Every year, proposal teams are asked to do more with less. They need to respond faster, with fewer resources, and with higher expectations. But how are they living up to these challenges? Where are the bottlenecks, and what are the best teams doing differently?
To find out, we surveyed 192 professionals in bid management, business development, and marketing roles across professional services firms of all sizes and geographies. The result is the 2025 Professional Services Bid Management Report, a comprehensive look into the tools, processes, and pressures shaping the modern proposal environment.
In this blog, we break down the most important questions from the survey and explore what the answers reveal about the current state of proposal management.
Let’s dive into the key findings:
Which parts of the bid process are the most time-consuming?
According to our survey, 48% of professionals say tailoring resumes and case studies takes the most time in the bid process. Another 40% say choosing the right people or examples is their biggest time sink. Together, these two steps dominate the pre-submission timeline — and point to a much deeper issue: lack of visibility.
Most firms don’t have a centralized or searchable system for tracking internal expertise and project experience. As a result, teams waste time chasing down CVs, reformatting old case studies, and manually customizing content. The process is slow, inconsistent, and error-prone — even when the right experience exists.
As one senior bid manager put it: “The right people win the work. But we lose time proving we have them.”
The Key Takeaway
Firms are spending the most time on the tasks that matter most to clients — but doing so inefficiently. Without a central source of truth for resumes and case studies, teams can’t move fast or respond with confidence. Across the industry, this inefficiency creates unnecessary risk: bids go out rushed, underdeveloped, or misaligned. The firms that win are already shifting from reactive content gathering to proactive, structured storytelling — powered by searchable, reusable experience data.
Which tools do you currently use in bid & proposal management?
Despite growing complexity and pressure to move faster, only 22% of firms use dedicated proposal management software, and just 26% are using AI in a meaningful way — even though 90% of respondents believe AI has value in the bid process.
This gap between belief and adoption is striking. The tools exist. The benefits are clear. Yet most firms are still hesitant to make the leap. So what’s holding teams back? According to the data and qualitative responses, the obstacles include:
- Uncertainty about how to implement new tools
- Lack of integration with existing systems
- Resistance to change, especially from leadership
- Difficulty proving ROI without immediate results
What this leaves behind is a patchwork of disconnected tools that slow teams down and limit visibility into the process.
The Key Takeaway
The industry recognizes that proposal tech and AI can unlock speed, quality, and consistency — but trust and adoption haven’t caught up. Many firms are stuck in legacy workflows that weren’t designed for the modern proposal environment. If your team is still managing bids with spreadsheets and email chains, it’s a sign you’re surviving, not optimizing. The firms that are pulling ahead are those making the shift: from scattered tools to integrated systems, and from belief in AI to actual, trusted use.
How do you rate the maturity of your company’s bid/proposal tech and processes?
When asked to assess their own bid/proposal operations, most respondents gave themselves middling scores. On average, firms ranked their ‘Tech Maturity’ at 3.3 out of 5, while their ‘Process Maturity’ scored at a slightly higher at 3.5 out of 5.
Even firms with solid win rates rarely described their systems or workflows as “excellent.” Most hovered between “fair” and “good.” In other words, teams are getting by — but not confidently or consistently.
This matters more than ever. As client demands increase and submission timelines shrink, the cracks in ad-hoc processes start to widen. In many firms, proposal success still relies on individual effort, last-minute heroics, and manual workarounds. That’s not scalable — and it's not sustainable.
The Key Takeaway
Across the industry, there’s a clear maturity gap — and it’s putting proposal outcomes at risk. Too many teams are still relying on manual workarounds and individual effort to get proposals out the door. But with AI and wider proposal technology evolving rapidly, that approach is quickly becoming outdated.
Firms that want to compete at a high level need to prioritize tech maturity now, not later. That means more than just buying software — it means embedding tools into daily workflows and aligning processes to support faster, more consistent output. Clients are expecting tailored, on-brand, error-free proposals at speed, and teams can’t deliver that without the right tech, and without structured, repeatable processes.
How long does it take to generate a proposal?
According to the survey, 70% of respondents spend more than five days creating a single proposal. While of course some proposals warrant that level of effort, this statistic highlights just how resource-intensive the process remains — especially when much of that time is spent on repetitive or manual tasks.
From chasing CV updates to reformatting documents, proposal teams are consistently bogged down by work that could be automated or streamlined. And with tighter deadlines becoming the norm, spending a full week per bid is increasingly at odds with market demands.
The Key Takeaway
Proposal timelines are out of sync with how fast firms need to respond. The longer you spend on a proposal, the more your opportunity cost grows. You’re left scrambling as either other proposals pass you by, or you try to juggle multiple bids, but sacrifice quality in each. To stay competitive, firms need to reduce turnaround time through smarter systems, not added pressure. The key is making resource sourcing, content tailoring, and formatting effortless.
What is your firm’s average proposal win rate?
Win rates varied widely among respondents, but the majority fell between 20% and 60%. Only 2% of firms reported win rates above 80%, underscoring a harsh truth: most proposals don’t win.
When teams are investing substantial time into every bid — often without the tools to scale or the data to guide strategic decisions — the return on effort can be disheartening. Submitting more proposals isn’t the answer if they’re not targeted or differentiated.
The Key Takeaway
Submitting more proposals won’t guarantee more wins — but submitting better ones will. High-performing firms focus on improving quality, not just quantity. That means sharpening their value proposition, using data to decide when to bid, and showcasing the right people and projects with clarity and speed.
Final Thoughts
The 2025 Professional Services Bid Management Report reveals a clear reality: proposal teams are under pressure, and many are held back by outdated tools, fragmented processes, and reactive workflows. But it also shows where the opportunities lie — in smarter systems, clearer content reuse, and better alignment between people, tools, and processes.
Download the full report below:
If your firm is spending too long on the wrong tasks, struggling to scale, or missing out on the bids you should be winning, it’s time to rethink your approach.
