MARKET RESEARCH & CONSULTING FOR THE FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY
Customers
"In
a competitive marketplace, insights around strengths and
weaknesses are critical to successful business development and
sales efforts. Working with Anova on Win / Loss Analysis
over the last several years has definitely contributed to our
ability to be successful by enabling our
organization to effectively address, formulate, and
execute on improving what we do."
- Sean Cosgrove, Field Vice President
Charles Schwab
News & Media
Win Loss Analysis:
A Proven Program for Winning More Business
by Richard M. Schroder
The
first question sales people ask themselves when they lose in a new business
situation is, “Why did I lose?” Sales
people often ask prospects why they lost a deal, but they don’t typically
get a straight answer. In fact, according to sales research data, the
complete truth from prospects is shared only 38% of the time. This means
that on average, in 62% of new business situations, sales people do not have
a complete and accurate understanding of why they lost.
Understanding why a deal is won or lost is critical, yet most sales teams and companies have a limited understanding of the true reasons for winning and losing. Clearly there is a significant opportunity for many companies to improve their close rates by better understanding prospect perceptions.
One proven way to achieve this is to implement what has become known as a Win / Loss Analysis Program, whereby an independent third party interviews prospects after buying decisions have been made. It is only through this type of process that sales teams can learn the true, candid reasons why they win and lose. Although over the last decade more and more companies are implementing formal Win / Loss Programs, at present, less than 20% have done so. Therefore, the majority of companies are missing a critical opportunity to improve their sales performance, better understand their competitive landscape and enhance their products and services.
In order to understand why Win / Loss is so critical, it is important to first recognize some of the reasons why it is difficult for sales reps to gather this information:
Prospects feel uncomfortable giving feedback and criticism directly to sales reps.
Prospects often have issues with the sales rep or sales process that can impact their candor.
Sales reps are not in an objective position to obtain feedback because they are too emotionally involved in the situation.
Sales reps usually do not know the right post sale questions to ask (and how to ask them).
This problem is compounded when fragmented (and often faulty) prospect feedback is spread throughout an organization. Since sales people typically do not get an accurate depiction of why they lose, they often unknowingly disseminate incomplete or inaccurate information within their organizations. Compounding this problem is that there is usually no clear process for capturing and relaying prospect information companywide.
This common organizational behavior ultimately corrupts decision making as senior managers make decisions based on inaccurate information derived from prospects who were not fully candid and sales people who are not in an objective position to gather and share unbiased information. Collectively, this can lead to strategic misalignment.