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Thursday, May 15, 2025

The Anatomy of an Effective Win/Loss Program: Part Three

Part 3: Choosing Internal vs. Third-Party Interviewers

On your win / loss journey, once you know who you are going to talk to (prospect identification) and what you are going to talk to them about (interview guide design), the next decision is who will be talking to them.

The most fundamental question is whether to use internal resources or to rely on third-party interviewers. Each option has benefits. To decide which is the best option, consider these elements:

• Product expertise: The goal is to have the interviewee feel like they are having an intelligent conversation with someone who understands their business. No one will know your product more than internal resources, but highly trained third-party interviewers are often preferable as they are unbiased and therefore less likely to distort or influence the buyers perspective.

• Interviewing expertise: Interviewing is an art form. With the ultimate goal of collecting the breadth and depth of information necessary to take action, deploying interviewers who are skilled in asking questions and encouraging respondents to provide more detail can be the difference between a program that “checks the box” and one that can be used to drive strategic decisions. Among these skills are probing, being curious, using silence as a way to get the interviewee to fill the space and provide more detail, and also making the interviewee comfortable enough so that they do open up and provide more than surface level answers.

• Bandwidth: Particularly when thinking about a robust program consisting of dozens of interviews, bandwidth is an important consideration. It is not just the time to conduct the interviews either. Having dedicated time to reach out to schedule interviews is necessary to ensuring strong response rates. Writing up the transcript also takes time. Even if you are using AI to help with the transcription, the dialogue should still be reviewed and edited for clarity. This is where third parties can be a major value-add, as completing the interviews is their sole focus, as opposed to internal resources who likely have other competing priorities.

• Objectivity: Lastly, but perhaps the most important factor to consider, is objectivity. Anova’s research indicates that 60% of the time a salesperson does not get the full and accurate truth as to why they won or lost a deal if they debrief with a prospect themselves. This doesn’t mean a salesperson is doing anything nefarious. Prospects may be reluctant to give the person direct and honest feedback. Having someone internal who is removed from the situation (e.g., product manager / marketer) is a good way of increasing objectivity, and using a third party is the best way to obtain unbiased, independent feedback.