Learning from the Loopio benchmarks report

I wanted to share some perspectives on the wonderful Loopio 2025 “RFP Response Trends and Benchmarks” report, produced in partnership with APMP . Now in its sixth year, this provides fantastic insights into the joys and challenges of life in the bid and proposal profession, and merits serious review. Huge thanks to everyone involved in the research.

So, what did I learn? And what do I think bid and proposal folks need to focus on from the report, if they're interested in using it to drive change? Here are eight areas that caught my eye.

1. The business impact of great bids and proposals

First up: what we do matters: 37% of organisations’ total revenues derive from RFPs. Do you know your own company’s percentage – and, indeed, is that a key metric for you?

Such a business critical function really needs attention and tender loving care from the C-suite, right? Too many proposal teams don’t shout from the rooftops about their importance, and don’t get the sponsorship they deserve.

And that’s sometimes because we don’t measure the right things. 96% of bid / proposal team have metrics in place – with the following being the most common:

• Win rate
• Number of bids submitted
• Advancement rates
• Speed of completion of RFPs
• Cost per bid
• Team member performance

But look what’s missing: data on the impact of the bid / proposal function on the business as a whole. Let’s all add data on the total value of business won, total margin generated, percentage of the company’s revenue influenced, RoI on bid / proposal efforts, number of jobs created and protected in the organisation - and objective measure of bid capability and the quality of proposal output. You know: the sort of things that would interest your CEO.

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2. Key benchmarking metrics

Then, some fascinating data points: how does your organisation compare?

• The average proposal professional responds to 19 proposals per year
• Average win rate: 45%
• We work in a world of tight timescales: 52% of enterprise organisations typically respond in 10 days or fewer
• Average number of contributors per proposal: 9
• There’s been a big increase in the number of RFP submissions through online portals: that’s now more than half of all submissions

I loved the analysis of what “top performers” (measured as “winning half or more of the RFPs we respond to”) do to stand out. How many of these are true for you?

• Using a Go / No Go process
• Leveraging RFP software
• Enthusiastic about AI
• More people in their team
• Spending more time writing

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3. Bid / no bid becoming more mature

It’s good to see qualification becoming a more robust discipline: 83% of respondents report that they have a "go / no go" process – a figure that’s risen steadily over the years. And these processes perhaps have slightly more teeth than in the past: teams only respond to 63% of the RFPs they see.

Yet we often hear on APMP courses that teams with a qualification process still regularly find themselves chasing deals that they know they can’t win. It’s almost as if we all know the theory – but we haven’t yet fully embedded it in the psyche of the business. Tactics to consider:

• Making sure your process really is watertight and aligned to the needs / targets of your sales organisation.
• Sponsorship from on high, championing the benefits and value of the process.
• Training - especially for sales and sales management - to secure buy-in.
• Tracking data and outcomes - notably, qualification scores vs win / loss.

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4. Reporting lines

60% of proposal functions report into sales and sales enablement, and 15% into marketing. Few are accountable directly to the C-suite – which may not always be feasible, of course. But the most successful change projects I’ve delivered in the bid and proposal world have always, without exception, had active C-suite sponsorship.?

Of course, reporting into sales does make some sense - fundamentally, we’re helping them to win good business, and need to be closely aligned to to their pipeline of new business and retentions. But too often sales management are driven by this week and this month – whereas RFPs work to longer timescales.

To me, the most important thing has always been for the function to report into someone who’s passionate about the importance of what we do, who has organisational savvy and clout, and who can secure budget.

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5. Top challenges – which can be solved

Key challenges that leap out of the report: Number 1: “Working with SMEs” (48%). That to me suggests that too many organisations don’t have robust buy-in to their proposal process across the organisation – and that they need to train SMEs in the art of developing a great proposal and their role in it. Those are challenges that, from experience, are eminently solvable.

Linked to that is the second highest-ranked challenge: “Finding up-to-date, accurate answers” (39%). Organisations have wrestled with this for as long as I’ve been in the profession – yet the processes and skills needed for great management of pre-written (and pre-designed) content aren’t hard to map out. And there are great tech solutions out there to help. Hey; Loopio’s name is on the report, right?! Again, if this is an issue, it’s one you don’t need to live with: there are proven ways to solve it.

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6. AI is here

And talking of tech: use of AI is becoming more prevalent. 68% of RFP teams are now using some form of generative AI software – twice the 2023 level. Interestingly, ChatGPT is the most common tool (65%) - just don’t tell your corporate IT and risk people that you’re entrusting your (and your customers’) confidential data to a public model, right? And the three most common use cases:

• Editing
• Generating answers / writing the first draft
• Competitive / market research

If you're trying to work out how to navigate the AI world, our new low-cost My Proposal Pathway service might be of interest!

7. Wellbeing is a huge concern

One real concern. We’re proud in Strategic Proposals to sponsor the APMP Mental Health Affinity Group – and goodness, is its work as important as ever. One of the top six challenges, reported by 31% in the survey, is “Burnout among team members”. One in five experience “feeling unmanageable stress”.

That’s sad and scary – and although there are resources out there to support you if you’re struggling, the root causes here often come back to similar issues discussed above – of sponsorship, resource, buy-in to a great process and training for everyone involved.

8. Investing for success

Finally, the report looks at the biggest areas of planned investment in 2025: technology, training, and hiring more staff. That’s encouraging to see – assuming these are real investment plans with actual money behind them, rather than aspirations.

Particularly on the second of those, I’m thinking of the legendary phrase from SP founder BJ Lownie CPP.APMP Fellow : “All those involved in proposal development should be trained in the necessary skills”, And if that’s not yet true for you, I’d love to chat!

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Hope that gives you a few pointers from the report. You can download the whole document here if you want to read more: RFP Report: 2025 Trends & Benchmarks

I’d love to know what you’ve found useful!