Not every RFP is worth chasing. The most successful proposal teams are selective — they pursue opportunities where they have a genuine competitive advantage and pass on the rest. But making that call quickly and consistently across a pipeline of dozens of opportunities? That's where most teams struggle.
Today, we're rolling out a major upgrade to the Saccharo Qualification Engine — the scoring system that helps you decide which opportunities deserve your team's time.
What Changed
Multi-factor scoring model
The previous scoring engine looked primarily at keyword matching between your company profile and RFP requirements. The new model considers six weighted factors:
- Requirement alignment — how closely the RFP requirements match your capabilities and past performance
- Competitive position — analysis of incumbent vendors, set-aside designations, and historical award patterns
- Team capacity — current workload across your proposal team and availability of required subject matter experts
- Timeline feasibility — whether your team can realistically deliver a quality response within the deadline
- Revenue potential — estimated contract value weighted by probability of win
- Strategic fit — alignment with your organization's growth priorities and target markets
Configurable weights
Every organization values these factors differently. A small business might prioritize set-aside opportunities, while a large integrator might weight revenue potential more heavily. The new engine lets you customize the weight of each factor to match your go/no-go criteria.
Historical learning
The scoring model now learns from your outcomes. When you mark a pursuit as won or lost, the engine adjusts its internal model to better predict future success. Over time, your scores become increasingly calibrated to your specific win patterns.
How Scores Are Displayed
Each opportunity in your pipeline now shows:
- A composite score from 0–100 with color coding (green for strong fit, yellow for moderate, red for poor)
- A breakdown panel showing the individual factor scores and what's driving them up or down
- Comparison view — see how the opportunity scores relative to your pipeline average
Practical Impact
During our beta, teams using the upgraded scoring engine:
- Reduced time spent on go/no-go decisions by 50%
- Increased their win rate by 18% by focusing on better-fit opportunities
- Freed up an average of 12 hours per month previously spent pursuing low-probability deals
Getting Started
The upgraded qualification engine is live for all Saccharo customers. Your existing pipeline will be automatically re-scored with the new model. You can customize factor weights from Settings → Qualification → Scoring Model.
Want to see the new scoring in action? Schedule a demo.