The Win/Loss Report is an AI-generated comparison of your proposal against the other competing proposals for a decided matter. It shows how you measured up to the other bids and the winning bid, and uses best practices to point to what may have made the difference and what could strengthen your next one.
After a matter you competed on is decided, you can generate a Win/Loss Report on your own proposal. It shows where your pricing, scope, and answers stood relative to the rest of the field; what may have made the selected firm a stronger fit; and how you can improve going forward. This article explains what you get, when a report is available, and how it is put together.
Why the Win/Loss Report is worth your time
Most of the time, a proposal goes out, and the result comes back with little explanation. You are left guessing whether it was price, scope, the team, or something you never saw. Even if you do get time with the client to discuss the outcome, rarely are you provided with constructive feedback. The Win/Loss Report aims to fill that gap. It gives you an objective, comparative analysis.
1. Get a detailed analysis of the result
The report compares your proposal to the rest of the field and, using best practices, points to the factors most consistent with the outcome. For a loss, that means where your proposal sat outside the usual market pattern this kind of matter rewarded. For a win, it points to what may have set your proposal apart and whether your pricing left room on the table. It is an analysis based on the proposals, not the client's stated reasons, but it gives you a grounded starting point rather than a guess. NOTE: This is not vetted nor approved by the client.
2. See how your proposal compares to the field
You already knew your own price, your own scope, and (usually) your rank. The report shows your position against a benchmark scorecard and a scope-adjusted pricing comparison, so you can see where your price and scope sat against the field, and where a competing firm simply had an edge you could not match..
- Benchmark scorecard. PERSUIT's benchmark scorecard, a framework built from patterns across tens of thousands of proposals submitted on the platform. It reflects the categories and category weightings most commonly used by clients to evaluate and score proposals, covering areas like price, fee structure, matter strategy, and expertise. It is a general best practice lens, not the client's specific criteria.
- Scope-adjusted pricing. Restates each firm's price to account for differences in what they actually included, so you are comparing like for like rather than raw totals.
3. Know what to work on next time
Every report ends with practical takeaways tied to this matter. For example, if you submitted a budget estimate where a committed fixed fee would generally read as stronger cost certainty, the report calls that out and suggests what to consider next time.
Declining a firm gracefully is time-consuming, and many teams simply do not have the hours for it. The report gives firms something genuinely useful to learn from, without you having to draft individual feedback for every firm that missed out.
What you see that you could not see during the matter
The value is in the field-level view. During the matter, you saw only your own proposal. The report shows you where your proposal sat against a de-identified field and what generally tends to win on this kind of work. Competing firms are never named.
See an example
Below is an example Win/Loss Report. Scroll within the frame to see the full report, including the benchmark scorecard, the pricing comparison, and the takeaways.
An example Win/Loss Report. Names and figures shown are illustrative.
What is in the report
Every report is built around your proposal and the matter you competed on. Depending on the matter, it can include:
- A summary of the outcome and likely deciding factors.
- A benchmark scorecard showing your overall score and rank against the field.
- A breakdown of that score by each individual criterion, showing where you sat against the field average on each one.
- When available, a pricing comparison, including a scope-adjusted view that normalises for what each firm priced for. This depends on whether the matter used an auction and its auction visibility settings, and we cannot show you more about pricing than you could access during the RFP.
- Why the selected firm may have won, and where your proposal was stronger.
- Where your proposal could improve, with clear takeaways to carry into the next bid.
How the report is built
Understanding how the report is put together helps you read it with the right expectations.
It reads the proposals submitted for the matter
The report draws on the pricing, scope, assumptions, fee structures, and written answers submitted by your firm and the firms you competed against. It does not use the client's scorecard, their scores, or their internal notes.
It scores against the PERSUIT benchmark scorecard
It generates scores against the PERSUIT benchmark scorecard (as explained above).
It keeps the field anonymous
Competing firms are never named. Depending on the auction visibility settings for the matter, competitor detail is either shown as an anonymised field or withheld entirely. You only ever see your own position against a de-identified field.
Important: this is a best practice read, not the client's stated reasons
Because the report is built from best practice benchmarks, it explains what generally tends to win, not the specific reasons the client made their decision. It is AI-generated and is not validated by the client, so treat it as one plausible reading of the outcome. The client may have had different reasons.
When you can get a report
A Win/Loss Report is available once a matter is decided and it meets the conditions below.
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At least three firms submitted a proposalThe report compares proposals against one another and keeps every competing firm anonymous. It needs a genuine field to protect that anonymity, so the matter must have three or more firms submitting a proposal. Matters with one or two proposals are not eligible. |
The client has an AI feature enabledThe report is only available on matters created by an organization that has at least one of PERSUIT's AI features enabled. |
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The client allowed reports for the matterClients choose whether Win/Loss reports can be generated on their matters. Where a client has switched the feature off for a matter, a Win/Loss Report will not be available. |
Reports can be generated once a matter has been decided, meets the requirements above, and has at least one firm selected.
Getting the most from your report
Read the report with your next proposal in mind. The takeaways are the part to act on: they translate the analysis into specific changes, like committing to a fixed fee where you offered an estimate, or surfacing bench depth you kept in the background. Share it with the wider team so the lessons carry beyond a single bid.
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