right. We all have our target hit rate, and with the development of sourcing strategies, such as the use of purchasing consultants and internet auctions, many of us aren't hitting the close ratios we are used to.

One of our clients told us that in the past year, his team participated in 103 internet auctions and electronic RFPs, and won 7 of them. That ratio was well below their traditional hit rate, and well below what they could afford. He went on to say that the 7 deals they won were the ones they would've won if they had not participated in the bid processes at all. Then he talked about the massive effort and time commitment associated with responding to 96 situations that they didn't win.

His key learning was that his team had to do a better job of picking their battles. He decided that they would re-define the characteristics of a worthwhile opportunity, focusing more on things like:


Do we currently have a relationship with the account?
Have we had influence on the bid specs?
Do we have a coach or coaches in place?
Can we get to the decision maker?


They decided they would run hard after the right opportunities, and spend the remainder of the time proactively pursuing new opportunities. This strategy is paying off, as they are responding to fewer opportunities, increasing their overall hit rate, and proactively getting involved and winning deals that weren't on other competitors' radar screens.

This client's experience shows that we can improve our results by more carefully picking our battles - carefully selecting the opportunities we will reactively respond to and spending more time proactively pursuing opportunities we can win.