​
Stop Flying Blind

Most companies track everything except what matters - are you actually making money on capture? You can have great processes, impressive win themes, and detailed capture plans, but if you’re not winning enough deals to justify the investment, you’re just running an expensive hobby. The uncomfortable truth: Many companies spend more on capture than they make from the contracts they win, and they don’t even know it because they’re not measuring the right things.

​
The Numbers That Actually Matter

​
Are You Winning Enough?

  • Overall win rate: If you’re below 30%, you’re either bidding everything or not competing well
  • Win rate for qualified bids: This is the real number - if you do proper bid decisions, you should win 40%+
  • Win rate by deal size: Small deals should be 50%+, big strategic deals 25%+
  • Win rate by customer: Some agencies you should dominate, others you’re learning What this tells you: Whether your capture process actually works or you’re just getting lucky

​
Is Your Pipeline Real?

  • Total pipeline value: How much business you’re chasing (but probably not winning)
  • Weighted pipeline: What you might actually win (multiply value by win probability)
  • Conversion rates: How many opportunities make it from bid decision to contract award
  • Time in pipeline: How long deals take (longer usually means lower win rate) What this tells you: Whether you’re building a business or chasing fantasies

​
Are You Making Money or Burning It?

  • Cost per pursuit: What you spend chasing each deal (including overhead)
  • Cost per win: What you actually spend to win each contract
  • ROI by investment level: Whether spending more on capture actually improves win rates
  • Team utilization: Whether your capture people are productive or just busy What this tells you: If capture is a profit center or an expensive hobby

​
Is Your Process Getting Better?

  • Gate review effectiveness: Percentage of deals that pass reviews vs. actually win
  • Customer relationship strength: Are your relationships getting stronger or weaker?
  • Competitive intelligence accuracy: How often you correctly predict winners
  • Proposal scores: Are you getting better at writing winning proposals? What this tells you: Whether you’re learning from wins and losses

​
Measurement Framework

​
Data Collection

  • Opportunity tracking and status updates
  • Financial investment and cost tracking
  • Timeline and milestone monitoring
  • Team performance and utilization data

​
Analysis and Reporting

  • Monthly performance dashboards
  • Quarterly business reviews
  • Annual strategic assessments
  • Continuous improvement initiatives

​
Benchmarking

  • Industry standard comparisons
  • Competitor performance analysis
  • Historical trend identification
  • Best practice development
Ready to explore pipeline reporting?