Turn Your Losses into Wins

Win/Loss Interview

by Terry Stidham

No one likes to lose business. The resulting empty feeling of losing a hard fought battle can be devastating. This is especially true if you lose a deal in one of your key accounts that was projected to close at a 75% rate or better. This can be an extremely disappointing time for you and your sales manager.

When you receive the news your initial reaction is to tell your client that they are making a mistake. They certainly must have missed something in your proposal! Your competition must have omitted something or misled them. They are making a BIG MISTAKE if they proceed with anyone other than you. Maybe your sales manager is asking you to set up a meeting in an attempt to unravel the deal. The extreme emotions that follow this bad news are all over the map. Most people in sales have been in this situation. The fact of the matter is the longer you are in sales and business development the more times this will happen. Sure we want to win every deal. And we all believe we should win every deal. But it is unrealistic to believe that we will have a 100% hit ratio. So let’s make sure we make the most from a lost sale and prepare better next time. 

This particular transaction may be lost but let’s be smart about learning from the loss. Instead of calling your client and telling him that he is not so bright let’s take the high road. Let him know that you value your relationship and apologize for not advancing a proposal that met their needs. Ask for a debrief meeting where you and maybe your sales manager can understand where your proposal feel short. If possible ask for a line by line explanation comparing your offer to the winning proposal. In many cases the client may not be willing to get into this detail but it is worth asking for. You want to learn what is the primary reason why you lost the business. And the only way you are going to get to the real reason is to act in a professional manner. Acting out of emotion and attempting to undo the deal during this debrief session is not a good idea.

Remember, the most important long-term goal and benefit of win/loss is to increase a company's new business win rate. This is achieved through an improved understanding of how a company's sales team, products, and services compare with the competition during the sales process. Other benefits include:

• Identifying a company's strengths and weaknesses
• Improving the effectiveness of sales presentations
• Determining key drivers for closing new business
• Using prospect feedback as a training and performance evaluation tool for sales and other presentation team personnel
• Formally sharing prospect perceptions across all areas of an organization to enhance product and service development
• Benchmarking and tracking a company's sales effectiveness, products, and services against the competition's

In-depth Win/Loss interviews with your prospects, customers, and defectors can help you discover answers to your most important business questions, including:

 
• What are the real reasons why you are winning and losing deals?
• What key market trends are you missing?
• What are your best and worst practices?
• What key features are helping you win?
• What key features are you missing?
• What is most important to your buyers
• How do the decision criteria differ based on the type of buyer?
• How are your competitors positioning themselves with your buyers?
• What do your competitors say about you to buyers?
• What training opportunities are you missing?
• How can your sales tools, marketing collateral, and presentations be improved?

 

Getting to the bottom line reason for the loss should be your primary objective. This information will not only better position you for future business in this account. It will also provide valuable feedback relative to how your competition is winning business. You can be sure that this competitor will show up in other accounts you are calling on. It will benefit you to gain as much competitive information as you can in this debrief session. Additionally, your client will appreciate your professional approach to losing this deal. This, of course, assumes you legitimately want to understand how you can better serve the account by learning from this loss. If done properly you will enhance the business relationship with your client and place you in a good position to pick up the business next time around.

Why Ask Why?

Top Question for Sales Leaders

 

Lonnie Scambi author of "The Entrepreneur's Yoda" wrote a recent post on why we should never stop asking why. He says that "anybody that has been around children knows the toughest question they can ask always begins with "why."  You can't fudge the answer to a "why" question! Where there's a problem, understanding "why" the problem exists, invariably puts you on the path to solving it.

 

It starts with "Why" do you do what you do? Is the answer the same one that you would have given when you took over you position?  If it's not, what's changed? Is that a positive or a negative? See how the "why" questions are so important?  They trigger other, even better ones. "Why" questions help us better understand ourselves and our function and roll. Note: "Because I said so," is not a valid answer.

 

Here are several critical "Why" questions I use regularly to keep on track:

Why did we win (lose) that sale?

It is crucial to analyze and understand why a sale closed or didn't, and learn from it. Even if you don't analyze all sales, you should know why you lost a sale and learn and build from that experience. A win/loss review should turn each experience into a learning experience.

Why would customers want to do business with us?

It's surprising how many companies take this one for granted, figuring that having a great product/service is the answer.

Why would people want to/not want to work for us?

This is a critical question to which a few businesses answer. It is easy to get caught up about how good their company is and how it is such great place to work. Conduct exit interviews. Ask your customers, vendors, suppliers and employees this question. The answers will aid you in making the changes needed to become world class.

Why do we have that policy or procedure?

Policies and procedures should be in place to make the business operate more efficiently not just as a CYA vehicle for the company or its management.

Why are we/aren't we making the number?

Do you know what's really underneath the numbers? This will drive a whole set of other why questions about costs and their makeup. How often do you really both analyze and communicate this to your team? It's important under either circumstance. When you are making money, you and your team know why and thus, what needs to be done to keep doing it. When you aren't, you know why not, and want needs to be done to correct it.

Why am I doing this?

This is a question that you should not only ask, periodically, but more important, have the answer in the form of a set of key objectives for both the company and for you, personally and professionally."

Additional Why Questions:

• Why does it work this way?
• Why is that our goal?
• Why did you say no?
• Why don't we enter this market?
• Why did you change your mind?
• Why are we having this meeting?
• Why not?

There isn't a more important question for leaders to ask than "why." Why would you ever stop asking it, and, of course, answering it?

Follow Up X 7

Follow Up to Improve Relations and Results

 

One of the most important and yet overlooked skills in business today is follow-up.

This applies to many parts of our business: sales, marketing, customer service and care, leadership, networking, branding, and more. It is a habit and a discipline that, when used effectively and regularly, will change your results and your life.

Kevin Eikenberry with the Sideboard gives us seven ways to incorporate more follow-up into your practices – and therefore seven ways to increase results.

1. Say Thank You - First and foremost, the must-do follow-up habit is to say thank you. Send an email, make a call, or best of all, send a hand written note. It is a terrific opportunity to follow up with the individual right away. Same day is best. Tell the Customer thanks for the new order. Tell the employee how much you appreciate their extra effort (or their normal effort over the long haul). Thank a person for a referral. Thank a colleague for the book or website recommendation. We all sent thank you cards after receiving graduation and wedding gifts. And while you may have done it because it was expected, it was really good practice for the rest of your life. I have a recurring task on my task list. It reads “Who do I need to thank today?”
2. Ask for Feedback - After completing a project, meeting, sales campaign, consulting engagement, or whatever, ask for some feedback. Preface your request by saying that you want to not only make sure that you have met their needs, but that you want to know how to continue to improve. Implement a win/loss interview.
3. Keep Track  - You’ve given an employee, vendor, supplier or customer some coaching or help on a specific issue, so follow-up to see how it is going now and if the results match what had been expected. Follow-up isn’t just a one time deal – it is an on-going commitment. You likely are interested in the progress others are making. Let them know by staying in touch and seeing how things are going and how you might be able to help.
4. Remain Interested  - This is one step beyond keeping track. It is remaining interested in the other person or group’s progress over the long term. Continue to check back on progress. Remaining interested shows that you care and have made the effort to remember about events and goals important to the other person.
5. Remember Important Events  - Top people call friends and colleagues on their birthdays and sings or at least tells them Happy Birthday – live or on their voice mail. I have done this occasionally in the past – but have made it a more normal part of my routine as well. Why? Because it makes people smile. Your kids and parents expect a happy birthday wish, but do your Customers? Your employees? Your vendors? Maybe you don’t sing, but you can still wish people happy anniversary, happy birthday or happy St. Patrick’s Day – especially if they are Irish!
6. Share Information You Know Matters to Them  - Have a colleague who has a rose garden? Send them the article about roses that you read last week. Have a co-worker who graduated from a certain college? Congratulate them when his team wins the big game. Have a Customer who loves tennis? Send them a link to the website you heard about that helps people improve their game. You get the idea. Follow-up by giving people information or comments that they know is just for them. It should be used throughout your career to keep your network fresh and engage. This could mean forwarding an article that you think she’ll find interesting, or congratulating her if you notice she’s been promoted or earned some sort of recognition. Maybe thanking her for a bit of advice that you employed. Keep it simple and brief, and don’t ask for anything back. If that person hears from you and has an update? She’ll absolutely be in touch. Try: “Hi Sue, We spoke last month about the product manager position at XYZ Industries. In our conversation, you highlighted some emerging trends in food packaging. I noticed this attached article about the same topic and thought of you. No response necessary. I hope you find the information useful!”
7. Have a Plan  - CRM systems are a great tool to track your calls and conversations with your contacts regularly. We have a process to connect with our most valued colleagues and Clients monthly. Our plan continues to be tweaked, but we have a plan because we know how important follow-up is. 

These seven suggestions show how valuable follow-up can be.

 

There is little about it that is hard. Being exceptionally good at follow-up requires focus, dedication, discipline, and a decision to do it. If you will make the decision you will become a more effective leader or supervisor. You will become a better networker. You will have greater sales. You will retain your relationships longer. Any of these are reasons enough to follow up.

 

More reasons to follow up:

• 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
• 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
• 12% of sales people make more than three contacts
• 2% of sales are made on the first contact
• 3% of sales are made on the second contact
• 5% of sales are made on the third contact
• 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
• 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

Thank you for reading and sharing this!

5 Steps towards Becoming a Trusted Advisor

Separate Yourself from the Competition by Terry Stidham

By now you have heard the importance of establishing yourself as a trusted advisor when selling. The question is, how do you reach the level of trust and respect such that prospects come to you for help? The good news is that the journey to achieving this is probably easier and more rewarding than you may think.... 

We have been trained throughout our careers to think of customers as rational, logical decision makers. Our companies tell us to qualify the customer’s business requirements, such as budget and time frame to buy, and to uncover what product features and functions the customer needs. They arm us with facts and specifications so that we can launch informational assaults on customers in order to get them to buy. 

Since most companies understand only this type of direct approach, they train salespeople on the recitation of features, functions, and specifications. But we often lack the training on the essence of how to win hearts and minds of our customers.

The obvious barrier to earning trust faced by most sales professionals is that we are paid to convince customers to buy what we sell as opposed to the customer buying from someone else or not buying at all. No offence, if there were no convincing to be done then we would simply be an order taker.
 
The default assumption made by most prospective clients is that we are probably going to be self-serving, like the all-too-easy-to-imagine stereotypical sales person out there. And so the natural question on the customer's mind is, "Is this person really trying to help me act in my own best interest?" The prospective client will observe everything we say or do to arrive at their answer. 
 
So, how do we actively take an approach that shows our prospects that we are clearly helping them act in their own best interest? How do we help them, look after them, protect them and ultimately make them feel rewarded? Because once they feel that we have established trust they will more likely support, recommend, and do business with us.

5 Steps towards Becoming a Trusted Advisor

1. Put your own offering (and any associated self-serving behavior) aside.
2. Continuously increase your own awareness: of common client challenges, common solutions, your broader organizations solutions, the broader picture within your client organization.
   • Read newspapers, magazines, journals, trade publications and other sources of related business information
   • Maintain membership of appropriate professional organizations
   • Acknowledge gaps in knowledge and taking steps to fill them
   • Locate or developing databases with information on customers, their industries and their own customers
   • Gain an understanding of the issues at all levels of the customer’s organization including strategic, departmental and individual needs
   • Seek to understand the customer’s perceptions of market trends, company direction, plus potential product and service needs
3. Show them that you care. When people care they listen, empathize, they seek to understand. 
   • Refine the way you identify customer’s needs by asking the right questions and listening actively to customer comments
   • Speak at the listener’s level of knowledge
   • Use stories and analogies effectively
   • Ask for feedback on the clarity of your message
4. Once you understand what is important and urgent to your client, use your expertise and awareness to advise or refer in the best course(s) of action (not necessarily your own offering), discussing pro's and con's of various options. Don't overlook the knock on effect of your solutions to other client critical business issues.
   • Familiarize the customer with your own industry and companies
   • Share useful business information even if it does not directly impact on the sales effort
   • Demonstrate the cost-cutting or revenue producing benefits of your products and services
5. Under promise and over deliver

Selling in this way is more relaxing and much easier. And it certainly feels and looks better from the customer's point of view. You're not pushing or pitching anything - you're learning, listening, caring, and then advising what's best for them. By demonstrating comprehensive knowledge, outstanding communication skills and the proper attitude, the salesperson earns the right to move beyond the role of supplier to that of a valued business consultant.  

  

Even if you don't make the initial sale from this approach, you have left the door open for next time and have recruited a potential "fan" and a sales and marketing ally - another set of eyes and ears on the ground who may pick up on opportunities for you and send warmed up prospects your way.

Look after them, they'll look after you.

Patrick Lencioni, author of Getting Naked, presents a compelling case that most sales people and consultants sabotage their best efforts at winning long-term client loyalty by allowing their work to be influenced by three fears:

 

1. Fear of Losing the Business – Because we're afraid of losing a client we avoid some of the very behaviors (like giving away ideas, or telling truths that may hurt egos) that ultimately can grow trust that keeps clients.
2. Fear of Being Embarrassed – Since as business advisers we think we should always look smart, we avoid asking potentially dumb questions or making possibly silly suggestions that might end up being brilliant because we want to avoid risk – even though being vulnerable in questioning and suggestions is another way to build client trust.
3. Fear of Feeling Inferior – To avoid feeling irrelevant or unappreciated, we might avoid getting our hands dirty or even "taking a bullet" for the client, even though those again are demonstrations to the client that everything we do is for them.

 

The simple but powerful advice Lencioni offers for anyone in a sales or business advisor role is to work at being candid, modest, and transparent – that these characteristics at their essence help you to be vulnerable, honest, and authentic with clients. When clients begin to realize the genuineness of these behaviors toward them, that's when true trust can thrive, and both you and your clients have relationships they can count on.

 

CEO's on Sales

What Company Leaders Want From Sales Leaders



Brian Geery recently wrote about a sponsored event by the New England Technology Sales Executives Association that was titled “CEOs on Selling.” This is worth another look.

It was a panel event with ample opportunity for audience Q&A. The three panelists were Bill Hewitt, CEO of Kalido, Patrick Morley, President and CEO of Bit9, and Stephen Orenberg, Chief Sales Officer of Kaspersky Lab.

Many of the things that company leaders expect from sales leaders – accurate forecasts, timely reporting, good upstream and downstream communications, etc. – are managed by sales operations professionals...

Here are some of his key takeaways:

Managing the Sales Process

• CEOs want sales leaders to carefully manage enterprise deals. Sometimes it can take two to three years to identify all 50 decision makers so it is important to “ruthlessly qualify” opportunities. In a down economy, approved vendor lists, procurement requirements, and strict IT specifications are more common so it is vital to understand the purchasing process.
• Use communication tools like Chatter (a Salesforce.com add-on) to keep all the right people informed and involved.
• Ambiguity is not your friend. Picking the right deals to pursue is important. Pick your segment and be specific. Pick targets where you know can solve a prospect’s pain quickly and you’ll shorten the length of your sale.
• Early on, find out your prospect’s key objectives or metrics and incorporate them into the selling process.
• For one CEO, “custom demos are the single biggest driver of sales against our major competitors.” As such, performing them well is crucial.
• Favorite quote from the day: “We look at selling as every bit as much a process subject to analysis and refinement as our manufacturing process.”

Sales Culture

• To foster a sales-driven culture, start all company meetings with an update on the sales organization’s key performance indicators.
• To help non-sales personnel understand what the sales organization is dealing with, have sales team members complete a standardized trip report for all first-time prospect meetings. The CEO who recommended this said, “I read every one.”

CEO Involvement in Sales
CEOs should be involved in the sales process. Three areas of common engagement: 

1. Opening doors with new prospects
2. Being involved in escalations like negotiating special terms
3. Doing after-the-sale check-ins to validate delivery of commitments

Key Performance Indicators

• Identify metrics that can capture performance throughout your entire sales process – from lead to close.
• Open communication is imperative. There is no bad news if you keep communication open – visibility is key! The last thing CEOs want is a surprise.
• Honesty and transparency are a must. No exceptions.
• Sales leaders should not hesitate to update the CEO when an opportunity’s status turns negative.
• Quarterly business reviews where you share KPIs and plan the next quarter are important.
• Sales leaders need to be straightforward with their forecasts. If they know we will miss a number, communicate it immediately.
• Investors will never tell a CEO, “That forecast seems high,” but they will be sure to hold you to account if you don’t hit your projections.
• VPs of Sales should present the numbers to the board so the board knows the CEO and VP Sales are in lockstep.

Top Performers

• The best sales reps “dig in.” They watch for organizational changes (i.e., a senior executive leaving can stall a deal) and they understand the macroeconomic issues that may impact the sale.
• Customer intelligence wins deals. One CEO related a story in which they learned where a key decision maker lived, his monthly mortgage payment, and about his proactive involvement in church. Discovering that the prospect was very conservative, they dressed accordingly and carefully addressed risk factors.

Selling to CEOs

• CEOs take calls from salespeople who are educated about the specifics of their situation. One CEO referenced the phrase, “Show me ya know me.”
• It is best to ask a CEO who the right person is to speak with about your product or service.

On Sales Compensation

• The best information on compensation comes via the recruiting process.
• One CEO was recently surprised to see the increase in compensation expectations of inside sales professionals.
• Keep compensation plans simple. Compensating on margins can be complicated and should be avoided.
• There are many compensation strategies; the key is to use compensation as the reward for the behavior you want to drive.

Sales Plans

• Sales planning should be both top-down and bottom-up. Revenue growth and profit targets are relatively easy to determine, the hard part is knowing where to spend your money.
• Expect quarterly adjustments to sales plans.

Being a CEO

• One CEO said that when he became a CEO he was surprised how much people wanted him to be happy. He said business is not a beauty contest, tell it like it is.

Turn Your Customer Service into a Profit Center

Customer Service Is Not Just About Service

by Terry Stidham

We know that “Everyone is in sales,” or should be according to many along with Joe Maddalone in his Forbes article, "Five Essential Sales Tips Everyone Must Master".

This is especially true for the customer service department. For many companies their customer service team is the main point of contact. They work on the front lines, and often are the ones who know the most about the customers’ specific wants and needs. So, it makes sense that they should be in a position to make additional sales, right?

Whether this task has been outsourced to a call center or there is an in-house team, these employees should be doing more than taking calls. In addition to providing quality customer support that will keep customers coming back, your customer service team should be upselling customers to increase revenues and improve the lifetime value of your customers.

 

Targeted Upsells 

Successful upselling starts with attention to the customer’s wants and needs and who knows them better than customer service. They have access to a CRM system that tracks each customer’s purchase history and interactions with the company.

 

They also know the specific reason why the customer has contacted the company, how to resolve their issue, and what type of product or service the customer may be receptive to purchasing at that time, oftern making them the right people to upsell successfully.

 

Customer service reps should take into account the customer’s history and needs in order to provide an upsell or cross-sell that is valuable to the customer at that moment. The particular needs of the customer should determine what the rep chooses to market to them. If the customer does not find value in it at that time, the upsell will not be successful.

 

Limited Time Offers

Customers don’t call to say, “I love my purchase, sell me more!” Oftentimes, they have a specific issue or question that they want to resolve. However, the customer service reps shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to sell to customers, since they’ve already crossed the biggest hurdle to sales: making contact.

Customer service reps can take advantage of the contact by telling the customer about the promotions, sales, and limited-time offers currently available to them. As stated above, these offers should be targeted to what the customer wants or needs.

For example: “I see your service contract is about to expire. We’re currently running a limited-time offer that provides 3 free months when you sign up for a 12-month contract. Would you like to renew your contract with us today?”

 

Bundled Services and Deals

Because the customer service representatives know the customers so well, they can predict what kinds of sales, upsells, or cross-sells would be most successful. Have them look for products that customers might want to buy together, and provide them as a bundled service. Purchased as a bundle, the array of services cost less than purchasing each one individually. Offering to bundle a customer’s current product with other complimentary products or services can give customers the impression of added value – in addition to cost savings.

 

Top-Notch Customer Service

Of course, the most important aspect in sales to customers through your customer service team is the quality of the service itself. If customers aren’t happy with the service that they are receiving, they won’t be receptive to any sales efforts through that funnel. However, high-quality customer service can improve customer satisfaction and result in more sales.

Two-thirds of consumers would be willing to spend more with a company – 13% more, on average – following an excellent customer service experience (The 2012 American Express Global Customer Service Barometer).

 

A properly trained customer service team can not only keep the customers coming back; they can also help customers find the products and services they need, and increase the lifetime value of each customer through thoughtful, personalized upselling techniques.

Recognize the 4 Personality Types to Improve Sales

Improve Sales and Customer Satisfaction by Selling to Their Personalities

by Terry Stidham

You or your reps. are good at identifying and finding prospects, making initial contacts, performing a needs analysis, developing solutions, giving presentations, handling objections and closing sales.

Most likely there can be some dramatic improvements on close rates and customer satisfaction by identifying and addressing the different personalities that are encountered.

We all know that people like to buy from people that are like them or understands them.

No one person is ever totally one personality type. We are all mixtures. People operate primarily in one of 4 types.

4 Personality Types and the Associated Characteristics:

Analytical:

• Likes facts and detail
• Money and numbers oriented
• Wants to know "bottom-line"
• Works best independently
• Very neat and organized
• Stickler for timeliness
• Not much of a risk taker

Driver:

• Gets right to the point
• Limited on time
• Always busy
• Wants immediate results
• Risk taker
• Likes multiple choices
• Needs to have the power
• Works best independently
• Focuses on positives 

Amiable:

• Likes to build relationships
• Friendly and likable
• Traditional attitudes
• Not a risk taker
• Needs support of other people
• Makes careful decisions
• Somewhat "wishy-washy"
• Less time-oriented

Expressive:

• Dreamer
• Uses hunches to make decisions
• Needs to be with people
• Makes quick decisions
• Likes to plan
• Takes risks
• Focuses on generalities
• Less time-oriented

How can you identify these personalities on a sales call?

Analytical & Amiable:

• Ask a lot of questions
• Speak softly
• Move slowly
• Not much direct eye contact
• Leans back in chair
• No hand gestures
• Patient
• Cooperative
• Calm

Driver & Expressive:

• Tell you things
• Speak loudly
• Fast movements
• Direct eye contact
• Lean toward you
• Animated hand gestures
• Impatient
• Competitive
• Excitable
• Enthusiastic
• Outwardly positive

Analyticals and Drivers are less responsive so you will notice:

• Serious attitude
• Very few facial expressions
• Formal approach
• Heavy time-orientation
• Will not touch you
• No chit-chat
• Direct conversation
• Rigid, calculated movements

Amiables and Expressives tend to be more responsive, so you will notice:

• More personal questions
• Warm, friendly approach
• Animated expressions
• Changes in tone and pitch
• Will try to build close relationship
• May touch you
• Chatty
• Many hand gestures
• Fluid movements

Begin studying the people in your life to determine their personality type. Take notes and compare them to the characteristics listed.

 

Working with each personality type:

Analytical:

• Let them feel they are right
• Give them facts first
• Stress rational, logical reasons for buying
• Observe time constraints
• Compliment them regularly
• Give quick, precise answers
• Use a direct close

Driver:

• Dress professionally
• Get right to the point
• Do not waste time
• Stress quick results
• Ask questions to force attention
• Change voice inflection to maintain interest
• Put everything in writing
• Let them feel they are in control
• Summarize key benefits before closing
• Use 2 or 3 option close

Amiable:

• Be friendly and build rapport quickly
• Don't rush into the presentation
• Don't pressure them
• Allow for plenty of time for conversation
• Stress emotional benefits
• Reassure them regularly
• Allow them to include others in decisions
• Give them one positive choice
• Help them make the decision

Expressive:

• Present the "big picture"
• Use emotional benefits
• Show them proofs -- testimonials, articles, etc.
• Recognize them as being important
• Put details in writing and explain carefully
• Use a direct close and reassure them of their decision

Recognizing personality types and being capable of working with them at their level will improve results dramatically and make selling more enjoyable. 

Post Sale Win-Loss Interview

Why Did You Win or Lose the Sale?  If You Don't Know Then Ask

by Terry Stidham

The answers are rarely as obvious as you or your sales team might think.

You can glean a lot of information from interviewing prospects who were part of the sales process.

This is known as a win-loss analysis.

Benefits of Win-Loss Interview

• Enables you to improve sales cycle understanding and incorporate changes to improve closing ratios. 
• Helps you understand your market and the performance of your organization. When prospects evaluate your product, they encounter many parts of your organization and its processes. While the outcome of the sale is important, you can gain valuable knowledge from both wins and losses.
• Creates goodwill among both wins and losses for your efforts to improve your product and it’s sales process,
• Provides you with insights on how your sales process works and how your product/service stood up to your competitors.
• Win-loss interviews offer a powerful way to understand your strengths and weaknesses in the eyes of the market.

Win-loss analysis does not replace the need to understand the market problems you solve, but it helps your organization to understand how you are being presented to a potential buyer. 

What can be learned?

Win-loss interviews can help you uncover answers to the following questions and afford valuable information to your organization:

• How important are specific aspects of your offerings?
• Are you reaching the right types of buyers?
• What obstacles are preventing you from selling your products?
• What features are you missing that lead to lost business?
• What are you doing well that can be repeated?
• Which marketing messages do your prospects respond to?
• What will help your buyers to purchase from you more easily?
• Does your pricing match what your buyers are willing to pay?

What to ask?

If possible, conduct a win-loss analysis for every attempted sale of your product/service. Use the following list when interviewing prospects (you may choose to add your own questions):

• What led you to choose our company or another company?
• What is your opinion of my company and our product/service?
• How did our company compare to the competition?
• What was the key deciding factor in your purchasing decision?
• Were your issues resolved?
• What collateral and sales tools were involved?
• What elements were missing during the buying process?
• Which product features did you like the most? What features were missing?
• What is will you be looking to purchase next that might be able to provide?

Interview Guidelines

The following guidelines will help you to conduct successful win-loss interviews.

• Do it soon after the decision: Schedule the interview within the month of the purchase decision.
• Motivate them to help you: Many prospects will agree to speak with you. However, if they seem hesitant to do so, find some way to motivate them (e.g., offer to donate to their favorite charity).
• Keep it short: Limit your call to 30 minutes so that you do not monopolize the interviewee’s time.
• Do not sell: Avoid dealing with any potential objections in an attempt to save the deal. It will put your interviewee in a defensive position, and this may negatively affect your data.
• Position it as a learning experience: Your prospect will want to know why you are asking these questions. Explain that your purpose is to learn and improve.
• Go off script if necessary: If your interviewee shares something interesting, feel free to go off script. Ask more about the issue, and let them explain their thoughts. There is no right or wrong answer to these questions. Your goal is to learn how they perceived the process and your product or service. The more you learn, the better.

What to do with results?

Share the results of your findings with your team. There are many people in your organization that can benefit from this information. For example, your team can identify how your product is positioned, make your marketing message more salient and learn what your prospects like and dislike about your product.

Win-loss analysis is a powerful tool for looking back at your performance and learning how to improve.