How to conduct win-loss analysis: a step-by-step guide

Companies would gather feedback from sales teams (which, let’s be honest, was often biased), and managers would make decisions based largely on gut instinct rather than hard data. Involve your sales team to determine which customers and prospects to include in the interviews (interview an equal number of won and lost opportunities ideally within 3 months of their decision). Both win rate and win/loss ratio can be segmented and measured by industry, company size, territory, product line, buyer persona, or competitor. A micro-level insight can give you valuable data to improve or pivot your go-to-market strategy. Segmenting win rate and win/loss ratio tells you which segments you should prioritize resources and training.

If conducting the interviews internally, be sure the environment completely objective in order to obtain unbiased results. Be respectful of the interviewee’s time by keeping interviews brief (30 minutes or less). Recap the purpose of the interview and provide a high-level overview of the areas that will be discussed before diving into the list of questions. The idea here is to learn as much as possible about their perceptions and experience during the evaluation and decision process.

Win/loss analysis can yield countless benefits that impact the entire organization. Win/loss analysis involves both quantitative and qualitative data. In comparison, qualitative is done through interviews and surveys. This competitive intelligence is crucial for positioning your offering effectively and staying one step ahead in the market. Maybe your discovery calls are solid, but your demos put prospects to sleep.

Their understanding typically comes from filtered CRM data and second-hand sales reports. Every quarter, leadership teams worldwide pore over CRM data and sales notes looking to glean insights about why they’re winning and losing sales deals. When filtered correctly and viewed with the right context in mind, your win rate can provide you with powerful and actionable insights that will help you know what changes to make so you can win more. Once you analyze your win-loss ratio and calculate your win rate, you can get even more insight into why you’re winning and losing deals by adding context to your data. At Clozd, our mission is to use our innovative services and technology to help your company win more. As competition heated up and sales cycles became more complex, businesses started to see the need for more structured approaches.

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• Segmenting win rate and win/loss ratio tells you which segments you should prioritize resources and training.
• Using a buyer-first approach to identify your strengths, weaknesses, and immediate competition is critical.
• Learn how to plan ahead, refresh your strategy, and make the most of quiet times for your agency.
• However, to thoroughly understand the factors that went into a win or a loss, you should involve other departments, including product development and customer service.
• Key metrics include win/loss ratio, win rate, average deal size, sales cycle length, and reasons for wins and losses.

These interviews entail identifying the best leads to talk with, asking the right questions based on your goals, and recording key themes with each conversation. Well-executed win-loss analysis programs help determine how you rank among your competition and how your customers perceive your offers. Using a buyer-first approach to identify your strengths, weaknesses, and immediate competition is critical.

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In the words of Sun Tzu, “Know thy enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated.” With win-loss analysis, you get the inside story on how you stack up against competitors. You’ll learn their strengths, their weaknesses, and how buyers perceive them compared to you. By going straight to the source (your buyers), you get insights about deals that even your most perceptive sales reps might miss. Sales leaders are doing everything they can to coach their teams and win more deals. But for all the data they have at your disposal, they often only get sellers’ side of the story. Fifty-three percent of buyers say that a losing vendor could have won the deal if not for a fixable misstep during the sales process.

3 Underused, Highly Effective, Ways to Use Competitive Intelligence. See how you can learn from your competitor’s mistakes, use real-time data to… Through your CRM or ERP analysis, combined with your survey results you will start to see a trend on the main reasons your solution may fall short or win consistently. It is best to present this information in easy to read charts so other disciplines can quickly understand the implications and prioritize efforts accordingly.

As you continue your win/loss analysis, schedule a regular meeting to walk through the findings. Win/loss analysis shouldn’t be a one-and-done activity because as your customers evolve, so should your company. Having the correct information is essential when interviewing customers and lost prospects. The best practice is to conduct interviews within a 30-minute window. So, you’ll want to have the correct number of questions for that time frame.

Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is cool, but the ultimate purpose of this exercise is to improve performance over time. That’s why taking https://hellspinofficial.com/ action is the third and final step in our win/loss analysis process. And just as you shouldn’t assume that all prospects experience pain points in the same way, you shouldn’t assume that all lead sources translate into bottom-line results at the same rate.

But in the meantime, here’s a handful of ideas to get you started. Most answers will already align with your learning objectives and be neatly sorted on key topics. If you’re stuck on what specific questions to ask, we’ve put together a list of 31 best win-loss interview questions for you to check out. Instead of compiling a random list of questions, focus on mapping key topics to your learning goals. While interviews undoubtedly provide the richest feedback, you can’t (and shouldn’t) interview everyone.

Avoid having an interviewer who worked closely with a deal to remove any conflicts of interest. Instead, product marketers typically do interviews since they help align different business functions. A win/loss analysis can reveal how your business fairs against the competition, determine market perspectives, and qualify your product’s or service’s value. Meet with sales reps to see if they need training on how to use their CRM.

Understanding why you win is just as valuable as analysing losses. Identifying and replicating success patterns is what drives higher win rates. What’s fascinating is that buyers frequently cite completely different reasons for their decisions than sales teams assume. These measures can improve your prospects of winning more business and long-term consumer satisfaction. Attention to your client’s requirements and preferences can help you increase your win rates.

Some sales reps may include firmographic data in their opportunity notes, but that won’t always be the case. Now comes the make-or-break moment of your win-loss program – turning raw win-loss data into usable insights. Now that you’re all set-up, it’s time to actually conduct your win-loss interviews. By the end of this process, you should have a document organized by key topics (all tied to your learning objectives) with 2-5 action-oriented questions under each. Your win-loss ratio gives you a clearer picture of your overall competitive performance.

Watch your win rates closely’ they can tell you a lot about your business’s success and growth potential. Win-loss analysis can also help you understand your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. You can identify the competitors winning those deals by analyzing your lost deals and understanding why. Consequently, make the necessary adjustments to gain a competitive edge. You can identify the reasons for the losses by analyzing your lost deals.