If you’re churning out proposals and not seeing enough wins, there’s a reason. Maybe you’re repeating the same mistakes, or maybe you just can’t spot what’s working and what isn’t. Xait’s analytics can help—but only if you use them for more than just pretty charts. This guide is for sales, bid, and proposal teams who want to use the data in Xait to actually win more deals, not just tick boxes for management.
Let’s get into the real steps, not the fluff.
Step 1: Get Clear on What “Win Rate” Means for You
Before you even open the analytics dashboard, decide what you’re actually trying to improve. “Win rate” sounds simple, but it means different things for different teams:
- Is it the percentage of total proposals won?
- The value of deals closed vs. proposed?
- Success in certain industries, regions, or client types?
Pro tip: Don’t overcomplicate this. Pick one metric to start—usually “proposals won divided by proposals submitted” is plenty. You can always get fancy later.
Step 2: Set Up Your Xait Analytics Properly
Out of the box, Xait tracks a lot of stuff. But if your team isn’t consistent with how you enter data, your analytics will be garbage-in, garbage-out. Here’s what to handle up front:
- Standardize proposal stages. Make sure everyone uses the same status names (e.g., Draft, Submitted, Won, Lost). If you have five ways to say “in review,” your stats will be a mess.
- Define loss reasons. Set up clear, required fields for why proposals were lost. “Price” and “Other” won’t cut it. Make people pick or write something useful.
- Make data entry non-negotiable. If people can skip fields, they will. Lock down your templates so the analytics have something decent to work with.
What to ignore: Don’t waste time tracking every tiny variable (“Did the proposal use Arial or Calibri?”). Focus on the basics: who, what, when, deal value, win/loss, and key reasons.
Step 3: Dive Into the Win/Loss Data—But Look for Patterns, Not Just Numbers
Once you’ve got clean data, look at your win/loss analytics. But here’s the thing: a single win or loss won’t tell you much. You want trends.
What to actually look for:
- Loss reasons that keep popping up. If “pricing” comes up 60% of the time, dig deeper—is it really price, or is your value not coming through?
- Proposal types with best/worst performance. Are short-form proposals winning more often? Do custom solutions lose more than off-the-shelf?
- Timing matters. Do you lose when proposals are rushed? Does submitting earlier give you an edge?
- Team members involved. Are some writers or reviewers linked to more wins? (Don’t turn this into a witch hunt, but it can highlight coaching opportunities.)
What doesn’t work: Obsessing over tiny sample sizes. If you only have three losses in a category, don’t draw big conclusions.
Step 4: Use Collaboration Analytics to Spot Bottlenecks
One of Xait’s best features is tracking who does what and when. Use this to figure out where proposals get stuck.
- Look for slow stages. If drafting always drags, is it a resource issue? Are reviewers holding things up?
- Check team workload. Is one person overloaded and causing delays? Spread work more evenly if needed.
- Time-to-completion. Are winners usually turned around faster? Or do more thorough (but slower) proposals win?
Honest take: Don’t assume faster is always better—sometimes a bit more polish wins the deal. But if you’re losing because you miss deadlines, that’s a red flag.
Step 5: Track Changes After You Tweak Your Process
Here’s the trap: teams look at analytics, make a change, and then never check if it worked. Don’t be that team.
- Make one change at a time. If you fix your pricing page and rewrite your executive summary at once, you won’t know what helped.
- Wait for enough data. Give it a month, or at least 10-15 proposals, before judging the results.
- Re-run your win/loss analysis. Did your win rate actually go up? Or did you just feel busier?
What to ignore: Don’t chase every blip. If you lose two in a row after a change, it might just be bad luck. Look for real, lasting trends.
Step 6: Build Short Feedback Loops
Analytics are only useful if you do something with them—fast. Here’s how to make that happen:
- Monthly quick reviews. Don’t wait for a quarterly meeting. Block 30 minutes a month to look at key metrics as a team.
- Share actual stories, not just numbers. Was a loss reason legit, or did a competitor have an inside track? Talk it out.
- Document what you try. Keep a simple log: “In June, we tried X. Results: Y.” It’ll save your sanity six months from now.
Pitfall: Don’t let analytics become homework for someone’s performance review. The goal is to win more, not to make people paranoid.
Step 7: Use Xait Analytics to Back Up Requests for Resources
Let’s be honest—sometimes you need to prove you need more people, better templates, or more time to management. Solid analytics can help:
- Show how bottlenecks cost wins. If proposals stall at review and you lose deals, show it in black and white.
- Prove the impact of improvements. If changing your kickoff meeting process improved win rates, show the before/after.
- Make the case for training. If newer team members have lower win rates, it’s a good argument for coaching, not just criticism.
Don’t bother: Don’t try to spin bad numbers. If your process stinks, own it and show your plan to fix it.
What to Ignore (and What to Actually Use)
There’s a ton of data in Xait, but only a few things actually help you win more:
- Ignore: Vanity metrics (word count, page count, how many times someone commented “nice job”).
- Use: Win/loss ratios, loss reasons, time spent at each stage, and who touched each proposal.
- Ignore: Anything you can’t act on. If you can’t change it, don’t waste time tracking it.
Keep It Simple and Iterate
Don’t get overwhelmed. You don’t need a data scientist to improve your win rate. Start with the basics, look for obvious patterns, try one change, and see what happens. If a metric isn’t helping you make better proposals or win more, ditch it.
The goal isn’t to be “data-driven”—it’s to win more business. Use Xait analytics to get there, but don’t let the tool drive you in circles. Keep it simple, keep adjusting, and your win rate will follow.