CMBDO Game Plan
What Is Your Win Rate Telling You?
Start with the numbers. Pull your RFP activity from January through June and calculate your win rate. How many proposals did your firm submit, and of those, how many came back as a win? If your win rate is sitting below 30 percent, that is a flag that something in your process, your content, or your follow-through needs attention.
Win rate analysis should go deeper than a simple count. Break it down by practice area, by geography, by deal size, by RFP source. Are you winning more frequently in certain practice areas than others? Are your largest opportunities consistently going to competitors? These patterns reveal where your firm’s narrative is landing and where it is falling flat. A mid-year review gives you enough runway to course-correct before Q4 opportunities arrive.
If you have not been tracking wins and losses systematically, now is the time to build that discipline into your process. Every submission should be logged with outcome notes. Every loss should trigger a debrief, whether formal or informal, to understand why the prospect went another direction.
Have You Followed Up on Earlier Submissions?
This is one of the most overlooked elements of a strong RFP program. Many firms invest significant time in crafting a proposal and then go silent once it is in the prospect’s hands. That silence is costly.
Review every RFP from the first half of the year and ask whether your team made contact after submission. If a prospect has not yet made a decision, a thoughtful, timely touchpoint from a relationship partner or business development professional can keep your firm top of mind and demonstrate real interest. If you lost a pitch, did you reach out to understand what drove the outcome? Feedback from a prospect who chose a competitor is some of the most valuable intelligence your firm can receive.
Follow-up is stewardship of the relationships your firm worked hard to build — treat it that way. Establish a rhythm, whether it is 30 days post-submission or tied to a specific client milestone, and make sure someone on the team owns that outreach.
Are Your Credentials Current and Compelling?
Your credentials are the backbone of every proposal. Client results, team bios, firm differentiators, and matter descriptions need to show the work your attorneys or professionals are doing right now. Highlights from two or three years ago no longer carry the same weight.
Mid-year is the ideal moment to audit your credentials library. Do your representative matters show recent wins? Have significant new engagements concluded that should be added? More importantly, are your matter write-ups framed for a prospective client, leading with the result and the relevance rather than a procedural summary of the work performed?
Stale credentials are a quiet competitive disadvantage. When a firm reads a matter list that references work from 2021 or 2022 without anything more recent, it raises questions about your current activity and momentum. Refresh the library now so your second-half proposals show the full strength of your practice.
Is Your RFP Database Reflecting Your Full Team?
Lateral hiring continues at a strong pace across professional services. If your firm has welcomed new partners, principals, or senior hires in the past six months, their experience and relationships must be integrated into your RFP database immediately.
A new partner who joined in February and whose bio, practice highlights, and matters are not yet in your pitch system represents a missed opportunity on every submission since their arrival. Run a lateral audit now. Work with your human resources and professional development teams to confirm that all new hires have complete profiles in the system, that their prior experience has been captured appropriately, and that they are being matched to relevant opportunities.
The Mid-Year Moment Is Now
The most disciplined firms close the year with the strongest win rates — not the ones with the largest teams or the longest client lists. Mid-year is your opportunity to sharpen that discipline, fix the weak points, and position your firm to finish strong. We have provided a sample template below for tracking your RFP statistics.
Mid-Year RFP Win-Rate Dashboard | Jan-Jun 2026
Poston CMBDO Tracking Template
KPI Summary
| Metric | Value |
| Total Submissions (Jan-Jun) | 6 |
| Total Won | 2 |
| Total Lost | 2 |
| Total Pending | 2 |
| Overall Win Rate % | 50% |
| Follow-Up Completion Rate % | 67% |
RFP Submission Log
| Submission ID | Submission Date | Client/Prospect | Practice Area | Geography | Deal Size | RFP Source | Submitted By | Follow-Up Date | Follow-Up Complete? | Outcome | Loss Reason | Notes |
| RFP-001 | ||||||||||||
| RFP-002 | ||||||||||||
| RFP-003 | ||||||||||||
| RFP-004 | ||||||||||||
| RFP-005 | ||||||||||||
| RFP-006 |
Win Rate by Practice Area
| Practice Area | Submitted | Won | Lost | Pending | Win Rate % |
| Corporate | |||||
| Healthcare | |||||
| Litigation | |||||
| Real Estate | |||||
| Tax | |||||
| Employment |
Win Rate by Geography
| Geography | Submitted | Won | Lost | Pending | Win Rate % |
| Northeast | |||||
| Southeast | |||||
| Midwest | |||||
| West | |||||
| Southwest | |||||
| International |
Win Rate by Deal Size
| Deal Size | Submitted | Won | Lost | Pending | Win Rate % |
| <$50K | |||||
| $50K-$150K | |||||
| $150K-$500K | |||||
| $500K+ |
Win Rate by RFP Source
| Source | Submitted | Won | Lost | Pending | Win Rate % |
| Referral | |||||
| Directory/Listing | |||||
| Existing Client | |||||
| Cold Outreach | |||||
| Event/Conference |
Formula Reference
| Formula | Definition |
| Win Rate % | Won / (Won + Lost) x 100 — excludes Pending and No Decision |
| Follow-Up Rate % | Count(Follow-Up = Yes) / Total Submissions x 100 |
| Loss by Reason % | Count(Loss Reason = X) / Total Lost x 100 |
| Avg Deal Size | Sum of deal values / Total Submissions |
Loss Reason Summary
| Loss Reason | Count | % of Total Lost |
| Price | ||
| Experience/Credentials | ||
| Relationship | ||
| Conflict | ||
| Other |