In theory, the Request for Proposal (RFP) should be a straightforward way for buyers to assess suppliers. In practice, it is becoming a pressure point. Across the US and UK, the rate at which organisations finish and submit RFPs is slipping. Deals are stalling, proposals are abandoned, and millions are being left on the table.
The shift is subtle but undeniable. Unless businesses adapt, declining completion rates risk becoming their biggest barrier to growth.
The Numbers Tell a Story
The statistics are difficult to ignore:
- US companies lose roughly $725,000 a year in potential revenue to incomplete RFPs i.e. responses that are started but never submitted (QorusDocs).
- Organisations are responding less often. The average number of RFPs submitted annually has dropped from 175 to 153, a significant fall in participation (Proposal.biz).
- Industry research shows that RFP win rates have fallen from about 53% in 2019 to roughly 44% in recent years, where they have since levelled off (OpenAsset). In practice, this means fewer RFPs being submitted and fewer being won.
- In the UK, dozens of tenders are abandoned by UK public bodies each year (BidStats), and even large awards — such as a £65m NHS contract — have been withdrawn mid-process (Sharpe Pritchard).
- The UK’s Public Procurement Review Service highlights “tender process” and “evaluation” as frequent supplier complaints, underlining growing frustration with the system itself (PPRS).
In short: fewer RFPs are being completed, and both buyers and sellers are feeling the strain.
Why Are Completion Rates Declining?
Several forces are converging:
- Complexity: RFPs have ballooned into sprawling documents. Multi-tab spreadsheets, security questionnaires, compliance attachments. Each layer adds friction.
- Time pressure: Procurement teams want quick turnarounds, but suppliers are already inundated. Short deadlines force hard choices.
- Thin resources: Sales, security, and compliance teams are stretched. Without dedicated proposal writers, RFPs get pushed aside.
- Information silos: Critical answers are buried across systems. Chasing the right document or colleague burns hours.
- Fragmented collaboration: Legal, product, and security all need input. Without clear coordination, bottlenecks multiply.
- Selective bidding: Some firms walk away. If the effort looks disproportionate to the odds of winning, they decline to complete the process.
None of this is surprising. It is the predictable outcome of rising buyer demands and overstretched teams. What matters is how organisations respond.
The Hidden Cost of Incomplete RFPs
Every abandoned RFP carries a cost. It is not only the lost revenue opportunity but also the wasted staff time, the missed chance to build trust with a prospect, and in some cases reputational damage from failing to follow through. Over time, declining completion rates become a competitive disadvantage.
Where Vera Fits In
This is where technology makes a difference, not by replacing human judgement, but by removing the friction that prevents teams from finishing what they start. Vera’s RFP software was built with that exact purpose:
- Taming complexity: Vera reads PDFs, Word documents, and multi-tab Excel sheets with conditional logic, pulling every question into a clean, workable format.
- Surfacing the right answers: Its knowledge base holds verified responses, ready to be reused. No more hunting through drives or Slack threads.
- Keeping stakeholders aligned: Commenting, version history, notifications, and bulk approvals keep sales, legal, and security moving together instead of tripping over one another.
- Meeting teams where they work: Integrations with Google Drive, SharePoint, Slack, and Microsoft Teams mean Vera fits into existing workflows.
- Supporting better choices: Confidence scoring and historical insights help teams decide which RFPs to pursue and which to walk away from.
The result is simple but powerful: more RFPs completed, in less time, with less frustration.
Turning Decline into Advantage
Completion rates may be slipping, but the story does not have to end there. With the right approach, the very pressures that are causing many firms to fall behind can become a source of advantage for those who adapt.
By making it easier to extract, locate, and verify information and by helping teams work together rather than against each other Vera enables organisations to reverse the trend. RFPs stop being a drain on resources and return to being what they should be: an opportunity to win business.
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