Ever finish an RFP and wonder, “Did we just burn a week for nothing? Did we get better, or just busier?” If you’re using Loopio to manage proposals, you probably know it promises reporting tools to answer those questions. This guide is for proposal managers, sales ops folks, or anyone getting dragged into RFPs and needing proof that the process is working—or that it needs a hard reset.
Let’s cut through the fluff and see what Loopio’s reporting actually tells you, what’s worth tracking, and how to make it useful (instead of just another dashboard to ignore).
Why Bother Analyzing RFP Project Performance?
You can crank out RFPs all day, but if you don’t know what’s working, you’ll waste time and probably annoy your team. Here’s what good reporting should help you find out:
- Where did we lose (or waste) the most time?
- Which parts of our answers are always getting rewritten?
- Are we getting faster, or just spinning our wheels?
- Who’s actually pulling their weight?
If you want to win more (or just keep your team from burning out), you need more than a gut feeling. Data helps, but only if you can act on it.
Step 1: Get Familiar with Loopio’s Reporting Basics
First, a quick reality check: Loopio isn’t a full-blown business intelligence tool. It’s built for proposal teams—so the reports are focused on what happens inside RFP projects, not your entire sales pipeline.
Main types of reports you’ll find:
- Project-level reports: Track timelines, completion rates, and bottlenecks for each RFP.
- Content Library insights: See which answers are reused, edited, or flagged as stale.
- User activity: Who’s contributing (or not), and how much.
- Custom exports: For when you want to slice-and-dice in Excel or another tool.
Pro tip: If you’re looking for deep win/loss analysis or sales forecasting, you’ll need to combine Loopio data with your CRM. Loopio’s strength is in process tracking, not outcome analytics.
Step 2: Pick Metrics That Actually Matter
Don’t get distracted by every chart. Focus on a handful of numbers that tell you if your RFP process is healthy or broken. Here’s what’s usually worth tracking:
- Average project completion time: Are you getting faster, or just feeling busier?
- Number of questions answered from the Content Library: The higher this is, the less reinventing the wheel.
- Editing rate: How many answers get changed after being pulled from the library? High rates mean your content is stale.
- Internal vs. external deadline hits/misses: Are you delivering when you say you will?
- Reviewer bottlenecks: Is one team or person always holding things up?
- Content flagged as out-of-date: Are you maintaining your library, or letting junk accumulate?
Ignore vanity metrics like “number of reports generated.” If a stat doesn’t change your actions, it’s just noise.
Step 3: Set Up Reports and Dashboards Without Overcomplicating
Loopio lets you create dashboards and schedule reports, but it’s easy to go overboard. Keep it simple:
- Start with the built-in Project Summary report. This shows status, contributors, and timeline at a glance.
- Customize only as needed. Don’t build a dashboard for every possible scenario. Set up views for:
- Overall project timelines
- Content Library usage and editing rates
- Individual and team workloads
- Schedule regular exports. If you want to look at trends over time, schedule a weekly or monthly export to Excel or Google Sheets. Loopio’s built-in trendlines are decent, but spreadsheets give you more control.
Pro tip: Don’t make dashboards for your boss unless they’ll actually look at them. One clean PDF beats a dozen ignored links.
Step 4: Dig Into Project-Level Performance
The real gold is in seeing how specific RFP projects went—especially the ones that were a mess. Here’s a basic workflow:
- Open the Project Summary for a recent RFP.
- Check the timeline: Did you hit your deadlines? Where did things slip?
- Review the assignment breakdown: Who did the work, and who didn’t?
- Look at Content Library usage: How many questions were answered using existing content, and how many needed custom responses?
- Spot the bottlenecks: If reviews stalled, who or what caused the delay?
- Export and annotate: If you see recurring issues, make a note and flag for your next team review.
This isn’t about finger-pointing. It’s about seeing if your process is helping or just making people miserable.
Step 5: Use Content Library Reports to Stop Reinventing the Wheel
The Content Library is Loopio’s secret weapon, but only if you keep it clean and up to date. Use the reporting tools to:
- Spot high-edit answers: If a “standard” answer is getting changed every time, it’s not really standard. Update or rewrite it.
- Flag unused content: If sections are collecting dust, ask why. Maybe they’re irrelevant, or maybe they’re buried too deep to find.
- Identify gaps: If new questions are coming up in every RFP, you probably need to add content (or rethink your product messaging).
- Monitor review cycles: If content is flagged as out-of-date but never updated, assign ownership or schedule regular content audits.
Ignore the temptation to fill your library with every possible answer. Quality beats quantity.
Step 6: Hold a Quick (and Blame-Free) Post-Mortem
After a big RFP, pull up the Loopio reports and run a short debrief:
- What worked? Did the Content Library save time? Did assignments flow smoothly?
- What didn’t? Where did reviews stall? Did anyone get stuck?
- What should we try next time? Update content, tweak assignments, or change project timelines based on what the data shows.
Keep it short—30 minutes, tops. The goal isn’t to create a report for a report’s sake, but to actually improve next time.
What Loopio Reporting Gets Right (and What to Ignore)
What works:
- Clear project timelines: Easy to see where things went off the rails.
- Content usage stats: Great for keeping your library relevant.
- Role-based breakdowns: Helpful for making sure work is balanced (or at least visible).
Where it falls short:
- No deep outcome analysis: Loopio can’t tell you why you lost a deal or if your answers were any good.
- Limited customization: You can’t build totally custom dashboards. If you need heavy data slicing, plan to export.
- Not a substitute for team communication: Reports show symptoms, not solutions. You still need to talk to your team.
Keep It Simple and Iterate
Don’t let reporting become another chore that nobody reads. Start with the basics, automate what you can, and use the data to make small, real improvements. If a report isn’t helping you work smarter—or at least complain less—ditch it.
The best RFP teams aren’t drowning in dashboards. They’re using just enough data to spot what’s broken and fix it for next time. Keep it simple, keep iterating, and don’t be afraid to ignore anything that just adds noise.