Lost Bid Autopsy

What it does

Lost Bid Autopsy diagnoses why a bid was lost by analyzing your submitted price, the scope, what you know about the winning competitor, and any client feedback. It returns a structured diagnosis: whether the loss was price-driven, scope-driven, relationship-driven, or presentation-driven, along with specific corrective actions for your next attempt at a similar account.

When to use it

• After any bid loss where you want to understand what happened before moving on.
• When a prospect gave vague feedback ("we went in a different direction") and you need to interpret it.
• Before re-bidding on a re-solicitation from the same client — use the prior autopsy as input.
• Identifying patterns across multiple losses — if you run an autopsy on 5 recent losses and all diagnose as "scope misread," that's a process problem to fix upstream.
• Coaching an estimator on where their bid logic broke down.

Step-by-step

1. Enter your submitted bid price (total annual value).
2. Enter the winning bid price if you know it, or select "Unknown."
3. Describe the scope — facility type, square footage, frequency.
4. Paste any client feedback you received, even if informal.
5. Describe the winning competitor if known (company size, local/national, any known differentiators).
6. Click Run autopsy. Analysis takes 10–20 seconds.
7. Review the diagnosis, contributing factors (ranked), and the corrective actions section.

Tips that change outcomes

• Price spread matters more than absolute price. A 10% lower winning bid in a healthcare facility signals different root causes than a 10% lower winning bid in a warehouse. Enter both prices and let the tool assess the spread in context.
• Client feedback is often code. "We needed someone with more local presence" usually means relationship-driven loss, not operational. "We were impressed but went with a smaller company" often means the client wanted more personal attention, not lower price. The autopsy decodes these signals.
• National competitors beating local bids is usually a volume discount issue. If a national BSC won, the autopsy flags supply-chain arbitrage as a likely factor — their chemical and supply costs per sq ft are lower than yours at scale. The corrective action will point toward group purchasing or a supplier rebate program, not lowering your margin.
• Run it within 48 hours of the loss. Memory of the scope conversation and client tone degrades fast. The more specific your inputs, the more actionable the output.

Inputs explained

Outputs explained

• Loss category: Price, Scope, Relationship, Presentation, or Combination — with a confidence indicator.
• Contributing factors (ranked): The specific issues, ranked by estimated impact on the loss.
• Corrective actions: Concrete steps for future bids of similar type — not generic advice. Each action is tied to a specific factor.
• Re-bid recommendation: If this client re-solicits, whether to pursue and at what adjusted approach.

Limits

Anonymous users get 3 free runs per day. See the limits page.

Troubleshooting

The diagnosis says "Insufficient data to diagnose" even though I filled all fields.

This appears when the bid price and scope description don't contain enough signal for the tool to reason against. Add more detail to the scope description — restroom count, any unusual specifications, or context about the prospect relationship.

The corrective actions seem generic.

Paste verbatim client feedback rather than a paraphrase. "You weren't competitive on price" as feedback triggers different corrective actions than "we valued the other company's certification more."