With proper implementation, a win/loss analysis is an invaluable asset to your organization. It allows the critical eyes of Sales Leaders like yourself to zoom out and take an unbiased look at the state of your sales strategy.
In this article, we explore how to properly use a win/loss/no decision assessment to identify gaps in your sales strategy. This will help transform your sales team into a data-driven sales organization.
There are four main ways to identify the gaps in your sales strategy through looking at win/ loss/ no-decision outcomes. Each deserves a concerted effort on your part and offers a different vantage point from where you can analyze and discover areas for improvement:
- Sales Data Analysis. If you're going to improve your win/loss ratio, it’s important that you understand your prior performance throughout the sales cycle. Analyzing your performance through the lens of data analysis gives you the ability to spot patterns or trends that may have relevance to why opportunities end up as a win, a loss, or a no-decision.
- Sales Process Assessment. You must perform a thorough study and analysis of your sales process, both from the sales perspective and from the buyer’s perspective. The graphic below provides a guideline on how the sales cycle should align between the two. For example, it's essential that Account Executives provide demos to confirm both value and power to customers at the precise stage when those customers are attempting to identify their preferred solutions. The two must align throughout the sales cycle in order to increase the opportunities that convert as wins (see graphic below for a sample alignment of the sales cycle and buying cycle).
- Customer Interviews. It can be extremely beneficial to interview previous opportunities, regardless of whether they were wins, losses, or no-decisions for your organization. The best question to ask during these interviews is: “What were the top three things we did during the sales process that you did not like?” Some common answers you may receive (and can likely improve from) are:
- Multiple conversations and delays because of project plan changes in the midst of the sales process
- Sensing that upper management pressured an Account Executive to push client upper management for the PO
- Feeling that the Account Executive tried to force the client to fit the sales organization’s mold instead of doing what the client wanted from the start
- Lack of sales organization flexibility
- A bad impression left by the Sales organization's upper management — such as arrogance, lack of respect, or disinterest.
- If you’re searching for a way to identify gaps, this step is crucial. Massive amounts of information for sales strategy improvement can come from these interviews. You won’t always be granted the interview, but the data gleaned from it will be well worth the effort when you are.
4. Customer Survey. Similar to the Win/Loss Interviews, these surveys can provide you with a plethora of knowledge about your own sales process shortcomings. Now that you’ve secured the business and established a relationship, you are free to investigate where you may have stumbled along the way. For example, ask the customer these questions:
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- Did the sales team establish realistic expectations for the implementation time frame and subsequent results?
- Which method of engagement do you prefer with your account manager?
- Did we take too long to respond to questions or provide you with requested information during the sales process?
All of these gap identification tactics will allow you to peer into your own sales strategy — at times, from the perspective of an outsider — to see what's causing potential wins to become losses or no-decisions.