Participation rate

What is participation rate?

Participation rate is the percentage of individuals from your contact list who provide feedback through interviews or surveys. It shows how many of your contacts engage in the feedback process compared to the total number you’ve reached out to.

For example, if you contact 100 people and 15 submit feedback, your participation rate is 15%. This metric reflects the effectiveness of your outreach and the level of engagement in your win-loss analysis program. In your scorecard and in the Clozd platform, you may see us use the phrase "Net Participation Rate". When we say that, we mean that we remove participants that had incorrect emails (e.g., bad data), participants that didn't receive all of the emails (e.g., we discontinued the email sequence), etc. and look only at the true eligible population.

How is it graded?

Why is it important?

Participation rate is a crucial indicator of your program’s health, reflecting both the quality of your contact lists and the effectiveness of outreach efforts. Having a high participation rate is key to obtaining valuable insights and achieving the goals of your win-loss analysis program.

  How can it be improved?

1. Identify the right contacts. Focus on identifying the "primary contacts" for each deal in your CRM, and then prioritize these individuals in your win-loss program. It’s important to keep in mind that your outreach is only as good as the data that’s provided. By practicing strong data hygiene to ensure accurate contact information, your participation rate will increase.
2. Don’t hamstring your program by narrowing your contact pool. Avoid unnecessarily restricting your contact pool, as this reduces your chances of receiving valuable feedback, limits engagement opportunities, and could skew results. A broader contact pool increases the likelihood of a higher participation rate and more comprehensive insights.
3. Decrease time-to-interview. Time-to-interview is a critical factor in participation rate. Reaching out to contacts shortly after their evaluation is far more effective than waiting several months. Reach out to your program manager to learn more about how you can leverage Clozd’s automation features to streamline this process.
4. Increase the legitimacy of your outreach. To ensure that your research efforts are perceived as legitimate, we recommend using tools like DKIM for domain matching and including relevant details in your emails—such as the name of the sales rep or CSM and the specific products they evaluated. This personalized approach builds trust and encourages participation.
5. Introduce win-loss to your buyers. Many organizations that get high participation prime their buyers in the sales process with a simple slide at the end of their sales deck. This allows a sales rep to introduce the idea early, which then means that when it comes time for the interview they'll be more willing to participate.
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