Tighter budgets and faster response expectations are now baseline conditions for winning business. 84% of organizations say buyers have tighter budgets, and 82% say buyers expect faster response times.

It’s no surprise that 67% say bid, proposal, and strategic response teams are under increasing pressure.

New this year, we introduce the SRM Maturity Index (Leaders vs. Novices), a way of grouping organizations by how effectively they capture, govern, and share the intelligence behind every response.

SRM Leaders are significantly more likely to report year-over-year revenue growth from RFPs and other strategic responses (73% vs. 60% of Novices), tying mature SRM practices directly to top-line performance.

SRM Leaders are ahead on AI depth, discipline, and resourcing: 81% use AI tools for SRM compared with 60% of Novices, and 6 in 10 say all or most of these tools are already delivering positive ROI.

Across the full sample, only about 1 in 4 organizations is investing in people, technology, and training at once to support AI deployment. Within that group, SRM Leaders are heavily over-represented: 43% of Leaders say they are investing in all three, compared with just 17% of Novices.

The strongest Strategic Response Management teams don’t stop at speed and accuracy. They also measure the business outcomes their work drives, creating a clearer link between response execution and growth. Among Leaders, 52% rank revenue impact as one of their top performance metrics, and 49% prioritize win rate.

That discipline helps explain why these teams outperform. By tracking the outcomes that matter most, they make SRM more visible, more accountable, and more tightly aligned to how the business grows.

Translate data into action. The report includes a five-pillar playbook and a 12-month roadmap to propel your organization up the maturity curve.