Win/Loss
RFP win rates by league and over time — for spotting strengths and pulling case studies.
After this lesson you'll be able to read win rates by league, spot where the business is strong, and pull comparable past wins as references for a live pitch.
Pipeline tells you what might happen; win/loss tells you what actually did. It is the closest thing leadership has to a scoreboard on bid strategy: where the company wins, where it loses, and where it walks away. Read regularly, it answers questions that pipeline never can — should we keep bidding in this league, is our win rate trending the right way, and what does a winnable deal look like for us.
Win/loss read
- 1
Filter by league, vertical, period, or deal type.
- 2
Separate won, lost, and no-bid outcomes.
- 3
Open the won records that make good references.
- 4
Use patterns to improve the next pitch.
A realistic scenario
The reference pull
Situation
The team is pitching a major NBA arena next month. The prospect asks the standard question: who else like us have you done this for?
Goal
Pull the comparable won NBA deals — similar scale, similar scope — and hand the pitch team two or three named references with real numbers behind them.
Proof
The references come from won records in the system, with values and dates you can stand behind, not from memory of what someone thinks we won.
The click path
- Open the Win/Loss by League view. It holds resolved deals — won, lost, and no-bid — with the league on every row, so you can read outcomes across MLB, NBA, NFL, NCAA, and the rest.
- Filter by fiscal year to read one period, or compare periods to see the trend. A win rate is only meaningful against time.
- Read the three outcomes separately. Won versus lost is your competitive win rate. No-bid is a different signal — it is deliberate selectivity, and folding it into the loss column understates how well the team competes.
- Drill into losses in any league where the rate looks weak. The records show which deals, at what value, against what scope — that is where the pattern lives.
- For references, filter to won deals in the relevant league and sort by value.
The ask path
Win rate by league
Trend read
Reference pull
Why it stays accurate
This only works if deals are marked won / lost / no-bid as they resolve — the Bid Status habit the vertical teams learn in their tracks. When that is kept current, the win/loss picture is real, not guesswork. When it is not, the picture skews in a predictable direction: wins get recorded (someone has to invoice them), losses linger as open deals — so an inflated open pipeline and a flattering win rate are two symptoms of the same hygiene problem.
Small denominators
A league with four resolved bids this year does not have a meaningful win rate — one deal swings it 25 points. Before quoting a percentage, glance at the count behind it. For thin leagues, talk in deals, not percentages.
What good looks like
- You can quote the win rate for the top leagues and say whether it is trending up or down.
- You read no-bid as strategy, not failure — and you notice if the team stops saying no.
- Any percentage you present comes with its denominator; thin samples get framed as counts.
- When a pitch needs a reference, the pull takes five minutes and every name on it is backed by a won record.
Now you try →
Open the win/loss view, pick a league, and read the win rate — then ask the assistant for the won deals behind it, and check the count before you trust the percentage.
Related lessons: The Dashboards · Exporting & Asking · RFP to Win (Workflow)
Key takeaways
- Win/loss is the scoreboard on bid strategy: read it by league and by period, not as one lifetime number.
- Won, lost, and no-bid are three different signals — no-bid is selectivity, not failure.
- A win rate is only as honest as the outcome-marking habit behind it; unrecorded losses flatter the number.
- Won records double as your reference library — filter by league and value when a pitch needs proof.
Check yourself
A league shows a 75% win rate this fiscal year, based on four resolved bids. How should you present that?