Win Rate
Definition
Win rate is the percentage of competitive bids a contractor successfully wins against other bidders on commercial or public projects.
What Win Rate Means for Your Business
What it means
Win rate is close rate's cousin for commercial and bid work. While close rate applies to residential estimates where there may be no competing bid, win rate measures how often you beat the competition in a formal bid process.
Why it matters
Low win rates usually mean pricing is off, the proposal is weak, or you are bidding the wrong jobs. Tracking win rate by customer type and project size tells you where to focus bidding effort.
How contractors use it
Estimators log every bid, track outcome, and review win rate quarterly. A 20% to 30% win rate on public bids is typical. A 40% to 60% win rate on private commercial is strong.
Real-World Example
A commercial mechanical contractor ran a 14% win rate on public school bids but 48% on private office buildings. Shifting focus to private work added $1.2 million in annual revenue with less bidding effort.
Related Terms
Close Rate
Close rate is the percentage of presented estimates that result in a booked job or signed contract.
Estimate
An estimate is a written offer of price and scope that a contractor provides to a customer before beginning any work.
Pipeline
Pipeline is the total value and count of open opportunities a contractor is actively pursuing but has not yet won or lost.
Backlog
Backlog is the total dollar value or labor hours of work that has been sold but not yet scheduled or completed.
Average Ticket
Average ticket is the mean revenue generated per service call, calculated by dividing total invoiced revenue by the number of completed jobs.
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