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Business Development KPIs

The #1 Growth Metric You’re Not Tracking (Yet) 

Mary, a seasoned growth officer, was blindsided when her team lost a recompete, which they considered a ‘sure thing.’

The customer liked Mary’s team, but the winner understood their emerging needs better. Without CRQ, Mary’s team overestimated their relationship, mistaking ‘being liked’ for trust.

What is Customer Relationship Quality (CRQ)?

As a Growth Officer, you strive for consistent, predictable organic growth.

But that’s hard to achieve when you keep losing bids you were sure you’d win.

The missing KPI on your dashboard is Customer Relationship Quality, and it ensures you’ll never lose a contract again because of overestimated relationship quality.

Customer Relationship Quality CRQ

CRQ isn’t about casual conversation or how often you chat about their customer’s favorite sports team.

It’s how deeply your team is engaged and how much the customer values you as a partner. High CRQ ensures your team stops guessing or making assumptions because they have the customer’s answer.

3 RED FLAGS TO WATCH FOR

Teams often mistake casual chit-chat for good relationship quality.

Being liked isn’t the same as being trusted; trust comes from connecting, understanding, and providing value. Have you recently experienced any of the following?

  1. Proposals lack clear differentiators because you didn’t understand the competition and customer’s needs well enough to know what set your solution apart.
  2. Surprise losses to competitors: everything appeared great until suddenly it didn’t.
  3. Unnoticed changes in acquisition strategies until it was too late.

All of these likely resulted in a loss for you. So, you know firsthand the pain of removing millions in forecast revenue.

Competitive Intel is Increased with Customer Trust

All of these likely resulted in a loss for you. So, you know firsthand the pain of removing millions in forecast revenue.

WHY TRADITIONAL KPIS ARE FAILING YOU

Traditional KPIs (like win rates) are lagging indicators. CRQ is different. It’s a leading indicator that tells you whether you’re doing the right things to impact future wins. This is why the best-performing companies focus on CRQ as a leading indicator—and it works. The Deltek 2023 Clarity Report showed that top organizations achieved:

87% win rates on new opportunities
80% on recompetes

Organizations are 80% more likely to win if their teams excel at customer engagement¹ and strong engagement strategies can increase their annual revenue by up to 23%².

¹ Deltek Federal Procurement Success | ² Aberdeen Group

Their secret? They don’t just check off meetings on a contact plan. They measure CRQ and treat it like an asset.

WHAT HIGH CRQ LOOKS LIKE

When high CRQ exists, there is no need for assumptions. Your team will:

  • Uncover customer needs and priorities long before the RFP drops.
  • Identify all the stakeholders, not just the obvious ones.
  • Continuously refine and vet solutions based on customer input.
  • Build trust that leads to repeat wins and strategic expansions.
63% higher win rate on government contracts by companies that prioritize customer relationships.
HOW TO INCORPORATE CRQ

Without a CRQ metric, Mary did not know where her team stood with their customers. She partnered with Hi-Q Group to address this and integrated CRQ into the processes and culture.

Here’s the framework we used (you can too):

  1. Define CRQ: Establish clear criteria for defining CRQ. For example, a great relationship is one where your team understands the customer’s top strategic objectives, funding constraints, emerging needs, and stakeholder priorities. In a negative relationship, your team is limited to surface-level discussions, lacks stakeholder engagement, or misunderstands evolving needs.
Edward Allardice Quote

Businesses need to constantly evaluate how they do business with people. [This training] will create a team enabled to build deep embedded partnerships that provide the business long term, sustainable and desirable results across the organization.

  1. Measure CRQ: Use a standardized assessment tool, such as the HI-Q CRQ assessment. This tool estimates relationship quality, making it easy to quantify something that is often considered intangible.
  2. Integrate CRQ into Processes: Embed CRQ into account reviews, pipeline meetings, gate decisions, and capture strategies. When pursuing an account or opportunity, use CRQ metrics to identify gaps and assign those with the best CRQ to help.
  3. Train Your Team: Empower all customer-facing team members with the skills to engage customers, develop relationships, gather intelligence, and share it internally.
Business Development KPIs

RECOMMENDED GUIDE

CRQ: YOUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

High CRQ ensures you never have to guess where you stand with a customer.

Instead of waiting for disappointing debriefs, you’ll have the tools to continually assess your relationship and intelligence quality. This is how you outmaneuver competitors and ensure sustainable organic growth.

measure what matters

Winning goes beyond friendly chats and surface-level intelligence.

CRQ is a differentiator and growth accelerator… it’s also the missing KPI on most dashboards. If you are tired of losing contracts and playing guessing games, it’s time to shift the focus.

Ask yourself:

  • Do we understand our customers’ priorities and emerging needs?
  • Are we measuring the real strength of our customer relationships?
  • Do we know that good relationships go far beyond a friendly chat?
  • Are we engaging with all key stakeholders or just the ones we are comfortable with?

Stop guessing and start winning. Add CRQ to your dashboard. Define it. Measure it. Act on it. When you know your customer better than anyone else, you don’t just compete—you win.

Take Action Now

You know the problem. You’ve seen the missed opportunities. Now, it’s time to get serious about transforming how your organization approaches customer relationships.

Schedule a confidential 30-minute consultation to explore how making CRQ a KPI can revolutionize your government contracting strategy.

read more:

Terrell Quote Terrell Martin

As a defense industry contractor and business owner with over 20 years of experience, I can confidently say that this is the most impactful training I’ve ever attended for building and improving customer relationships.

It’s time to drive your organic growth. 

It’s time to drive organic growth. 

SELECT YOUR TEAM’S PROGRAM:

NEW!
4-WEEK DIY
VIDEO PROGRAM
NEW

$1,995 PER STUDENT

$499

PER STUDENT

In Growth Essentials, your team will learn the fundamentals in this 4-week turnkey DIY program.

In Growth Essentials, your team will learn the fundamentals in this 4-week turnkey DIY program.

  • Skills Gap Assessment

  • 20 Video Lessons

  • Roleplay Examples

  • Hi-Q Method® Intel Process

  • Meeting + Intel Templates

TURN-KEY PACKAGE INCLUDES
TURN-KEY PACKAGE 
  • Kick-off Template + Guide

  • Weekly Emails to Guide Your Team

  • 4 Meeting Templates (Optional)

2-WEEK
COACHING PROGRAM

$1,995 PER STUDENT

$1,995

PER STUDENT

In Masterclass, your team will learn advanced skills on-demand and receive expert-led, roleplay coaching.

In Masterclass, your team will learn advanced skills on-demand and receive expert-led, roleplay coaching.

  • Skills Gap Assessment

  • 36 Video Lessons 

  • Roleplay Examples

  • Hi-Q Method® Intel Process

  • Meeting + Intel Templates

COACHING PACKAGE INCLUDES
COACHING PACKAGE
  • 6 Lunch Expert-Led Roleplay Sessions 

  • Breakout Groups + Instructor Access

  • 3-Month Email Reinforcement

Need help?

Not sure which is right for your team? Need to transform your growth culture across the organization? Let’s chat. 

Not sure which is right for your team? Need to transform your growth culture across the organization? Let’s chat. 





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