Your firm has the experience to win. Can it find it in time?
The State of Experience Data in Proposals 2026. Independent research by stargazy with Flowcase.
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The thing that wins is proof you've done it before
Not the writing. Relationships come second at 46%. Writing quality, where most proposal hours go, ranks near the bottom.
It's also the hardest part of the job
Tailoring it to the client is next at 20%. Writing and structuring the proposal: 10%. The bottleneck sits before anyone opens a document.
Leaders think it's easy. The people doing it disagree.
Same firms, same content, twenty points apart. Here's what each side sees when a bid needs proof.
The bids nobody counts
The experience existed. It just wasn't written up in a form anyone could use by the deadline. Nobody debriefs a proposal that wasn't written.
"Having the project on paper wasn't enough if we couldn't credibly connect our people to it. You can't hide from an SF-330 G Matrix."
AI is being pointed at content nobody trusts
56% are using or piloting AI. 46% aren't confident their data is clean enough to feed it, and half of AI users have already seen it invent proposal content.
Where does your firm sit?
The report's four levels of experience data maturity. Click a level to see what it looks like and what to fix next.
Get the numbers in front of your leadership
Full findings, the maturity model and four questions to place your firm, with perspectives from Stantec, Smartegies, Haselwood Marketing and Future Growth Strategies.