The proposal took eleven hours. One in five wins.

Pre-sales work is production capacity, consumed at scale and charged to nobody, and the blended win rate is usually hiding two very different businesses.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The proposal took eleven hours. One in five wins.

Take a firm where a written proposal absorbs, on average, eleven hours of senior time: a scoping call, a site visit or discovery session, the pricing build, the document itself, the internal review, the follow-up. The win rate on those proposals is one in five. That means every win costs fifty-five hours of work that was never invoiced. If the people doing that work bill at £120 an hour, the business is spending roughly £6,600 of foregone capacity to land each contract. Whether that is sensible depends entirely on the…

Keep reading for free

Create an account to read the rest.

The whole library is free. No card, no subscription, no trial that quietly ends. An account simply lets us know who we are writing for, and opens every article from here on.

  • Every article, in full, at no cost
  • New articles published every weekday
  • Takes about twenty seconds
Create a free account I already have one

Free means free. We will not charge you for the library, and you can read as much of it as you like.

Important: General information only. Rialto Bridge articles describe patterns and considerations that may apply to a business; they are not financial, legal, tax or accounting advice, and they take no account of your particular circumstances. Consider your own situation and seek advice from a qualified professional before acting.

More on Growth strategy

Scroll to Top